October is the National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and has been since 1987. To learn more about the history of this month, read about it at the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Website.

About Domestic Violence

The NCADV defines domestic violence as “the willful intimidation, assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior perpetrated by an intimate partner against another.” It goes on to say that this problem affects people in all communities, among individuals of all age groups, income levels, races, religions, nationalities and educational levels. In other words, it doesn’t just happen in certain groups. Domestic violence is prevalent amongst all groups. Emotional abuse and control often accompany domestic violence. The behavior of batterers is characterized by a pattern of control and dominance. Injury, trauma, and even death can result from domestic abuse. The effects of domestic violence can last a lifetime or more, affecting even future generations. This is a major problem in today’s society and we should do whatever we can to prevent and stop it from occurring.

How Much of a Problem is Domestic Violence?

The statistics, according to the NCADV, show that one in four women will be victims of domestic violence sometime during their life. 1.3 million women experience domestic violence each year. Seventy-three percent of domestic violence victims are women. One in six women has been raped. One in 33 men have attempted or completed a rape. About 7.8 million females have been raped by a mate during their lives.

Most females have been abused by someone they knew, usually a partner. In the news, we always hear about strangers abducting, raping, and killing women, so we have been conditioned to fear strange men. The fact is strangers are less of a threat to us than the people we know and live with. Most physical harm done to women is by their partners, but we just don’t hear much about it. In fact, 33% of female murder victims are murdered by their partners.

Young females tend to be most at risk for domestic violence, that is, women ranging from age 20 to 24.

An estimated 30 to 60% of batterers also abuse their children as well.

Domestic violence costs $37 billion per year, due to the cost of investigating homicides and treating physical injuries suffered by the victims.

Just because we don’t hear about domestic violence much, doesn’t mean that it’s not happening. People need to be made aware of this global epidemic. It’s great that we have a special month to raise awareness, but the fact is that we should make others aware of domestic violence every month, and even every day.