October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Welcome Friends!

As we officially enter the Fall season (yikes!) there are many things to look forward to: the annual visit to the apple orchard, Halloween, Thanksgiving and pumpkin spice if you're a fan. Perhaps most importantly though, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The information below was posted by HAVEN in honor of this very important month. Again, your participation is voluntary and anonymous but it's very important to have your input. It may be helpful to others in similar situations or can help to make positive changes in the community. -From HAVEN:

Good afternoon, everyone!

As you may know, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month! HAVEN has a few events happening in honor of DVAM; find the details below!

#1Thing

o This year, HAVEN is honoring Domestic Violence Awareness Month with a campaign called #1Thing. The #1Thing campaign is meant to help people see how their #1Thing can contribute to our collective power to end domestic violence.

The #1Thing can be an action, something that you want the community to know about your experience or how they can support survivors, what you want policymakers to know, really anything related to domestic violence. We would love to hear from you. We have a dropbox at our front desk where you can submit your responses, OR you can submit your responses electronically in this google form. Please keep your response anonymous, and avoid any identifying information in your response. We will post these responses on cards in our lobby, and share some of your responses on HAVEN’s social media.

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The following information was found on domesticshelters.org which has many other statistics as well. I find this particularly important because in many cases the survivor and perpetrator have children in common. In the commotion it is easy to forget the deep impact violence has on children.

Children and Domestic Violence

Many researchers have concluded that some children who witness or are victims of domestic violence experience a profound and lasting impact on their lives and hopes for the future. “A child’s developing brain can mistakenly encode the violence,” says Children of Domestic Violence, adding that kids can grow up believing that violence is normal and that they are to blame for it. The statistics and studies below reinforce that belief, and that stopping domestic violence long-term and “breaking the cycle of violence” heavily relies on raising children in environments free of violence.

30% to 60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse children in the household. Source: Edelson, J.L. (1999). “The Overlap Between Child Maltreatment and Woman Battering.” Violence Against Women. 5:134-154.

The single best predictor of children becoming either perpetrators or victims of domestic violence later in life is whether or not they grow up in a home where there is domestic violence. Studies from various countries support the findings that rates of abuse are higher among women whose husbands were abused as children or who saw their mothers being abused. Source: “Behind Closed Doors: The Impact of Domestic Violence on Children.” UNICEF, Child Protection Section and The Body Shop International (2006).

Boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults. Source: Strauss, Gelles, and Smith, “Physical Violence in American Families: Risk Factors and Adaptations to Violence” in 8,145 Families. Transaction Publishers (1990).

Males exposed to domestic violence as children are more likely to engage in domestic violence as adults, and females are more likely to be victims as adults. Source: Whitfield, C., Anda, R., Dube, S., and Felitti, V. (2003). “Violent childhood experiences and the risk of intimate partner violence as adults.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18(12).

Children who were exposed to violence in the home are 15 times more likely to be physically and/or sexually assaulted than the national average. Source: Volpe, J.S., “Effects of Domestic Violence on Children and Adolescents: An Overview”, The American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, 1996.

Compared with children in other households, children who have been exposed to domestic violence often suffer from insomnia and have trouble with bed-wetting. They also are more likely to experience difficulties in school and to score lower on assessments of verbal, motor, and cognitive skills, and are more likely to exhibit aggressive and antisocial behavior, to be depressed and anxious, and to have slower cognitive development. Source: Fantuzzo, J. and Mohr, W. (1999). “Prevalence and effects of child exposure to domestic violence.” The Future of Children, 9(3), 21-32.26. Schechter, S. and Edleson, J.L. (2000). Domestic violence and children: Creating a public response. Center on Crime, Communities and Culture for the Open Society Institute.

Court statistics show that children are present during domestic or intimate partner violence incidents in 36% of cases; of those children who were present, 60% directly witnessed the violence. Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Female Victims of Violence,” September 2009.

There are many resources out there to help if you should find yourself in a domestic violence situation. Some are listed on this website and we hope you will check them out if you feel the need.

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We're here if you need us.

~The Farmington Hills High Risk Response Team