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Well, here we are in October once again. There are two big “awareness” campaigns in October, Breast Cancer Awareness and Domestic Violence Awareness. I have written of both in previous years (here and here) but as I did in ’09, I am going to concentrate this year on Domestic Violence Awareness. As personal as Breast Cancer Awareness is to me because of my sister, the ‘pink ribbon’ stories are fairly ubiquitous this time of year while it seems the purple ribbon of Domestic Violence Awareness is rarely seen.
I’m not sure why Domestic Violence bothers me so much. It, along with child abuse (especially sexual abuse) and rape, are the crimes that upset me more than just about anything. It may be because in each crime, the victim is often not believed or is blamed for some how “letting” these things happen. We as a society are supposed to believe that crimes do not happen where the perpetrator and the victim are within the same family or are neighbors.
I have in the past few years been slowly getting to know a bunch of cousins from my mother’s side of the family where I have been told of one who was killed by her husband in 1975. I actually have memories of meeting this cousin at her grandmother’s funeral when I was 13 and I think she was 16. After her death, her parent’s adopted her son and daughter and raised them. But far too frequently, this type of violence is only spoken of in soft tones after the fact.
Connecticut and Maryland each had revisions to their Domestic Violence laws take effect yesterday (October 1, 2012). Florida and NY State have each also strengthened their Domestic Violence laws this year while in New Jersey, the courts have strengthened in ways but weakened in other ways.
On a federal level, The Violence Against Women Act has not been renewed. The House and Senate have each passed versions but not the same. It appears the House is balking at Senate provisions that extended coverage under the act to:
…women who are undocumented immigrants, Native Americans, LGBT, or students on campuses.
If you or someone you know is a victim of Domestic Violence:
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
NCADV Domestic Violence Fact Sheet (pdf)
National Criminal Justice Referral System, Domestic Violence
Office for Justice Programs, Office for Victims of Crimes (Domestic and Family Violence)
National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
Cross posted from Just A Small Town Country Boy by Richard Taylor
7 Comments
Thank you…so important. May the house keep on balking. Imagine having groups of women unworthy of protection.
Domestic violence is a terrible crime with enduring consequences….so hard for the both the victim and the authorities to deal with b/c of the nature of the relationship between the parties (obviously). From wanting to withdraw the complaint, to returning to the home, or really needing support that cause a change of mind even after a report….Easy to see why the shelters are so important to protect the victims.
Good for you for noting this terrible and dangerour reality.
Looks like I misread the balking position. Delete about if your wish…sheesh. Sorry.
Not to worry, I was pretty sure which side you were coming down on. :})
Glad we got that straight…thanks.
This is such an important topic, I really wish it had caught on more. Maybe you can do another piece, like the Sat. PUAC, and get discussion. Im sure there is more knowledge/experience than is showing up. I worked for awhile with some domestic violence issues/cases and the experience was very eye-opening, in part, even about the severity of the danger.
One of the proudest projects I worked on over the years was one in New Haven where we teamed with client staff for a big “Buffalo Wings Eating Contest” and raised over $10K for Domestic Violence Service of New Haven. We took over a pub in East Haven, CT and got donations from some other businesses, sold t-shirts and just had fun but did some good at the same time
The client project manager said she would wear a chicken costume if we raised $5K. With $10K, she wore the chicken costume and the client tech manager wore an egg costume.
Having some fun with a serious topic.
I was in Uganda earlier this year and their attitude about domestic abuse was astounding (and reprehensible). One of my friend’s friends produced a really powerful video commercial about domestic violence.
It starts with a woman with ~6 year old child. The man comes home. Something ticks off the couple. The woman explodes and starts screaming at the man. She yells at the kid telling him he is unworthy of going to school in the future. She begins hitting the man (really hard). The end of the commercial shows the woman with her face really badly beaten up.
I was staying at a house owned by a member of the upper crust of Ugandan society. When I told her about the commercial she said that domestic violence is not really that bad. “Besides, how does the woman know that her husband loves her unless he beats her once in a while.” I was floored. I later asked several Ugandan women and many were fearful of marrying a wife beater, but all recognized that this was part of the culture.