Did you know that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month? I hope you will join me to use the remaining weeks as a chance to educate yourself, spread awareness, advocate, and create visibility for this often under-discussed societal issue.
Domestic violence (also known as intimate partner violence, battering, or spouse abuse) is a pattern of abusive behavior used in a relationship to gain control and power over an intimate partner. It happens to everyone across race, gender, socioeconomic status, education, and sexual orientation.
Every minute, roughly 20 people are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States.
Every year in the United States, more than 10 million women and men become victims of domestic violence.
More women lose their lives to intimate partner violence than any other means. In the U.S. alone, more than 55 percent of murdered women are killed in relation to intimate partner violence.
Nearly one million women have been shot by an intimate partner and have survived.
Nearly 1 in 10 women (9.4%) in the US have been raped by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
It is a persistent issue that finds victims feeling powerless and without means of support or escape. Most female victims of intimate partner violence were previously victimized by the same offender at rates of 77% for women ages 18 to 24, 76% for ages 25 to 34, and 81% for ages 35 to 49.
Domestic violence continues to go unnoticed by many because it is underreported with only 52% of victims reporting the crime to the police in 2019.
What you can do this month to support victims and survivors:
Educate yourself. Read up on the issue.
Share what you learn with others. Post on social media. Be brave. Be bold.
Learn about what to do if someone comes to you for support. I will drop a separate mini-sode on this issue.
Make a donation to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. You can visit them at https://ncadv.org/ and using the link in the show notes.
Don’t just consume true crime for entertainment. A lot of the stories portrayed in our favorite documentaries and podcasts are sad examples of the terror that a lot of women around the country are faced with daily. Share what you consume and talk about the content and the stories with friends and on social media. Again, be brave.
Commit to sharing content on the topic all year long.
Thank you for listening. Please keep following my podcasts as I will be dropping more content through the month.