Kayla Sims
Staff Writer
On average, nearly 24 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men aged 18 and older in the United States have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV).
As an effort to advocate for battered men and women, National Domestic Violence Awareness Month was established in 1981 by NCADV.
Shelia Howard, an author, domestic violence survivor and motivational speaker, spoke about her story of domestic violence and about loving herself.
“My story is simple, there are no twists and turns; there are no secrets or anything like that. I fell in love with the wrong guy. I suffered from his abuse for years before I realized how much I needed to get out, but by then, I had to turn myself in while I was 8 months pregnant,” remininced Howard. “It was horrid, I was abused, lied on, and loving someone who did not love me.”
Domestic violence is not only limited to physical abuse, but also verbal, emotional and sexual abuse as well.
Verbal abuse is defined as the act of forcefully criticizing, insulting, or denouncing another person which includes bullying, criticizing, name calling and threatening.
Jonathan Banks, coordinator for the Domestic Violence Center, said college students are more likely to experience domestic violence than adults.
“I see college students all the time. They are usually young women who are scared to tell their family about what is going on with them. It’s sad because the young women that come in are beautiful and they aren’t able to see that in themselves,” said Banks.
According to the British Journal of Psychiatry, emotional abuse is any abusive behavior that isn’t physical, which may include aggression, intimidation, manipulation, and humiliation.
Around 80 percent of women and 32 percent of men admitted to being emotionally abused, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
The true amount of domestic violence in America is difficult to determine for several reasons: it often goes unreported, even on surveys and there is no way of gathering information from local police departments about the number of substantiated reports and there is also a disagreement about what should be included in the definition of domestic violence.
A study from 2017 estimated that approximately 1.8 million women were severely assaulted by male partners over the course of a year, while other studies indicate the percentage of women experiencing dating violence, including sexual assault, physical violence, or verbal and emotional abuse, ranges as high as 65 percent.
Women make up over half of the victims of murder by a close companion. Of that statistic, 33 percent of those women were killed by an intimate partner. Women also make up about 85 of the casualties of non-deadly abusive behavior at home.
African-American women and men experience the ill effects of abusive behavior at home and experience the highest rates of domestic violence.
According to Community-Based Domestic Violence Services,black women experienced aggressive behavior at home at a 35 percent higher rate than that of white females, and around multiple times the pace of ladies of different races. Black men experienced abusive behavior at home at a rate about 62 percent higher than that of white guys and around multiple times the pace of men of different races.
Joseph Reed, a senior psychology major from Memphis Tenn., talked about the affects domestic violence had on his childhood.
“I remember my mother getting abused by my father often, everytime we would leave and go stay with my grandmother but within two days we’d be right back going through the same thing again. My mother died at the hands of my father, he had gotten so angry that he shot and killed her, and turned himself in,” Reed recalled emotionally.
Up to 54 percent of women seeking emergency services, up to 66 percent of women seeking general medical care, and up to 20 percent of women seeking prenatal care, report experiencing domestic violence.
While the affects of domestic violence on our society may be impossible to measure accurately, ff you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence do not stay silent. The LNC on campus is a resource for students. You can also visit www.thehotline.orgor call 1-800-799-7233 for support.
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