prevention of domestic violence essay

153 Domestic Violence Topics & Essay Examples

A domestic violence essay can deal with society, gender, family, and youth. To help you decide which aspect to research, our team provided this list of 153 topics .

📑 Aspects to Cover in a Domestic Violence Essay

🏆 best domestic violence titles & essay examples, ⭐ interesting domestic violence topics for an essay, 🎓 good research topics about domestic violence, ❓ research questions on domestic violence.

Domestic violence is a significant problem and one of the acute topics of today’s society. It affects people of all genders and sexualities.

Domestic violence involves many types of abuse, including sexual and emotional one. Essays on domestic violence can enhance students’ awareness of the issue and its causes. Our tips will be useful for those wanting to write outstanding domestic violence essays.

Start with choosing a topic for your paper. Here are some examples of domestic violence essay titles:

• Causes of domestic violence and the ways to eliminate them
• The consequences of domestic violence
• The importance of public domestic violence speech
• Ways to reduce domestic violence
• The prevalence of domestic violence in the United States (or other countries)
• The link between domestic violence and mental health problems among children

Now that you have selected one of the titles for your essay, you can start working on the paper. We have prepared some tips on the aspects you should cover in your work:

• Start with researching the issue you have selected. Analyze its causes, consequences, and effects. Remember that you should include some of the findings in the paper using in-text citations.
• Develop a domestic violence essay outline. The structure of your paper will depend on the problem you have selected. In general, there should be an introductory and a concluding paragraph, as well as three (or more) body paragraphs. Hint: Keep in mind the purpose of your essay while developing its structure.
• Present your domestic violence essay thesis clearly. The last sentence of your introductory paragraph should be the thesis statement. Here are some examples of a thesis statement:

Domestic violence has a crucial impact on children’s mental health. / Domestic violence affects women more than men.

• Present a definition of domestic violence. What actions does the term involve? Include several possible perspectives on domestic violence.
• Discuss the victims of domestic violence and the impact it has on them too. Provide statistical data, if possible.
• Help your audience to understand the issue better by discussing the consequences of domestic violence, even if it is not the primary purpose of your paper. The essay should show why it is necessary to eliminate this problem.
• You can include some relevant quotes on domestic violence to make your arguments more persuasive. Remember to use citations from relevant sources only. Such sources include peer-reviewed articles and scholarly publications. If you are not sure whether you can use a piece of literature, consult your professor to avoid possible mistakes.
• Support your claims with evidence. Ask your professor in advance about the sources you can use in your paper. Avoid utilizing Wikipedia, as this website is not reliable.
• Stick to a formal language. Although you may want to criticize domestic violence, do not use offensive terms. Your paper should look professional.
• Pay attention to the type of paper you should write. If it is an argumentative essay, discuss opposing views on domestic violence and prove that they are unreliable.
• Remember that you should include a domestic violence essay conclusion in your paper too. This section of the paper should present your main ideas and findings. Remember not to present any new information or citations in the concluding paragraph.

There are some free samples we have prepared for you, too. Check them out!

• Domestic Violence and Conflict Theory in Society The Conflict Theory explains remarkable events in history and the changing patterns of race and gender relations and also emphasizes the struggles to explain the impact of technological development on society and the changes to […]
• Break the Silence: Domestic Violence Case The campaign in question aimed to instruct victims of domestic violence on how to cope with the problem and where to address to get assistance.
• Domestic Violence against Women Domestic violence against women refers to “any act of gender-based violence that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual, and mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts as […]
• Social Marketing Campaign on Domestic Violence In this marketing campaign strategy the focus would be centered on violence against women, as a form of domestic violence that is currently experience in many countries across the globe.
• Intersectionality in Domestic Violence Another way an organization that serves racial minorities may address the unique needs of domestic violence victims is to offer additional educational and consultancy activities for women of color.
• Victimology and Domestic Violence In this situation there are many victims; Anne is a victim of domestic violence and the children are also victims of the same as well as the tragic death of their father.
• Domestic Violence: Reason, Forms and Measures The main aim of this paper is to determine the reason behind the rapid increase of domestic violence, forms of domestic violence and measures that should be taken to reduce its effects.
• Supporting Female Victims of Domestic Violence and Abuse: NGO Establishment The presence of such a model continues to transform lives and make it easier for more women to support and provide basic education to their children.
• Domestic Violence and Honor Killing Analysis Justice and gender equality are important aspects of the totality of mankind that measure social and economic development in the world. The cultural justification is to maintain the dignity and seniority framework of the family.
• Annotated Bibliography on Domestic Violence Against Women They evaluate 134 studies from various countries that provide enough evidence of the prevalence of domestic violence against women and the adverse effects the vice has had for a decade.
• National Coalition Against Domestic Violence In addition, NCADV hopes to make the public know that the symbol of the purple ribbon represents the mission of the organization, which is to bring peace to all American households.
• Effects of Domestic Violence on Children’s Social and Emotional Development In the case of wife-husband violence, always, one parent will be the offender and the other one the victim; in an ideal situation, a child needs the love of a both parents. When brought up […]
• Behind Closed Doors: Domestic Violence The term “domestic violence” is used to denote the physical or emotional abuse that occurs in the homes. Therefore, it has contributed to the spread of domestic violence in the country.
• Guilty until Proven Otherwise: Domestic Violence Cases The presumption of the guilt of a man in domestic violence cases is further proven by the decision of the court in which the man is required to post a bond despite the fact that […]
• Affordable, Effective Legal Assistance for Victims of Domestic Violence Legal assistance significantly increases the chances for domestic abuse victims to obtain restraining orders, divorce, and custody of their children. Helping victims of domestic violence with inexpensive legal aid is a critical step in assisting […]
• Domestic Violence: Far-Right Conspiracy Theory in Australia’s Culture Wars The phenomenon of violence is directly related to the violation of human rights and requires legal punishment for the perpetrators and support for the victims.
• Domestic Violence and Black Women’s Experiences Overall, the story’s exploration of the reality of life for an African American married woman in a patriarchal society, and the challenges faced by black women, is relevant to the broader reality of domestic violence […]
• Domestic Violence: Criminal Justice In addition, the usage of illegal substances such as bhang, cocaine, and other drugs contributes to the increasing DV in society.
• Witnessed Domestic Violence and Juvenile Detention Research The primary purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between witnessed domestic violence and juvenile detention. Research has pointed to a relationship between witnessed violence and juvenile delinquency, and this study holds that […]
• Domestic Violence Against Women in Melbourne Thus, it is possible to introduce the hypothesis that unemployment and related financial struggles determined by pandemic restrictions lead to increased rates of domestic violence against women in Melbourne.
• Domestic Violence Ethical Dilemmas in Criminal Justice Various ethical issues such as the code of silence, the mental status of the offender, and limited evidence play a vital role in challenging the discretion of police officers in arresting the DV perpetrators.
• Healthcare Testing of a Domestic Violence Victim Accordingly, the negative aspects of this exam include difficulties in identifying and predicting the further outcome of events and the course of side effects.
• Domestic Violence, Child Abuse, or Elder Abuse In every health facility, a nurse who notices the signs of abuse and domestic violence must report them to the relevant authorities.
• Educational Services for Children in Domestic Violence Shelters In order to meet the objectives of the research, Chanmugam et al.needed to reach out to the representatives of emergency domestic violence shelters located in the state of Texas well-aware of the shelters’ and schools’ […]
• The Domestic Violence Arrest Laws According to the National Institute of Justice, mandatory arrest laws are the most prevalent in US states, indicating a widespread agreement on their effectiveness.
• Environmental Scan for Hart City Domestic Violence Resource Center In particular, it identifies the target population, outlines the key resources, and provides an overview of data sources for assessing key factors and trends that may affect the Resource Center in the future.
• Domestic Violence Investigation Procedure If they claim guilty, the case is proceeded to the hearing to estimate the sentencing based on the defendant’s criminal record and the scope of assault. The issue of domestic abuse in households is terrifyingly […]
• Educational Group Session on Domestic Violence This will be the first counseling activity where the counselor assists the women to appreciate the concepts of domestic violence and the ways of identifying the various kinds of violence.
• What Causes Domestic Violence? Domestic abuse, which is also known as domestic violence, is a dominance of one family member over another or the other. As a result, the probability of them becoming abusers later in life is considerably […]
• Domestic Violence and COVID-19: Literature Review The “stay safe, stay at home” mantra used by the governments and public health organizations was the opposite of safety for the victims of domestic violence.
• The Impact of COVID-19 on Domestic Violence in the US Anurudran et al.argue that the new measures taken to fight COVID-19 infections heightened the risk of domestic abuse. The pandemic paradox: The consequences of COVID 19 on domestic violence.
• Rachel Louise Snyder’s Research on Domestic Violence Language and framing play a significant role in manipulating people’s understanding of domestic violence and the nature of the problem. However, it is challenging to gather precise data on the affected people and keep track […]
• Domestic Violence Restraining Orders: Renewals and Legal Recourse Since upon the expiry of a restraining order, a victim can file a renewal petition the current task is to determine whether the original DVRO of our client has expired, the burden of obtaining a […]
• Alcoholism, Domestic Violence and Drug Abuse Kaur and Ajinkya researched to investigate the “psychological impact of adult alcoholism on spouses and children”. The work of Kaur and Ajinkya, reveals a link between chronic alcoholism and emotional problems on the spouse and […]
• Domestic Violence Counselling Program Evaluation The evaluation will be based upon the mission of the program and the objectives it states for the participants. The counselors arrange treatment for both sides of the conflict: the victims and offenders, and special […]
• Sociological Imagination: Domestic Violence and Suicide Risk Hence, considering these facts, it is necessary to put the notion of suicide risk in perspective when related to the issue of domestic violence.
• The Roles of Domestic Violence Advocates Domestic conflict advocates assist victims in getting the help needed to cope and move forward. Moreover, these advocates help the survivors in communicating to employers, family members, and lawyers.
• Ambivalence on Part of the Police in Response to Domestic Violence The police have been accused of ambivalence by their dismissive attitudes and through sexism and empathy towards perpetrators of violence against women.
• Domestic Violence: The Impact of Law Enforcement Home Visits As the study concludes, despite the increase in general awareness concerning domestic violence cases, it is still a significant threat to the victims and their children.
• Domestic Violence: How Is It Adressed? At this stage, when the family members of the battered women do this to them, it becomes the responsibility of the people to do something about this.
• Domestic Violence: Qualitative & Quantitative Research This research seeks to determine the impacts of domestic violence orders in reducing the escalating cases of family brutality in most households. N1: There is a significant relationship between domestic violence orders and the occurrence […]
• Domestic Violence Factors Among Police Officers The objective of this research is to establish the level of domestic violence among police officers and relative the behavior to stress, divorce, police subculture, and child mistreatment.
• “The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment” by Sherman and Berk The experiment conducted by the authors throws light on the three stages of the research circle. This is one of the arguments that can be advanced.
• Domestic Violence and Drug-Related Offenders in Australia The article is very informative since outlines a couple of the reasons behind the rampant increase in cases of negligence and lack of concern, especially from the government.
• An Investigation on Domestic Violence This particular experiment aimed to evaluate the nature of relationship and the magnitude of domestic violence meted on either of the partners.
• Educational Program on Domestic Violence The reason why I have chosen this as the topic for my educational program is that victims of domestic violence often feel that they do not have any rights and hence are compelled to live […]
• Family and Domestic Violence: Enhancing Protective Factors Current partner Previous partner Percentage of children When children are exposed to violence, they encounter numerous difficulties in their various levels of development.
• Domestic Violence in Women’s Experiences Worldwide Despite the fact the author of the article discusses a controversial problem of domestic violence against women based on the data from recent researches and focusing on such causes for violence as the problematic economic […]
• Parenting in Battered Women: The Effects of Domestic Violence In this study, ‘Parenting in Battered Women: The Effects of Domestic Violence on Women and their Children,’ Alytia A. It is commendable that at this stage in stating the problem the journalists seek to conclude […]
• Domestic Violence Types and Causes This is acknowledged by the law in most countries of the world as one of the most brutal symbols of inequality.
• Alcohol and Domestic Violence in Day-To-Day Social Life My paper will have a comprehensive literature review that will seek to analyze the above topic in order to assist the reader understand the alcohol contributions in the domestic and social violence in our society.
• Power and Control: Domestic Violence in America The abusive spouse wants to feel powerful and in control of the family so he, usually the abusive spouse is the man, beats his wife and children to assert his superiority.
• Domestic or Intimate Partner Violence Intervention Purpose of the study: The safety promoting behavior of the abused women is to be increased using a telephone intervention. They were allocated to either of the groups by virtue of the week of enrolment […]
• Federal and State Legislative Action on Domestic Violence In 2004, the state of New York decided to look into some of the ways of preventing this form of domestic violence by forming an Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence in 2005, employers […]
• Substance Abuse and Domestic Violence: Comprehensive Discussion Substance abuse refers to the misuse of a drug or any other chemical resulting in its dependence, leading to harmful mental and physical effects to the individual and the wellbeing of the society.
• Environmental Trends and Conditions: Domestic Violence in the Workplace Despite the fact that on average the literacy rate and the rate of civilization in the world have been increasing in the past few decades, the statistics for domestic violence have been increasing on an […]
• Domestic Violence in the Organizations Despite the fact that on average the literacy rate and the rate of civilization in the world has been increasing in the past few decades, the statistics for domestic violence have been increasing on an […]
• Facts About Domestic Violence All aspects of the society – which starts from the smallest unit, that is the family, to the church and even to the government sectors are all keen on finding solutions on how to eliminate, […]
• Domestic Violence in Marriage and Family While there are enormous reports of intimate partner homicides, murders, rapes, and assaults, it is important to note that victims of all this violence find it very difficult to explain the matter and incidents to […]
• Domestic Violence and Repeat Victimisation Theory Domestic violence is a crime which often happens because of a bad relationship between a man and woman and usually continues to be repeated until one of the parties leaves the relationship; hence victims of […]
• One-Group Posttest-Only Design in the Context of Domestic Violence Problem This application must unveil the risks and their solutions by researching the variables and the threats to the validity of the research.
• Help-Seeking Amongst Women Survivors of Domestic Violence First, the article explains the necessity of the research conduction, which includes the relevance of the abuse problem and the drawbacks of solving and studying it.
• Domestic Violence as a Social Issue It is one of the main factors which stimulate the study’s conduction, and among the rest, one can also mention the number of unexplored violence questions yet to be answered.
• Reflections on Domestic Violence in the Case of Dr. Mile Crawford Nevertheless, the only way out of this situation is to escape and seek help from the legal system. From a personal standpoint, to help her would be the right thing to do.
• Gender Studies: Combating Domestic Violence The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed description of domestic violence, as well as the development of an action plan that can help in this situation.
• Addressing Domestic Violence in the US: A Scientific Approach The implementation of sound research can help in addressing the problem and decreasing the incidence of domestic violence, which will contribute to the development of American society.
• Domestic Violence Funding and Impact on Society The number of domestic violence cases in the US, both reported and unreported, is significant. The recent decision of Trump’s administration to reduce the expenses for domestic violence victims from $480,000,000 to $40,000,000 in the […]
• Millennium Development Goals and Domestic Violence: A Bilateral Link As a result, a review of the potential of MDGs for resolving the issue needs to analyze the contribution of the goals to the resolution of the instances, consequences, and causes of DV.
• Campaign against Domestic Violence: Program Plan In addition, men who used to witness aggressive behavior at home or in the family as children, or learned about it from stories, are two times more disposed to practice violence against their partners than […]
• Domestic Violence and Bullying in Schools It also states the major variables related to bullying in schools. They will confirm that social-economic status, gender, and race can contribute to bullying in schools.
• Domestic Violence Within the US Military In most of the recorded domestic violence cases, females are mostly the victims of the dispute while the males are the aggressors of the violence.
• Domestic Violence and Family Dynamics: A Dual Perspective There are different types and causes of domestic violence, but the desire to take control over relationships is the most common cause.
• Reporting Decisions in Child Maltreatment: A Mixed Methodology Approach The present research aims to address both the general population and social workers to examine the overall attitudes to the reporting of child maltreatment.
• Domestic Violence in Australia: Budget Allocation and Victim Support On the other hand, the allocation of financial resources with the focus on awareness campaigns has also led to a lack of financial support for centres that provide the frontline services to victims of domestic […]
• Domestic and Family Violence: Case Studies and Impacts This paper highlights some of the recent cases of the violence, the forms of abuse involved, and their overall impacts on the victims.
• Family and Domestic Violence Legislation in the US In fact, this law is a landmark pointing to the recognition of the concept of domestic violence at the legal level and acknowledging that it is a key problem of the society.
• Domestic Violence and Social Interventions In conclusion, social learning theory supports the idea that children have a high likelihood of learning and simulating domestic violence through experiences at home.
• Legal Recourse for Victims of Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Victims of child abuse and domestic violence have the right to seek legal recourse in case of violation of their rights.
• Domestic Violence and Child’s Brain Development The video “First Impressions: Exposure to Violence and a Child’s Developing Brain” answers some questions of the dependence of exposure to domestic violence and the development of brain structures of children. At the beginning of […]
• Local Domestic Violence Victim Resources in Kent The focus of this paper is to document the local domestic violence victim resources found within a community in Kent County, Delaware, and also to discuss the importance of these resources to the community.
• The Impact of Domestic Violence Laws: Social Norms and Legal Consequences I also suppose that some of these people may start lifting their voices against the law, paying particular attention to the idea that it is theoretically allowable that the law can punish people for other […]
• Domestic Violence Abuse: Laws in Maryland The Peace and Protective Orders-Burden of Proof regulation in Maryland and the Violence against Women Act are some of the laws that have been created to deal with domestic violence.
• Theories of Domestic Violence It is important to point out that women have received the short end of the stick in regards to domestic violence. A third reason why people commit domestic violence according to the Family Violence Theory […]
• Domestic Violence in Australia: Policy Issue In this paper, DV in Australia will be regarded as a problem that requires policy decision-making, and the related terminology and theory will be used to gain insights into the reasons for the persistence of […]
• Nondiscriminatory Education Against Domestic Violence The recent event that prompted the proposed advocacy is the criticism of a banner that depicts a man as the victim of abuse.
• Domestic Violence in International Criminal Justice The United Nations organization is deeply concerned with the high level of violence experienced by women in the family, the number of women killed, and the latency of sexual violence.
• Project Reset and the Domestic Violence Court The majority of the decisions in courts are aimed to mitigate the effects of the strict criminal justice system of the United States.
• Same-Sex Domestic Violence Problem Domestic violence in gay or lesbian relationships is a serious matter since the rates of domestic violence in such relationships are almost equivalent to domestic violence in heterosexual relationships. There are a number of misconceptions […]
• Domestic, Dating and Sexual Violence Dating violence is the sexual or physical violence in a relationship which includes verbal and emotional violence. The rate of sexual violence in other nations like Japan and Ethiopia, range from 15 to 71 percent.
• Anger Management Counseling and Treatment of Domestic Violence by the Capital Area Michigan Works These aspects include: the problem that the program intends to solve, the results produced by the program, the activities of the program, and the resources that are used to achieve the overall goal.
• Understanding Women’s Responses to Domestic Violence The author’s research orientation is a mix of interpretive, positivism and critical science – interpretive in informing social workers or practitioners on how to enhance their effectiveness as they deal with cases related to violence […]
• Poverty and Domestic Violence It is based on this that in the next section, I have utilized my educational experience in order to create a method to address the issue of domestic violence from the perspective of a social […]
• Teenage Dating and Domestic Violence That is why it is important to report about the violence to the police and support groups in order to be safe and start a new life.
• Evaluation of the Partnership Against Domestic Violence According to the official mission statement of the organization, PADV is aimed at improving the overall wellbeing of families all over the world and helping those that suffer from domestic violence The organization’s primary goal […]
• Cross-Cultural Aspects of Domestic Violence This is one of the limitations that should be taken account. This is one of the problems that should not be overlooked.
• Domestic Violence in the Lives of Women She gives particular focus on the social and traditional aspects of the community that heavily contribute to the eruption and sustenance of violence against women in households. In the part 1 of the book, Renzetti […]
• Financial Planning and Management for Domestic Violence Victims Acquisition of resources used in criminal justice require financial resources hence the need to manage the same so as to provide the best machines and equipments.
• Violence against Women: Domestic, National, and Global Rape as a weapon for the enemy Majority of cultures in war zones still accept and regard rape to be a weapon of war that an enemy should be punished with.
• Effects of Domestic Violence on Children Development In cases where children are exposed to such violence, then they become emotionally troubled: In the above, case them the dependent variable is children emotions while the independent variable is domestic violence: Emotions = f […]
• Evaluation of Anger Management Counseling and Treatment of Domestic Violence by the Capital Area Michigan Works These aspects include: the problem that the program intends to solve, the results produced by the program, the activities of the program, and the resources that are used to achieve the overall goal.
• Knowledge and Attitudes of Nurses Regarding Domestic Violence and Their Effect on the Identification of Battered Women In conducting this research, the authors sought the consent of the prospective participants where the purpose of the study was explained to participants and confidentiality of information to be collected was reassured.
• Domestic Violence Dangers Mount With Economic, Seasonal Pressures These variables are believed to be able to prompt the family to explore the experiences and meanings of stress and stress management.
• Impact of the Economic Status on Domestic Violence This article investigates the possible factors that may help in explaining the status of women who are homeless and their capacity to experience domestic violence.
• Dominance and “Power Plays” in Relationships to Assist Clients to Leave Domestic Violence According to psychologists, the problem of domestic violence is based on the fact that one partner needs to be in control of the other.
• Art Therapy With Women Who Have Suffered Domestic Violence One of the most significant benefits of art therapy is the fact the patients get to understand and interpret their own situations which puts them in a better position to creatively participate in own healing […]
• Collaborative Crisis Intervention at a Domestic Violence Shelter The first visit is meant to collect the information that the professional in domestic violence deem crucial concerning the precipitating incidence and history of violence.
• Domestic Violence Exposure in Colombian Adolescents In this topic, the authors intend to discover the extent of association of drug abuse to domestic violence exposure, violent and prosocial behavior among adolescents.
• Domestic Violence and Its Classification Sexual abuse is the other common form of maltreatment which is on the rise and refers to any circumstance in which force is utilized to get involvement in undesired intimate action. Emotional maltreatment entails inconsistent […]
• Domestic Violence and Social Initiatives in Solving the Problem The absence of the correct social programs at schools and the lack of desire of government and police to pay more attention to the prevention of the problem while it is not too late are […]
• Domestic Violence in the African American Community Previous research has suggested this due to the many causes and effects that are experienced by the members and especially the male members of the African American community.
• Domestic Violence: Predicting and Solutions There are several factors which predict the state of domestic violence in the future and this will help in preventing domestic violence.
• Domestic Violence: Signs of Abuse and Abusive Relationships The unprecedented rejuvenation of such a vile act, prompted the formation of factions within society, that are sensitive to the plight of women, and fight for the cognizance of their rights in society.
• Domestic Violence against South Asian Women Again, this strategy is premised on the idea that domestic violence can be explained by the financial dependence of women in these communities.
• The Effects of Domestic Violence According to statistics and research provided in the handout, women are at a higher risk of being victims of domestic violence.
• Effect of Domestic Violence on Children This is done with the aim of ensuring that the child is disciplined and is meant as a legitimate punishment. Most of our children have been neglected and this has contributed to the increase in […]
• Domestic Violence and Elderly Abuse- A Policy Statement Though this figure has been changing with the change in the method of survey that was conducted and the nature of samples that were taken during the research process, it is widely accepted fact that […]
• Domestic Violence as a Social and Public Health Problem The article, authored by Lisa Simpson Strange, discusses the extent of domestic violence especially in women and the dangers it exposes the victims to, insisting that severe actions should be taken against those who commit […]
• Community and Domestic Violence: Elder Abuse In addition, the fact the elderly people cannot defend themselves because of the physical frailty that they encounter, they will experience most of the elderly abuse.
• Community and Domestic Violence; Gang Violence Solitude, peer pressure, need to belong, esteem, and the excitement of the odds of arrest entice adolescents to join these youth gangs.
• Fighting Domestic Violence in Pocatello, Idaho Having realized the need to involve the family unit in dealing with this vice, Walmart has organized a sensitization program that will involve the education of whole family to increase awareness on the issue. The […]
• What Is the Purpose of Studying Domestic Violence?
• What Does Theory Explain Domestic Violence?
• What Is the Difference Between IPV and Domestic Violence?
• What Age Group Does Domestic Violence Affect Most?
• When Domestic Violence Becomes the Norm?
• How Are Domestic Violence Problems Solved in American and Other Cultures?
• What Are the 3 Phases in the Domestic Violence Cycle?
• How Can Domestic Violence Be Explained?
• How Many Deaths Are Caused by Domestic Violence?
• When Was Domestic Violence First Defined?
• How Is a Domestic Violence Prevention?
• How Race, Class, and Gender Influences Domestic Violence?
• Why Do Victims of Abuse Sometimes Stay Silent?
• How Does Domestic Violence Affect the Brain?
• Is Mental Illness Often Associated With Domestic Violence?
• How Does Domestic Violence Affect a Person Emotionally?
• How Does Domestic Violence Affect Children’s Cognitive Development?
• Why Should Employers Pay Attention to Domestic Violence?
• What Are the Causes of Domestic Violence?
• What Country Has the Highest Rate of Domestic Violence?
• How Does Domestic Violence Affect the Lives of Its Victims?
• What Are the Possible Causes and Signs of Domestic Violence?
• How Does Socioeconomic Status Affect Domestic Violence?
• How Does the Australian Criminal Justice System Respond to Domestic Violence?
• How Does Culture Affect Domestic Violence in the UK?
• What Is the Psychology of an Abuser?
• What Is Police Doing About Domestic Violence?
• How Does the Government Define Domestic Violence?
• What Profession Has the Highest Rate of Domestic Violence?
• What Percent of Domestic Violence Is Alcohol-Related?
• Family Relationships Research Ideas
• Alcohol Abuse Paper Topics
• Drug Abuse Research Topics
• Child Welfare Essay Ideas
• Childhood Essay Topics
• Sexual Abuse Essay Titles
• Divorce Research Ideas
• Gender Stereotypes Essay Titles
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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The Dangers of Domestic Violence and the Importance of Prevention

In light of National Public Health week, I decided to focus on a topic that has received limited attention as a health issue. Domestic violence is a serious public health concern and it deserves to be discussed. We join together with the American Public Health Association in creating a healthier community and healthier nation.

Violence or abuse in any form has serious health consequences for the victim. It can lead to negative health outcomes such as chronic pain, increased risk of stroke, heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, cancer, or gynecological problems. 1,2 There are also behavioral health concerns like depression, alcohol and substance abuse, and high-risk sexual behaviors. 2 Additionally, domestic violence is linked to absenteeism and poor performance in the workplace, which may result in social isolation, housing and financial concerns, and further health risks for the victims and their families. 2

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that one in four women and one in nine men experience a form of domestic violence. 3 Children witness more than half of domestic assaults and have a 45 to 60 percent chance of experiencing child abuse if their parent is being assaulted. 4

WHAT IS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND WHY DOES IT HAPPEN?

Domestic violence is a form of abuse used to harm or control others. Different forms of abuse include: physical, emotional, sexual, reproductive, financial, or digital. 5 Although victims of domestic abuse can be of any gender, race, age, or sexual orientation, violence is most common in women ages 18 to 34 and among women and men of color. 6 In addition, the chances of experiencing abuse almost doubles for bisexual, gay, and lesbian adults in California. 6

Abuse occurs when a domestic partner wants to control, physically harm, or have power over their partner. 7 In addition to a desire for control, abusive behavior can also result from exposure to being abused themselves, history of witnessing domestic violence, social and emotional isolation, absence of healthy role models and relationships, and a lack of emotional and nonviolent social skills. 6

PREVENTION STRATEGIES

Preventing violent behavior can often seem impossible, but there are many approaches that have proven to be effective.

The CDC developed a social-ecological model that shows the intersection of four factors that influence domestic abuse: individual, relationship, community, and societal. 8

• Individual factors include age, education, income, substance abuse, or history of abuse.
• Relationship factors include peers in a social group, domestic partners, and family members.
• Community factors include schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods.
• Societal factors include health, economic, educational, and social policies that create social inequity in society.

This framework suggests making changes to each factor separately and together through education, life skills training, prevention programs, and policy change to prevent domestic violence. For example, changes in individual factors will result in better attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, which can prevent domestic violence. Attending parent or family-focused prevention programs can help strengthen relationships and reduce conflict that may spark violent behavior. Changes to policy and processes in social settings can strengthen community relationships and minimize violence. Similarly, changes in health, economic, educational, and social policy lead to equity amongst society and can contribute to lower violence rates. 8

The CDC also developed six strategies to prevent intimate partner violence: 3

• Teach safe and healthy relationship skills;
• Engage influential adults and peers;
• Disrupt developmental pathways toward partner violence;
• Create protective environments;
• Strengthen economic supports for families; and
• Support survivors to increase safety and lessen harms

The Prevention Institute (PI) recommends yet another approach to prevent domestic violence by focusing on creating health equity and improving the community environment that fosters safe relationships. 6 Health equity affirms that everyone deserves to be safe in their relationship. PI suggests that improving health equity and community environment is a group effort that requires advocacy, increased access to affordable housing, community support, delivery of healthcare and social services; for example, providing emergency food, child care and safe shelter, and prevention programs. 6

POLICY MAKES A DIFFERENCE

As mentioned above, group advocacy can have a large impact on preventing domestic violence and creating safer relationships. Advocating concerns to policymakers can lead to positive change and ensuring the safety of many domestic violence victims and their families. Below are a few examples of policy that are making a difference in millions of lives.

The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 is a federal law that provides protections for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault crimes, date violence, and stalking. This law offers free rape exams, housing protections, and programs especially for immigrant women, women with disabilities, and children/teens. 9

The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) offers resources and shelter to families experiencing domestic violence. 9 This Act expired in 2015, but has been reintroduced to extend through 2023. The FVPSA was approved by the House and it still awaiting action from the Senate.

The Violence Against Women Health Act of 2019 (H.R. 973) is a federal bill that has been introduced to the House of Representatives to provide additional grant-funded programs for domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. 10 This pending bill builds off of Health Resources & Services Administration’s (HRSA) strategy to address intimate partner violence. HRSA’s key priorities include training the public health workforce, developing partnerships for intimate partner violence awareness, increased access to health care for domestic violence services, and increased knowledge for risks, impacts, and interventions of abuse. 10

One last important resource to note is the National Domestic Violence Hotline , funded by the Violence Against Women Act. This hotline offers free 24/7 support, information, resources, and answers questions for domestic violence victims or those who feel they may be in an unsafe relationship. 11 Everyone deserves to be in a safe and healthy relationship and the various resources available today make that possible.

Author bio:

Kaitlin brehaut, mph, ches.

Kaitlin Brehaut serves as IHPL’s Health Policy Assistant, providing administrative, programmatic and research support to the Institute team. Ms. Brehaut completed her undergraduate education in Health Science with a concentration in Health Care Management at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB). She then received her Master of Public Health degree at CSUSB. She is also certified as a Health Education Specialist.

For more information, contact Kaitlin at:  [email protected] .

References:

• https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/publichealthissue/strategicvision.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fviolenceprevention%2Foverview%2Fstrategicvision.html
• https://www.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/hrsa/HRSA-strategy-intimate-partner-violence.pdf
• https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pub/technical-packages/infographic/ipv.html
• https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/progress-notes/201902/alarming-effects-childrens-exposure-domestic-violence
• https://www.thehotline.org/is-this-abuse/abuse-defined/
• https://www.preventioninstitute.org/publications/health-equity-and-multisector-approach-preventing-domestic-violence
• https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/domestic-violence
• https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/publichealthissue/social-ecologicalmodel.html
• https://www.womenshealth.gov/relationships-and-safety/get-help/laws-violence-against-women
• https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/973/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22domestic+violence%22%5D%7D&r=6&s=3
• https://www.thehotline.org/

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10 Ways You Can Help Prevent Domestic Violence Locally

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• By DomesticShelters.org
• Aug 01, 2016

More than one-third of women and one in 12 men have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetime , according to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey . Anyone would agree that’s too many. If you’re asking yourself what you can do to help, read on. Below, 10 steps you can take to help stop domestic violence in your community.

1. Know the signs. Domestic violence can happen to anyone—white, black, young, old, rich, poor, educated, not educated. Sometimes violence begins early on in a relationship and other times it takes months or even years to appear. But there generally are some warning signs . Be wary of the following red flags an abuser may exhibit at any point in a relationship:

• Being jealous of your friends or time spent away from your partner
• Discouraging you from spending time away from your partner
• Embarrassing or shaming you
• Controlling all financial decisions
• Making you feel guilty for all the problems in the relationship
• Preventing you from working
• Intentionally damaging your property
• Threatening violence against you, your pets or someone you love to gain compliance
• Pressuring you to have sex when you don’t want to
• Intimidating you physically, especially with weapons

2. Don’t ignore it. Police officers hear the same thing from witnesses again and again— I heard/saw/perceived domestic violence but didn’t want to get involved . If you hear your neighbors engaged in a violent situation, call the police. It could save a life.

3. Lend an ear. If someone ever confides in you they are experiencing domestic violence, listen without judgment. Believe what they are telling you and ask how you can help, or see this list of 25 ways to help a survivor .

4. Be available. If someone you know is thinking about leaving or is in fear the violence will escalate, be ready to help. Keep your phone with you and the ringer on, make sure you have gas in your car and discuss an escape plan or meeting place ahead of time.

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5. Know the number to a nearby shelter. You never know who might need refuge in a hurry. Keep numbers to shelters ( find local shelter numbers here ) and the National Domestic Violence Hotline in your phone (800-799-7233).

6. Check in regularly. If a loved one or friend is in danger, reach out regularly to ensure his or her safety.

7. Be a resource. Someone experiencing violence may not be able to research shelters, escape plans or set up necessities like bank accounts and cell phones while living with his or her abuser. Offer to do the legwork to help ease stress and keep things confidential . Here’s a list of items a survivor may need to take with them .

8. Write it down. Document every incident you witness and include the date, time, location, injuries and circumstances. This information could be very useful in later police reports and court cases, both criminal and civil.

9. Get the word out. Assist a local shelter or domestic violence organization in their efforts to raise awareness in your community. Or use your personal connections to start a grassroots campaign. Organize talks at your workplace wellness fair, HOA meetings and church groups.

10. Put your money where your mouth is. Use your power as a consumer and refuse to support the culture perpetuated in music, movies, television, games and the media that glorifies violence, particularly against women.

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Domestic Violence Prevention: Methods And Resources

Content/Trigger Warning: Please be advised, the below article might mention trauma-related topics that include sexual assault & violence, which could potentially be triggering.

There may be nothing quite as difficult to deal with than being in a relationship where there is violence that happens, whether once or on a regular basis. It can be a challenge to figure out what to do. If you know someone in this situation, it can be equally challenging to know the best way to help.

Fifteen percent of all violent crimes happens between intimate partners. This information is based on  intimate partner abuse statistics . Using domestic violence prevention techniques and resources, you can stay safe in your relationship or help someone you know or someone in your community do the same. Keep reading to learn more about how to prevent domestic violence and how to find help if you find yourself in a dangerous situation.

If you or a loved one is experiencing domestic violence, contact the Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Support is available 24/7.

What is domestic violence?

Domestic violence is considered a serious health problem. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently opened a new division, the Office of Family Violence Prevention and Services, to combat the spread and adverse effects of domestic violence. It's violence that happens within the context of a close relationship, particularly with an intimate partner. If you don't learn how to  identify intimate partner violence now, you could put yourself in danger of experiencing it without your knowledge. Once you can identify intimate partner violence, you can take appropriate violence prevention steps to ensure your safety.

Someone is considered your intimate partner if:

• You're emotionally connected with them
• You have regular contact with them
• You have regular physical contact or sexual behavior with them
• You consider yourselves a couple
• You're familiar with each other's lives

Types of domestic violence

Domestic violence can range from mild to life-threatening. It can happen once or often over the course of years. There are four basic types of domestic or intimate partner violence.

Physical violence: Hurting someone through physical force, including hitting, kicking, slapping, punching, biting, choking, etc. Physical violence also includes forcing someone to do these acts to someone else.

Sexual violence: Sexual assault of any kind, including forced touching, penetration, or being made to feel unsafe during intimate activities.

Stalking: Unwanted attention that causes the victim fear and concern for their safety or the safety of someone else. For example, unwanted phone calls, spying, following from a distance, threatening a pet, etc.

Psychological aggression: Verbal or nonverbal aggression meant to mentally or emotionally harm or control someone.

Recognize red flags and signs of abuse

To prevent domestic violence, you need to stop it before it happens. The following signs of abuse may appear just before the domestic violence happens, or they may appear early in the relationship.

• They intentionally embarrass you
• They prevent you from working
• They control all the financial decisions that affect you
• They blame you for all the relationship problems
• They maliciously damage your property
• They're jealous of your friends
• They don't like you spending time away from them
• They threaten to hurt you, someone you love, or a pet if you don't do what they say
• They emotionally push you into having sex when you don't want it
• They intimidate you with physical displays of power and weapons

Learn healthy relationship skills

The best method for domestic violence prevention is to be in a healthy, positive relationship. Does that mean you have to leave your partner if you have relationship problems? Not necessarily. You can learn healthy relationship skills together and get your partnership on a healthy track. Better yet, you can learn healthy relationship skills from the beginning of the relationship.

Safe communication

For safe communication, both partners need to feel free to communicate openly and honestly. Communication includes both expressing yourself and actively listening to the other person. You need to be able to have important conversations face-to-face without being verbally or physically attacked.

You need to learn healthy ways of dealing with conflict. If you become angry, you can take a break before you tell your partner (this break can be hours or even days) or decide not to tell them at all, especially if you feel you're in danger by telling. If you talk to your partner when you're angry, you may need to take a short break, figure out the real problem, talk to them as calmly as you can, and listen to what they have to say. They need to do the same for you. You also must respect each other's opinions.

Trust is crucial in an intimate partner relationship. When you assume your partner is telling you their truth and they assume the same, you can avoid unnecessary hurt feelings.

Every relationship—even between intimate partners—needs to be built on mutual respect for healthy boundaries. Examples of healthy boundaries include:

• You have the final say on any decisions concerning only you
• Your partner includes you in financial decisions
• You control your property
• You are in control of your own actions
• It's your decision whether to agree to sex
• Your partner doesn't force you to become pregnant

Mutual respect

For an intimate relationship to work, each partner needs to respect the other. You respect each other's opinions and freedom to choose. You deal with sexual matters respectfully with each other, deciding together if you want to have sexual relations at any specific time. If someone doesn't consent to sex, the other partner respects their decision and honors it.

Build support systems

Everyone needs a support system. When you're in an unequal or unhealthy relationship, you need more support than ever. Reach out to family and friends to stay in touch and share what you're experiencing. Meet new people when you can. Be involved in community or volunteer projects where you can talk to people outside the relationship.

Support groups can sometimes help, too. When domestic violence support groups were first established, their focus was on people who had left abusive relationships. More recently, though, support groups have been started to help people who are still in such relationships. These groups tend to focus on safety planning, learning about abuse dynamics, and getting emotional support. They are also encouraged to learn more about the  benefits of domestic violence counseling .

Practice tech safety

If you're in an unhealthy and potentially violent relationship, you need to know how your partner might monitor the way you use your smartphone, tablet, or computer. 

Open a new email account if you need to send and receive emails concerning current or potential abuse or plans to leave. Use that account only on a safe computer.

Use a pay-as-you-go cell phone to use when you don't want your partner to monitor your device use. Know that your car's GPS may be used to find your location.

Be careful with social media. Avoid posting anything personal, especially if it's something your partner can use to hurt you or find you after you leave. Ask your friends and family not to make social media posts that might reveal information about you. 

Know your rights

The legal system can help with  domestic violence  even before you decide to leave a potentially violent relationship. Find out the legal definitions regarding domestic violence where you are. Learn how you can get help and what options you'll have if you do leave.

Make a safety plan

Having a  safety plan in place when you need it might save your life. Your safety plan is a practical plan tailored to you and your unique circumstances. Its purpose is to help you stay safe while in the relationship, when getting ready to leave it, and after you've left.

You can call or chat with the  National Domestic Violence Hotline for help with creating your own individualized safety plan. They're known for understanding how to prevent domestic violence when possible and what to do in the event it happens. Here are some of the types of things you might include in a safety plan:

• Identifying safe places to hide or go to in times of crisis
• Learning about resources where you are
• Knowing what legal help is available and where to get it
• Teaching your children how to get help if needed
• Making up a list of reasons you have to leave the house
• Documenting red flag behaviors and domestic violence incidents
• Preparing yourself for life away from your abuser by getting job skills or taking courses
• Getting a restraining order
• Having ID and other important papers ready
• Calling 911 or a hotline when your life is in danger
• Planning what you will do if your partner finds out about the plan

Know vital contact information

If you're in a dangerous situation, you'll probably need some help. Know the names and contact information of organizations that can help you , such as shelters and domestic violence hotlines, as well as the contact information of supportive friends. Memorize these numbers or keep them with you so you'll have them when you need them.

Find support from an online therapist

You can also get support and guidance in understanding domestic violence  from a therapist. If you feel it's unsafe for you to go to a therapist's office physically, one option is to get online therapy from a licensed counselor at  Regain . Your counselor can help you learn better relationship skills for domestic violence prevention or for new relationships after you've left an unsafe one. Regain offers therapy for both individuals and couples, so if you and your partner want to work on repairing your relationship together, that's an option

Online therapy can take place anywhere there's an internet connection, so you can get help from any safe location. An online therapist can support you as you make crucial decisions about whether, when, and how to leave. This type of help can be just as valuable as in-person help.

No one should ever have to be afraid of their intimate partner. If someone you're in a close relationship with shows any warning signs of domestic violence, don't hesitate to get help. Educating yourself about various types of domestic violence can help you to become more aware of your situation and guide you through handling it. Even if you aren't ready to leave, you need to prepare yourself for staying safe both when you're in the relationship and if you choose to leave it. Don't hesitate to seek support from others if you're experiencing challenges such as violence in your relationship.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Is domestic violence preventable.

Domestic violence, also called intimate partner violence or  dating violence , can be preventable, but maybe not in the sense you think. When we say that domestic violence is preventable, we in no way mean that the individual experiencing domestic violence is at fault or that they could have prevented the domestic attack. Rather, we mean to say that, on a larger scale, society can learn to condemn and prevent domestic violence. Furthermore, the perpetrator of violence may diagnose and treat any untreated mental health problems that could be causing the violent outbursts. 

To consider preventing domestic violence, let’s consider the most typical causes. Research suggests domestic violence may be caused by:

• Undiagnosed or untreated mental health issues or personality disorders on the part of the perpetrator
• A society that encourages inequality, such as a patriarchal family or culture that sees it as the role of the man to control his female partner
• The perpetrator experiences extreme jealousy and insecurity
• The abuser was raised in a household in which violence was normalized or even encouraged
• The abuser feels the need to control his or her partner

With those causes in mind, let’s consider the solutions.

Oftentimes, preventing intimate partner violence begins with workshops, courses, or therapy to help manage communication as a couple. According to the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, one can also learn to manage emotions through these same methods to prevent domestic violence. 

If a society or country begins to notice domestic violence as a trend, with percentages of domestic abuse higher than other countries and societies, then social movements designed to bring attention to the problem, normalize speaking about it, and empowering survivors, can, over time, lead to effective social change. And, most importantly, changing a society begins in the home. By preventing and treating violence behind closed doors, an entire culture can change for the better. 

Before entering into a relationship, a person who experiences mental health problems should speak to a counselor or therapist and learn how to manage their symptoms before committing to a relationship that could potentially harm someone. Even without symptoms, anyone raised in a violent household should consider speaking to a counselor either online or in-person to talk about potential embedded trauma that they may not otherwise notice. 

Individuals engaging in healthy relationships can take steps such as therapy and counseling at the beginning of a new relationship or throughout to bring awareness to the possibility of sexual violence and dating violence. 

Moreover, prevention programs exist to raise violence awareness and increase injury prevention in romantic and sexual relationships. To see specific resources and more information about intimate partner violence, how to prevent domestic violence, and how to raise violence awareness, you can explore a variety of websites .

Please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 if you are experiencing any dating/intimate partner violence or observing dating/intimate partner violence happening to someone you know.

How can we prevent violence?

Preventing intimate partner violence, including sexual violence, is the first step to helping stop violence in domestic situations in your community. The key to violence prevention is awareness. 

You can visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to read more helpful information about what domestic violence and sexual violence can look like. 

Next, to prevent intimate partner violence, it is possible to learn and implement several strategies to help in any relationship. Here are some useful ways a community can help stop violence:

• Teaching emotional management strategies and healthy relationship skills. Preventing intimate partner and sexual violence begins with teaching young people about emotional management and what a healthy relationship can look like. 
• Investing in safe, stable settings for children and families. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that safe schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces dramatically reduce the risk of intimate partner violence. 
• Creating community prevention programs. Supporting programs for individuals experiencing domestic violence, ally workshops, and programs for family safety can help reduce the instances of national domestic violence.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please use these prevention methods as soon as possible.

• Call the  National Domestic Violence Hotline  at 1-800-799-7233
• Call the  RAINN  (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network) National Sexual Assault Hotline for instances of sexual violence at 1-800-656-4673
• Visit the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence website at  https://www.nrcdv.org/

What is primary prevention in domestic violence?

Primary prevention in domestic violence (also known as intimate partner violence, dating violence, or sexual violence) is the act of preventing violence and injury before it even begins.

The goal of primary prevention is to reduce or stop violence entirely. It works through concrete steps taken well in advance to increase injury prevention before injury occurs. If proper primary prevention steps are taken, such as raising violence awareness and performing injury prevention in domestic situations, intimate partner violence cases can be dramatically reduced. To prevent domestic violence before it occurs, several steps can be taken. 

• Increasing funding for violence prevention programs in schools
• Aiding communities in creating safer environments for anyone susceptible to violence
• Raising violence awareness
• Making hotlines such as the National Domestic Violence Hotline widely available
• Increasing awareness of informative web pages on dating violence and sexual violence such as the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Using domestic injury prevention methods among couples and families such as therapy 

How can we prevent partner violence?

Preventing intimate partner violence, also referred to as dating violence or sexual violence, begins with violence awareness. Intimate partner violence can occur in any unhealthy relationship, so it is extremely important to be aware of violence and injury prevention methods. The important thing to note is that preventing intimate partner violence is possible through many different methods. 

As a community:

• Violence awareness and emotional learning resources and programs for children
• Education about the bystander effect and how to be a better ally
• Programs oriented towards family health
• Investing in school and workplace safety

As an individual or couple:

• Awareness of the National Domestic Violence Hotline
• Research injury prevention on the websites for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence
• Therapy to improve emotional management and communication skills

What are the four most common types of intimate partner violence?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are four very common types of intimate partner violence.

• Sexual violence: This is a form of intimate partner violence when a partner forces you to into sexual acts that you do not consent to. It can also occur in situations in which a partner physically cannot consent. This could be due to the fact they are inebriated or asleep. Sexual violence can include rape, molestation, non-consensual sexting, or any non-consensual sex act. If you experience sexual violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline as soon as possible.
• Physical violence: This form of intimate partner violence can include any form of physical force such as punching, slapping, or kicking to harm one’s partner. Injury prevention is key to avoiding this kind of intimate partner violence. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline if you experience any physical violence from an intimate partner.
• Stalking: Stalking is when an individual does not cease to give unwanted attention to another person. It can often cause fear or lead to other forms of violence and warrant further injury prevention methods. Even though a stalker may not be your partner, you can still call the National Domestic Violence Hotline for help. 
• Psychological aggression: This form of dating violence is often very difficult to detect. It may involve either verbal or non-verbal communication to cause harm to a partner. Through words and non-physical actions, partners may not realize they need to take actions to prevent domestic violence in their relationship. Be aware of this type of violence if you feel like your partner may be trying to take control over you or manipulate you with their words and call the National Domestic Violence Hotline for help.

For more information on any of these common types of intimate partner violence, please visit the webpage at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . If you are experiencing any of the signs of potential domestic abuse or any type of domestic abuse, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.

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Prevention of Domestic Violence

Prevention of violence is one of the most urgent tasks in the modern society. Despite the prevalence of domestic violence, it is often hidden from the ‘outsiders’, as if it does not exist in our lives. Preventive work with families as well as with adolescents, preparing them for independent living is very important and, in particular, work with women and children – the least protected members of society. It is necessary not only to acknowledge the existence of such a program, which, of course, must be supported in the future. Comprehensive approach to the issue of domestic violence is no less important.

Creation of a system of continuously preventing measures has become a proper step in solving the problem of domestic violence. The primary prevention is aimed at avoiding the acts of home violence. Secondary prevention involves cessation of violence in certain families within various ways and means of elimination the consequences. The third level performs a complex of rehabilitation measures for victims of domestic violence.

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Domestic violence is a social phenomenon. It covers various segments of society and almost all age groups. To provide a comprehensive approach in prevention of domestic violence, we need to organize work on all three levels for each target group.

One of the main target groups for prevention of domestic violence represents children and teenagers. The objective of the first level of violence prevention is formation of non-violent, non-aggressive models of behavior for the educated young persons.

We should use appropriate gaming forms of studying for the elementary school students to help them to increase self-estimation, to inculcate tolerance and to form the concepts of justice.

For the middle school students, self-expression, self-estimation and tolerance are still important, but in this age it is necessary to understand their own personalities. Such sessions can be conducted in the form of interviews, workshops, and discussions.

High school pupils, students and teenagers need acquisition of the knowledge and skills to build a harmonious relationship in the family. It can be made during the lectures, discussions and trainings.

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These programs are developed to work for a number of years. Young people, who experience adult life, can follow the rules and formed regulations in the process of communication.

The second level of violence prevention for this group is aimed at eliminating violence against particular children and teenagers.

The third level of prevention requires taking a child out from the environment of brutality and providing rehabilitation activities (medical treatment, therapy, etc.).The most important aspect in solving the problem of domestic violence is awareness.Prevention provides all kinds of information about the phenomenon of domestic violence: concept, types, effects, as well as its alternative – harmonious relationships in the family, their advantages and availability. It could be published, performed by means of media, public discussions between different specialists and politicians, and lectures for wide audience (Anonymous, 2002).

Children are vulnerable to sexual violence because of poor knowledge and experience which is necessary to understand and describe what is happening to them. They often suffer from physical force, as well as adults already have power of authority. After the sexual assault happened, most children begin to suffer feelings of guilt, fear, shame, and humiliation. Generally, they have been taught to love and respect adults who perform violence. When these children grow up and begin to understand the nature of sexual violence, they often experience a deep sense of shame and guilt for what happened to them.In this situation the child or young person needs help and support of both parents and, what is not less important, a psychologist (Ramamoorthy, 2011).

Analyzing specific characteristics of social care for families and children, it is undisputed that a psychologist is obliged to provide emergency counseling to children, who suffer sexual violence.It is important to conduct individual therapeutic and group work. In such cases, if the group is open (non-permanent membership), it is advisable to create a support group instead of therapeutic group to operate the issues of violence by means of individual work to create a healthy relationship, and give every child a chance to get support from the group members. Support groups give children the opportunity to feel that they are not alone in their pain and worries, to believe in themselves and feel joy of friendly relations based on the mutual respect.

In case of alleged short-term staying of children in these institutions, the administration has to form appropriate training groups, as well as counseling groups that will enable children and young people to identify their problems and understand them; to distinguish their feelings related to the situation of violence and to find solutions to difficult situations. When a psychologist forms a private group for a long time practice, it is necessary to focus on individual performance as well as on the period, during which every child has already been a part of the program (Davies, 2013).

Sexual violence can be characterized by strong symptoms, but sometimes it is expressed with obsolete and sometimes hidden behavioral changes. Reaction of children depends on their age, state of mind, the nature of abuse, their attitude to the offender, and other factors such as changes in behavior – most of all, reactions to stress. It can be difficult to recognize its underlying cause, because such changes may occur under the influence of other stressful situations.

The main task of the psychologist is to provide other specialists with information about symptomatic forms of sexual violence in order to identify the fact of violence. Psychological social service agencies can use all kinds of collaboration in their work.

The group work can reduce the level of anxiety; give the opportunity to develop communication skills; promote the development of adaptive interpersonal and social skills, which are out of normal in most cases; help to create safe therapeutic environment in which children and teenagers can discuss their painful feelings, experience, and regain sense of security and trust.

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Humanistic approach gives children the opportunity to feel that they are not alone in their trouble, to believe in themselves and realize the consequences of sexual violence, to live out the situation of violence in a safe environment, to work out the complex and ambivalent feelings related to the situation of violence and integrate it.

In the process of children’s allocation to the counseling groups we should consider the following:

– Child must have the appropriate level of arbitrariness, in order to follow the group rules and restrictions, and to have control over his impulsive reactions not to pose a threat to other members of the group;

– A child must be able to speak of the experience of violence without emotional distress and to listen to the narratives of other children on the topic;

– A child with significant mental retardation or a child that does not have reading skills may suffer troubles, while performing group tasks – it can lead to increased aggression, destructive behavior or exclusion;

– Therapy for children with psychotic symptoms or in state of deep depression, as well as for children with schizoid behavior generally does not give a positive result.

It is important to organize 2-3 individual meetings with each child in order to prepare them for the group work. At this stage, particular attention should be paid to the level of anxiety of the child. Moderate anxiety on the first steps is acceptable, but too high level of anxiety can interfere with therapy. Acquaintance with the rules and regulations of the group will also help to build the child’s sense of security and confidence.It is important to discuss such issues as mandatory privacy and possible ridicules. The child has to make sure that the psychologist will be there, giving him/her support and protection (Shakeel, 2011).

Given the increasing importance of sexuality and gender identity in adolescence, groups usually consist of children and teenagers of the same sex. Selection of teenagers is very important and we should take into account child’s attitude to the deviant sexual activity, the degree of self-awareness, awareness and understanding of gender stereotypes that prevail in society.

Group therapy is especially useful with teenagers – it reduces the profound sense of isolation, sense of their own rottenness and defilement, suffered by most abused children. The understanding that such a problem has also happened to others, helps children to authorize themselves internally and in the eyes of their peers, helping them to normalize the response to the experience of violence. The group is the one safe place where counseling may be performed through mutual support (Rotten, 2013).

The problem of the program is that, despite the importance and urgency of preventing and correcting the effects of violence, today there is no unified vision in this field of humanitarian studies. There is also no single theoretical and research paradigm; full terminological and conceptual apparatus is not performed. So we did, I believe, only the first steps to meet a better future. It is of a vital importance to unify all knowledge in this sphere of sociological service to provide our federal government with the reliable impetuses to make the lives of our children better.

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Violence in Families: Assessing Prevention and Treatment Programs (1998)

Chapter: 9 conclusions and recommendations, 9 conclusions and recommendations.

The problems of child maltreatment, domestic violence, and elder abuse have generated hundreds of separate interventions in social service, health, and law enforcement settings. This array of interventions has been driven by the urgency of the different types of family violence, client needs, and the responses of service providers, advocates, and communities. The interventions now constitute a broad range of institutional services that focus on the identification, treatment, prevention, and deterrence of family violence.

The array of interventions that is currently in place and the dozens of different types of programs and services associated with each intervention represent a valuable body of expertise and experience that is in need of systematic scientific study to inform and guide service design, treatment, prevention, and deterrence. The challenge for the research community, service providers, program sponsors, and policy makers is to develop frameworks to enhance critical analyses of current strategies, interventions, and programs and identify next steps in addressing emerging questions and cross-cutting issues. Many complexities now characterize family violence interventions and challenge the development of rigorous scientific evaluations. These complexities require careful consideration in the development of future research, service improvements, and collaborative efforts between researchers and service providers. Examples of these complexities are illustrative:

• The interventions now in place in communities across the nation focus services on discrete and isolated aspects of family violence. They address different aspects of child maltreatment, domestic violence, and elder abuse. Some
• interventions have an extensive history of experience, and others are at a very early stage of development.
• Many interventions have not been fully implemented because of limited funding or organizational barriers. Thus in many cases it is too early to expect that research can determine whether a particular intervention or strategy (such as deterrence or prevention) is effective because the intervention may not yet have sufficient strength to achieve its intended impact.
• The social and institutional settings of many interventions present important challenges to the design of systematic scientific evaluations. The actual strength or dosage of a particular program can be directly influenced by local or national events that stimulate changes in resources, budgets, and personnel factors that influence its operation in different service settings. Variations in service scope or intensity caused by local service practices and social settings are important sources of "noise" in cross-site research studies; they can directly affect evaluation studies in such key areas as definitions, eligibility criteria, and outcome measures.
• Emerging research on the experiences of family violence victims and offenders suggests that this is a complex population composed of different types of individuals and patterns of behavior. Evaluation studies thus need to consider the types of clients served by particular services, the characteristics of those who benefited from them, and the attributes of those who were resistant to change.

In this chapter the committee summarizes its overall conclusions and proposes policy and research recommendations. A key question for the committee was whether and when the research evidence is sufficient to guide a critical examination of particular interventions. In some areas, the body of research is sufficient to inform policy choices, program development, evaluation research, data collection, and theory-building; the committee makes recommendations for current policies and practices in these areas below. In other areas, although the research base is not yet mature enough to guide policy and program development, some interventions are ready for rigorous evaluation studies. For this second tier of interventions, the committee makes recommendations for the next generation of evaluation studies. The committee then identifies a set of four topics for basic research that reflect current insights into the nature of family violence and trends in family violence interventions. A final section makes some suggestions to increase the effectiveness of collaborations between researchers and service providers.

Conclusions

The committee's conclusions are derived from our analysis of the research literature and discussions with service providers in the workshops and site visits, rather than from specific research studies. This analysis takes a client-oriented

approach to family violence interventions, which means that we focus on how existing services in health, social services, and law enforcement settings affect the individuals who come in contact with them.

• The urgency of the need to respond to the problem of family violence and the paucity of research to guide service interventions have created an environment in which insights from small-scale studies are often adopted into policy and professional practice without sufficient independent replication or reflection on their possible shortcomings. Rigorous evaluations of family violence interventions are confined, for the most part, to small or innovative programs that provide an opportunity to develop a comparison or control study, rather than focusing on the major existing family violence interventions.
• This situation has fostered a series of trial-and-error experiences in which a promising intervention is later found to be problematic when employed with a broader and more varied population. Major treatment and prevention interventions, such as child maltreatment reporting systems, casework, protective orders, and health care for victims of domestic violence, battered women's shelters, and elder abuse interventions of all types, have not been the subjects of rigorous evaluation studies. The programmatic and policy emphasis on single interventions as panaceas to the complex problems of family violence, and the lack of sufficient opportunity for learning more about the service interactions, client characteristics, and contextual factors that could affect the impact of different approaches, constitute formidable challenges to the improvement of the knowledge base and prevention and treatment interventions in this filed.
• In all areas of family violence, after-the-fact services predominate over preventive interventions. For child maltreatment and elder abuse, case identification and investigative services are the primary form of intervention; services designed to prevent, treat, or deter family violence are relatively rare in social service, health, and criminal justice settings (with the notable exceptions of foster care and family preservation services). For domestic violence, interventions designed to treat victims and offenders and deter future incidents of violence are more common, but preventive services remain relatively underdeveloped.
• The current array of family violence interventions (especially in the areas of child maltreatment and elder abuse) is a loosely coupled network of individual programs and services that are highly reactive in nature, focused primarily on the detection of specific cases. It is a system largely driven by events, rather than one that is built on theory, research, and data collection. Interventions are oriented toward the identification of victims and the substantiation and documentation of their experiences, rather than the delivery of recommended services to reduce the incidence and consequences of family violence in the community overall. As a result, enormous resources are invested to develop evidence that certain victims or offenders need treatment, legal action, or other interventions, and comparatively limited funds are available for the treatment and support services themselves—a
• situation that results in lengthy waiting lists, discretionary decisionmaking processes in determining which cases are referred for further action, and extensive variation in a service system's ability to match clients with appropriate interventions.
• The duration and intensity of the mental health and social support services needed to influence behaviors that result from or contribute to family violence may be greater than initially estimated. Family violence treatment and preventive interventions that focus on single incidents and short periods of support services, especially in such areas as parenting skills, mental health, and batterer treatment, may be inadequate to deal with problems that are pervasive, multiple, and chronic. Many programs for victims involve short-term treatment services—less than 6 weeks. Services for offenders are also typically of short duration. Yet research suggests that short-term programs designed to alter violent behavior are often the least likely to succeed, because of the difficulties of changing behavior that has persisted for a period of years and has become part of an established pattern in relationships. Efforts to address fundamental sources of conflict, stress, and violence that occur repeatedly over time within the family environment may require extensive periods of support services to sustain the positive effects achieved in short-term interventions.
• The interactive nature of family violence interventions constitutes a major challenge to the evaluation of interventions because the presence or absence of policies and programs in one domain may directly affect the implementation and outcomes of interventions in another. Research suggests that the risk and protective factors for child maltreatment, domestic violence, and elder abuse interact across multiple levels. The uncoordinated but interactive system of services requires further attention and consideration in future evaluation studies. Such evaluations need to document the presence and absence of services that affect members of the same family unit but offer treatment for specific problems in separate institutions characterized by different service philosophies and resources.
• For example, factors such as court oversight or mandatory referrals may influence individual participation in treatment services and the outcomes associated with such participation. The culture and resources of one agency can influence the quality and timing of services offered by another. Yet little information is available regarding the extent or quality of interventions in a community. Clients who receive multiple interventions (especially children) are often not followed through different service settings. Limited information is available to distinguish key features of innovative interventions from those usually offered in a community; to describe the stages of implementation of specific family violence programs, interventions, or strategies; to explain rates of attrition in the client base; or to capture case characteristics that influence the ways in which clients are selected for specific treatment programs.
• The emergence of secondary prevention interventions specifically targeted to serve children, adults, and communities with characteristics that are
• thought to place them at greater risk of family violence than the general population, along with the increasing emphasis on the need for integration and coordination of services, has the potential to achieve significant benefits. However, the potential of these newer interventions to reduce the need for treatment or other support services over the lifetime of the client has not yet been proven for large populations.
• Secondary preventive interventions, such as those serving children exposed to domestic violence, have the potential to reduce future incidents of family violence and to reduce the existing need for services in such areas as recovery from trauma, substance abuse, juvenile crime, mental health and health care. However, evaluation studies are not yet available to determine the value of preventive interventions for large populations in terms of reduction of the need for treatment or other support services over a client's lifetime.
• The shortage of service resources and the emphasis on reactive, short-term treatment have directed comparatively little attention to interventions for people who have experienced or perpetrated violent behavior but who have not yet been reported or identified as offenders or victims. Efforts to achieve broader systemic collaboration, comprehensive service integration, and proactive interventions require attention to the appropriate balance among enforcement, treatment, and prevention interventions in addressing family violence at both state and national levels. Such efforts also need to be responsive to the particular requirements of diverse ethnic communities with special needs or unique resources that can be mobilized in the development of preventive interventions. Because they extend to a larger population than those currently served by treatment centers, secondary prevention efforts can be expensive; their benefits may not become apparent until many years after the intervention occurs.
• Policy leadership is needed to help integrate family violence treatment, enforcement and support actions, and preventive interventions and also to foster the development of evaluations of comprehensive and cross-problem interventions that have the capacity to consider outcomes beyond reports of future violent behavior.
• Creative research methodologies are also needed to examine the separate and combined effects of cross-problem service strategies (such as the treatment of substance abuse and family violence), follow individuals and families through multiple service interventions and agency settings, and examine factors that may play important mediating roles in determining whether violence will occur or continue (such as the use of social networks and support services and the threat of legal sanctions).
• Most evaluations seek to document whether violent behavior decreased as a result of the intervention, an approach that often inhibits attention to other factors that may play important mediating roles in determining whether violence will occur. The individual victim or offender is the focus of most interventions and
• the unit of analysis in evaluation studies, rather than the family or the community in which the violence occurred.

Integrated approaches have the potential to illuminate the sequences and ways in which different experiences with violence in the family do and do not overlap with each other and with other kinds of violence. This research approach requires time to mature; at present, it is not strong enough to determine the strengths or limitations of strategies that integrate different forms of family violence compared with approaches that focus on specific forms of family violence. Service integration efforts focused on single forms of family violence may have the potential to achieve greater impact than services that disregard the interactive nature of this complex behavior, but this hypothesis also remains unproven.

Recommendations For Current Policies And Practices

It is premature to offer policy recommendations for most family violence interventions in the absence of a research base that consists of well-designed evaluations. However, the committee has identified two areas (home visitation and family preservation services) in which a rigorous set of studies offers important guidance to policy makers and service providers. In four other areas (reporting practices, batterer treatment programs, record keeping, and collaborative law enforcement approaches) the committee has drawn on its judgment and deliberations to encourage policy makers and service providers to take actions that are consistent with the state of the current research base.

These six interventions were selected for particular attention because (1) they are the focus of current policy attention, service evaluation, and program design; (2) a sufficient length of time has elapsed since the introduction of the intervention to allow for appropriate experience with key program components and measurement of outcomes; (3) the intervention has been widely adopted or is under consideration by a large number of communities to warrant its careful analysis; and (4) the intervention has been described and characterized in the research literature (through program summaries or case studies).

Reporting Practices

All 50 states have adopted laws requiring health professionals and other service providers to report suspected child abuse and neglect. Although state laws vary in terms of the types of endangerment and evidentiary standards that warrant a report to child protection authorities, each state has adopted a procedure that requires designated professionals—or, in some states, all adults—to file a report if they believe that a child is a victim of abuse or neglect. Mandatory reporting is thought to enhance early case detection and to increase the likelihood that services will be provided to children in need.

For domestic violence, mandatory reporting requirements for professional groups like health care providers have been adopted by the state of California and are under consideration in several other states. Mandatory reports are seen as a method by which offenders who abuse multiple partners can be identified through the health care community for law enforcement purposes. Early detection is assumed to lead to remedies and interventions that will prevent further abuse by holding the abuser accountable and helping to mitigate the consequences of family violence.

Critics have argued that mandatory reporting requirements may damage the confidentiality of the therapeutic relationship between health professionals and their clients, disregard the knowledge and preferences of the victim regarding appropriate action, potentially increase the danger to victims when sufficient protection and support are not available, and ultimately discourage individuals who wish to seek physical or psychological treatment from contacting and disclosing abuse to health professionals. In many regions, victim support services are not available or the case requires extensive legal documentation to justify treatment for victims, offenders, and families.

For elder abuse, 42 states have mandatory reporting systems. Several states have opted for voluntary systems after conducting studies that considered the advantages and disadvantages of voluntary and mandatory reporting systems, on the grounds that mandatory reports do not achieve significant increases in the detection of elder abuse cases.

In reviewing the research base associated with the relationship between reporting systems and the treatment and prevention of family violence, the committee has observed that no existing evaluation studies can demonstrate the value of mandatory reporting systems compared with voluntary reporting procedures in addressing child maltreatment or domestic violence. For elder abuse, studies suggest that a high level of public and professional awareness and the availability of comprehensive services to identify, treat, and prevent violence is preferable to reporting requirements in improving rates of case detection.

The absence of a research base to support mandatory reporting systems raises questions as to whether they should be recommended for all areas of family violence. The impact of mandatory reporting systems in the area of child maltreatment and elder abuse remains unexamined. The committee therefore suggests that it is important for the states to proceed cautiously at this time and to delay adopting a mandatory reporting system in the area of domestic violence, until the positive and negative impacts of such a system have been rigorously examined in states in which domestic violence reports are now required by law.

Recommendation 1: The committee recommends that states initiate evaluations of their current reporting laws addressing family violence to examine whether and how early case detection leads to improved outcomes for the victims or families and promote changes based on sound research. In

particular, the committee recommends that states refrain from enacting mandatory reporting laws for domestic violence until such systems have been tested and evaluated by research.

In dealing with family violence that involves adults, federal and state government agencies should reconsider the nature and role of compulsory reporting policies. In the committee's view, mandatory reporting systems have some disadvantages in cases involving domestic violence, especially if the victim objects to such reports, if comprehensive community protections and services are not available, and if the victim is able to gain access to therapeutic treatment or support services in the absence of a reporting system.

The dependent status of young children and some elders provides a stronger argument in favor of retaining mandatory reporting requirements where they do exist. However, the effectiveness of reporting requirements depends on the availability of resources and service personnel who can investigate reports and refer cases for appropriate treatment, as well as clear guidelines for processing reports and determining which cases qualify for services. Greater discretion may be advised when the child and family are able to receive therapeutic treatment from health care or other service providers and when community resources are not available to respond appropriately to their cases. The treatment of adolescents especially requires major consideration of the pros and cons of mandatory reporting requirements. Adolescent victims are still in a vulnerable stage of development: they may or may not have the capacity to make informed decisions regarding the extent to which they wish to invoke legal protections in dealing with incidents of family violence in their homes.

Batterer Treatment Programs

Four key questions characterize current policy and research discussions about the efficacy of batterer treatment, one of the most challenging problems in the design of family violence interventions: Is treatment preferable to incarceration, supervised probation, or other forms of court oversight for batterers? Does participation in treatment change offenders' attitudes and behavior and reduce recidivism? Does the effectiveness of treatment depend on its intensity, duration, or the voluntary or compulsory nature of the program? Is treatment what creates change, or is change in behavior reduced by multiple interventions, such as arrest, court monitoring of client participation in treatment services, and victim support services?

Descriptive research studies suggest that there are multiple profiles of batterers, and therefore one generic approach is not appropriate for all offenders. Treatment programs may be helpful in changing abusive behavior when they are part of an overall strategy designed to recognize and reduce violence in a relationship, when the batterer is prepared to learn how to control aggressive impulses, and

when the treatment plan emphasizes victim safety and provides for frequent interactions with treatment staff.

Research on the effectiveness of treatment programs suggests that the majority of subjects who complete court-ordered treatment programs do learn basic cognitive and behavioral principles taught in their course. However, such learning requires appropriate program content and client participation in the program for a sufficient time to complete the necessary training. Very few studies have examined matched groups of violent offenders who are assigned to treatment and control groups or comparison groups (such as incarceration or work-release). As a result, the comparative efficacy of treatment is unknown in reducing future violence. Differing client populations and differing forms of court oversight are particularly problematic factors that inhibit the design of rigorous evaluation studies in this field.

The absence of strong theory and common measures to guide the development of family violence treatment regimens, the heterogeneity of offenders (including patterns of offending and readiness to change) who are the subjects of protective orders or treatment, and low rates of attendance, completion, and enforcement are persistent problems that affect both the evaluation of the interventions and efforts to reduce the violence. A few studies suggest that court oversight does appear to increase completion rates, which have been linked to enhanced victim safety in the area of domestic violence, but increased completion rates have not yet led to a discernible effect on recidivism rates in general.

Further evaluations are needed to examine the outcomes associated with different approaches and programmatic themes (such as cognitive-behavioral principles: issues of power, control, and gender; personal accountability). Completion rates have been used as an interim outcome to measure the success of batterer treatment programs; further studies are needed to determine if completers can be identified readily, if program completion by itself is a critical factor in reducing recidivism, and if participation in a treatment program changes the nature, timing, and severity of future violent behavior.

The current research base is inadequate to identify the conditions under which mandated referrals to batterer treatment programs offer a clear advantage over incarceration or untreated probation supervision in reducing recidivism for the general population of male offenders. Court officials should monitor closely the attendance, participation, and completion rates of offenders who are referred to batterer treatment programs in lieu of more punitive sentences. Treatment staff should inform law enforcement officials of any significant behavior by the offender that might represent a threat to the victim. Mandated treatment referrals may be effective for certain types of batterers, especially if they increase completion rates. The research is inconclusive, however, as to which types of individuals should be referred for treatment rather than more punitive sanctions. In selecting individuals for treatment, attention should be given to client history

(first-time offenders are more likely to benefit), motivation for treatment, and likelihood of completion.

Mandated treatment referrals for batterers do appear to provide benefits to victims, such as intensive surveillance of offenders, an interlude to allow planning for safety and victim support, and greater community awareness of the batterer's behavior. These outcomes may interact to deter and reduce domestic violence in the community, even if a treatment program does not alter the behavior of a particular batterer. Treatment programs that include frequent interactions between staff and victims also provide a means by which staff can help educate victims about danger signals and support them in efforts to obtain greater protection and legal safeguards, if necessary.

Recommendation 2: In the absence of research that demonstrates that a specific model of treatment can reduce violent behavior for many domestic violence offenders, courts need to put in place early warning systems to detect failure to comply with or complete treatment and signs of new abuse or retaliation against victims, as well as to address unintended or inadvertent results that may arise from the referral to or experience with treatment.

Further research evaluation studies are needed to review the outcomes for both offenders and victims associated with program content and levels of intensity in different treatment models. This research will help indicate whether treatment really helps and what mix of services are more helpful than others. Improved research may also help distinguish those victims and offenders for whom particular treatments are most beneficial.

Record Keeping

Since experience with family violence appears to be associated with a wide range of health problems and social service needs, service providers are recognizing the importance of documenting abuse histories in their client case records. The documentation in health and social service records of abuse histories that are self-reported by victims and offenders can help service providers and researchers to determine if appropriate referrals and services have been made and the outcomes associated with their use. The exchange of case records among service providers is essential to the development of comprehensive treatment programs, continuity of care, and appropriate follow-up for individuals and families who appear in a variety of service settings. Such exchanges can help establish greater accountability by service systems for responding to the needs of identifiable victims and offenders; health and social service records can also provide appropriate evidence for legal actions, in both civil and criminal courts and child custody cases.

Research evaluations of service interventions often require the use of anonymous case records. The documentation of family violence in such records will

enhance efforts to improve the quality of evaluations and to understand more about patterns of behavior associated with violent behaviors and victimization experiences. Although documentation of abuse histories can improve evaluations and lead to integrated service responses, such procedures require safeguards so that individuals are not stigmatized or denied therapeutic services on the basis of their case histories. Insurance discrimination, in particular, which may preclude health care coverage if abuse is judged to be a preexisting condition, requires attention to ensure that professional services are not diminished as a result of voluntary disclosures. Creative strategies are needed to support integrated service system reviews of medical, legal, and social service case records in order to enhance the quality and accountability of service responses. Such reviews will need to meet the expectations of privacy and confidentiality of both individual victims and the community, especially in cases in which maltreatment reports are subsequently regarded as unfounded.

Documentation of abuse histories that are voluntarily disclosed by victims or offenders to health care professionals and social service providers must be distinguished from screening efforts designed to trigger such disclosures. The committee recommends screening as a strong candidate for future evaluation studies (see discussion in the next section).

Recommendation 3: The committee recommends that health and social service providers develop safeguards to strengthen their documentation of abuse and histories of family violence in both individual and group records, regardless of whether the abuse is reported to authorities.

The documentation of histories of family violence in health records should be designed to record voluntary disclosures by both victims and offenders and to enhance early and coordinated interventions that can provide a therapeutic response to experiences with abuse or neglect. Safeguards are required, however, to ensure that such documentation does not lead to stigmatization, encourage discriminatory practices, or violate assurances of privacy and confidentiality, especially when individual histories become part of patient group records for health care providers and employers.

Collaborative Law Enforcement Strategies

In the committee's view, collaborative law enforcement strategies that create a web of social control for offenders are an idea worth testing to determine if such efforts can achieve a significant deterrent effect in addressing domestic violence. Collaborative strategies include such efforts as victim support and offender tracking systems designed to increase the likelihood that domestic violence cases will be prosecuted when an arrest has been made, that sanctions and treatment services will be imposed when evidence exists to confirm the charges brought against the offender, and that penalties will be invoked for failure to comply with treatment

conditions. The attraction of collaborative strategies is based on their potential ability to establish multiple interactions with offenders across a large domain of interactions that reinforce social standards in the community and establish penalties for violations of those standards. Creating the deterrent effect, however, requires extensive coordination and reciprocity between victim support and offender monitoring efforts involving diverse sectors of the law enforcement community. These efforts may be difficult to implement and evaluate. Further studies are needed to determine the extent to which improved collaboration among police officers, prosecutors, and judges will lead to improved coordination and stronger sanctions for offenders and a reduction in domestic violence.

The absence of empirical research findings of the results of a collaborative law enforcement approach in addressing domestic violence makes it difficult to compare the costs and benefits of increased agency coordination with those achieved by a single law enforcement strategy (such as arrest) in dealing with different populations of offenders and victims. Even though relatively few cases of arrest are made for any form of family violence, arrest is the most common and most studied form of law enforcement intervention in this area. Research studies conducted in the 1980s on arrest policies in domestic violence cases are the strongest experimental evaluations to date of the role of deterrence in family violence interventions. These experiments indicate that arrest may be effective for some, but not most, batterers in reducing subsequent violence by the offender. Some research studies suggest that arrest may be a deterrent for employed and married individuals (those who have a stake in social conformity) and may lead to an escalation of violence among those who do not, but this observation has not been tested in studies that could specifically examine the impact of arrest in groups that differ in social and economic status. The differing effects (in terms of a reduction of future violence) of arrest for employed/unemployed and married/unmarried individuals raise difficult questions about the reliance of law enforcement officers on arrest as the sole or central component of their response to domestic violence incidents in communities where domestic violence cases are not routinely prosecuted, where sanctions are not imposed by the courts, or where victim support programs are not readily available.

The implementation of proarrest policies and practices that would discriminate according to the risk status of specific groups is challenged by requirements for equal protection under the law. Law enforcement officials cannot tailor arrest policies to the marital or employment status of the suspect or other characteristics that may interact with deterrence efforts. Specialized training efforts may help alleviate the tendency of police officers to arrest both suspect and victim, however, and may alert law enforcement personnel to the need to review both criminal and civil records in determining whether an arrest is advisable in response to a domestic violence case.

Two additional observations merit consideration in examining the deterrent effects of arrest. First, in the research studies conducted thus far, the implementation

of legal sanctions was minimal. Most offenders in the replication studies were not prosecuted once arrested, and limited legal sanctions were imposed on those cases that did receive a hearing. Some researchers concluded that stronger evidence of effectiveness might be obtained from proarrest policies if they are implemented as part of a law enforcement strategy that expands the use of punitive sanctions for offenders—including conviction, sentencing, and intensive supervised probation.

Second is the issue of reciprocity between formal sanctions against the offender and informal support actions for the victims of domestic violence. The effects of proarrest policies may depend on the extent to which victims have access to shelter services and other forms of support, demonstrating the interactive dimensions of community interventions. A mandatory arrest policy, by itself, may be an insufficient deterrent strategy for domestic violence, but its effectiveness may be enhanced by other interventions that represent coordinated law enforcement efforts to deter domestic violence—including the use of protective orders, victim advocates, and special prosecution units. Coordinated efforts may help reduce or prevent domestic violence if they represent a collaborative strategy among police, prosecutors, and judges that improves the certainty of the use of sanctions against batterers.

Recommendation 4: Collaborative strategies among caseworkers, police, prosecutors, and judges are recommended as law enforcement interventions that have the potential to improve the batterer's compliance with treatment as well as the certainty of the use of sanctions in addressing domestic violence.

The impact of single interventions (such as mandatory arrest policies) is difficult to discern in the research literature. Such practices by themselves can neither be recommended nor rejected as effective measures in addressing domestic violence on the basis of existing research studies.

Home Visitation and Family Support Services

Home visitation and family support programs constitute one of the most promising areas of child maltreatment prevention. Studies in this area have experimented with different levels of treatment intensity, duration, and staff expertise. For home visitation, the findings generally support the principle that early intervention with mothers who are at risk of child maltreatment makes a difference in child outcomes. Such interventions may be difficult to implement and maintain over time, however, and their effectiveness depends on the willingness of the parents to participate. Selection criteria for home visitation should be based on a combination of social setting and individual risk factors.

In their current form, home visitation programs have multiple goals, only one of which is the prevention of child abuse and neglect. Home visitation and family

support programs have traditionally been designed to improve parent-child relations with regard to family functioning, child health and safety, nutrition and hygiene, and parenting practices. American home visiting programs are derived from the British system, which relies on public health nurses and is offered on a universal basis to all parents with young children. Resource constraints, however, have produced a broad array of variations in this model; most programs in the United States are now directed toward at-risk families who have been reported to social services or health agencies because of prenatal health risks or risks for child maltreatment. Comprehensive programs provide a variety of services, including in-home parent education and prenatal and early infant health care, screening, referral to and, in some cases, transportation to social and health services. Positive effects include improved childrearing practices, increased social supports, utilization of community services, higher birthweights, and longer gestation periods.

Researchers have identified improvements in cognitive and parenting skills and knowledge as evidence of reduced risk for child maltreatment; they have also documented lower rates of reported child maltreatment and number of visits to emergency services for home-visited families. The benefits of home visitation appear most promising for young, first-time mothers who delay additional pregnancies and thus reduce the social and financial stresses that burden households with large numbers of young children. Other benefits include improved child care for infants and toddlers and an increase in knowledge about the availability of community services for older children. The intervention has not been demonstrated to have benefits for children whose parents abuse drugs or alcohol or those who are not prepared to engage in help-seeking behaviors. The extent to which home visitation benefits families with older children, or families who are already involved in abusive or neglectful behaviors, remains uncertain.

Recommendation 5: As part of a comprehensive prevention strategy for child maltreatment, the committee recommends that home visitation programs should be particularly encouraged for first-time parents living in social settings with high rates of child maltreatment reports.

The positive impact of well-designed home visitation interventions has been demonstrated in several evaluation studies that focus on the role of mothers in child health, development, and discipline. The committee recommends their use in a strategy designed to prevent child maltreatment. Home visitation programs do require additional evaluation research, however, to determine the factors that may influence their effectiveness. Such factors include (1) the conditions under which home visitation should be provided as part of a continuum of family support programs, (2) the types of parenting behaviors that are most and least amenable to change as a result of home visitation, (3) the duration and intensity of services (including amounts and types of training for home visitors) that are necessary to achieve positive outcomes for high-risk families, (4) the experience

of fathers in general and of families in diverse ethnic communities in particular with home visitation interventions, and (5) the need for follow-up services once the period of home visitation has ended.

Intensive Family Preservation Services

Intensive family preservation services represent crisis-oriented, short-term, intensive case management and family support programs that have been introduced in various communities to improve family functioning and to prevent the removal of children from the home. The overall goal of the intervention is to provide flexible forms of family support to assist with the resolution of circumstances that stimulated the child placement proposal, thus keeping the family intact and reducing foster care placements.

Eight of ten evaluation studies of selected intensive family preservation service programs (including five randomized trials and five quasi-experimental studies) suggest that, although these services may delay child placement for families in the short term, they do not show an ability to resolve the underlying family dysfunction that precipitated the crisis or to improve child well-being or family functioning in most families. However, the evaluations have shortcomings, such as poorly defined assessment of child placement risk, inadequate descriptions of the interventions provided, and nonblinded determination of the assignment of clients to treatment and control groups.

Intensive family preservation services may provide important benefits to the child, family, and community in the form of emergency assistance, improved family functioning, better housing and environmental conditions, and increased collaboration among discrete service systems. Intensive family preservation services may also result in child endangerment, however, when a child remains in a family environment that threatens the health or physical safety of the child or other family members.

Recommendation 6: Intensive family preservation services represent an important part of the continuum of family support services, but they should not be required in every situation in which a child is recommended for out-of-home placement.

Measures of health, safety, and well-being should be included in evaluations of intensive family preservation services to determine their impact on children's outcomes as well as placement rates and levels of family functioning, including evidence of recurrence of abuse of the child or other family members. There is a need for enhanced screening instruments that can identify the families who are most likely to benefit from intensive short-term services focused on the resolution of crises that affect family stability and functioning.

The value of appropriate post-reunification (or placement) services to the child and family to enhance coping and the ability to make a successful transition

toward long-term adjustment also remains uncertain. The impact of post-reunification or post-placement services needs to be considered in terms of their relative effects on child and family functioning compared with the use of intensive family preservation services prior to child removal. In some situations, one or the other type of services might be recommended; in other cases, they might be used in some combination to achieve positive outcomes.

Recommendations For The Next Generation Of Evaluations

Determining which interventions should be selected for rigorous and in-depth evaluations in the future will acquire increased importance as the array of family violence interventions expands in social services, law, and health care settings. For this reason, clear criteria and guiding principles are necessary to guide sponsoring agencies in their efforts to determine which types of interventions are suitable for evaluation research. Recognizing that all promising interventions cannot be evaluated, public and private agencies need to consider how to invest research resources in areas that show programmatic potential as well as an adequate research foundation. Future allocations of research investments may require agencies to reorganize or to develop new programmatic and research units that can inform the process of selecting interventions for future evaluation efforts, determine the scope of adequate funding levels, and identify areas in which program integration or diversity may contribute to a knowledge base that can inform policy, practice, and research. Such agencies may also consider how to sustain an ongoing dialogue among research sponsors, research scientists, and service providers to inform these selection efforts and to disseminate evaluation results once they are available.

In the interim, the committee offers several guiding principles to help inform the evaluation selection process.

• meet the preconditions for experimentation that are described in the other principles outlined below.

With these principles in mind, the committee has identified a set of interventions that are the focus of current policy attention and service innovation efforts but have not received significant attention from research. In the committee's judgment, each of these nine interventions has reached a level of maturation and preliminary description in the research literature to justify their selection as strong candidates for future evaluation studies.

Training for Service Providers and Law Enforcement Officials

Training in basic educational programs and continuing education on all aspects

of family violence has expanded for professionals in the health care, legal, and social service systems. Such efforts can be expected to enhance skills in identifying individual experiences with family violence, but improvements in training may improve other outcomes as well, including the patterns and timing of service interventions, the nature of interactions with victims of family violence, linkage of service referrals, the quality of investigation and documentation for reported cases, and, ultimately, improved health and safety outcomes for victims and communities.

Training programs alone may be insufficient to change professional behavior and service interventions unless they are accompanied by financial and human resources that emphasize the role of psychosocial issues and support the delivery of appropriate treatment, prevention, and referral services in different institutional and community settings. Evaluations of their effectiveness therefore need to consider the institutional culture and resource base that influence the implementation of the training program and the abilities of service providers to apply their knowledge and skills in meeting the needs of their clients.

Evaluation research is needed to assess the impact of training programs on counseling and referral practices and service delivery in health care, social service, and law enforcement settings. This research should include examination of the effects of training on the health and mental health status of those who receive services, including short- and long-term outcomes such as empowerment, freedom from violence, recovery from trauma, and rebuilding of life. Evaluations should also examine the role of training programs as catalysts for innovative and collaborative services. They should consider the extent to which training programs influence the behavior of agency personnel, including the interaction of service providers with professionals from other institutional settings, their participation in comprehensive community service programs, and the exposure of personal experiences in institutions charged with providing interventions for abuse.

Universal Screening in Health Care Settings

The significant role of health care and social service professionals in screening for victimization by all forms of family violence deserves critical analysis and rigorous evaluation. Early detection of child maltreatment, spousal violence, and elder abuse is believed to lead to an infusion of treatment and preventive services that can reduce exposure to harm, mitigate the negative consequences of abuse and neglect, improve health outcomes, and reduce the need for future health services. Screening programs can also enhance primary prevention efforts by providing information, education, and awareness of resources in the community. The benefits associated with early detection need to be balanced against risks presented by false positives and false negatives associated with large-scale screening efforts and programs characterized by inadequate staff training and responses.

Such efforts also need to consider whether appropriate treatment, protection, and support services are available for victims or offenders once they have been detected.

The use of enhanced screening instruments also requires attention to the need for services that can respond effectively to the large caseloads generated by expanded detection activities. The child protective services literature suggests that increased reporting can diminish the capacity of agencies to respond effectively if additional resources are not available to support enhanced services as well as screening.

The use of screening instruments in health care and social service settings for batterer identification and treatment is more problematic, given the lack of knowledge about factors that enhance or discourage their violent behavior. Screening only victims may be insufficient to provide a full picture of family violence; however, screening batterers may increase the danger for their victims, especially if batterer treatment interventions are not available or are not reliable in providing effective treatment and if support services are not available for victims once a perpetrator is identified. Screening adults for histories of childhood abuse, which may help prevent future victimization of the patient or others, may also be problematic without adequate training or mental health services to deal with the possible resurgence of trauma.

Evaluation studies of family violence screening efforts could build on the lessons derived from screening research in other health care areas (such as HIV detection, lead exposure, sickle cell, and others). This research could provide data that would support or contradict the theory that early identification is a useful secondary prevention intervention, especially in areas in which appropriate services may not be available or reliable. The cost issues associated with universal screening need to be considered in terms of their implications for savings in possible cost reductions from consequent conditions (such as the health consequences of HIV infection, sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancy, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and the exacerbation of other medical conditions) that may occur in other health care areas. Finally, the risks associated with screening (such as the establishment of a preexisting condition that may influence insurance eligibility) require consideration; such issues are already being addressed by some advocacy groups, insurance corporations, and regulatory bodies in the health care area.

Mental Health and Counseling Services

Little is known at present regarding the comparative effectiveness of different forms of therapeutic services for victims of family violence. Findings from recent studies of child physical and sexual abuse suggest that certain approaches (specifically cognitive-behavioral programs) are associated with more positive outcomes for parents, such as reducing aggressive/coercive behavior, compared

with family therapy and routine community mental health services. No treatment outcome studies have been conducted in the area of child neglect. Interventions in this field generally draw on approaches for dealing with other childhood and adolescent problems with similar symptom profiles.

For domestic violence, research evaluations are in the early stages of design and empirical data are not yet available to guide analyses of the effectiveness of different approaches. Major challenges include the absence of agreement regarding key psychosocial outcomes of interest in assessing the effectiveness of interventions, variations in the use of treatment protocols designed for post-traumatic stress for individuals who may still be experiencing traumatic situations, tensions between protocol-driven models of treatment (which are easier to evaluate) and those that are driven by the needs of the client or the context in which the violence occurred, the co-occurrence of trauma and other problems (such as prior victimization, depression, substance abuse, and anxiety disorders) that may have preceded the violence but require mental health services, and the difficulty of involving victims in follow-up studies after the completion of treatment. Variations in the context in which mental health services are provided for victims of domestic violence (such as isolated services, managed care programs, and services that are incorporated into an array of social support programs, including housing and job counseling) also require attention. Topics of special interest include contextual issues, such as the general lack of access to quality mental health services for women without sufficient independent income, and the danger of psychiatric diagnoses being used against battered women in child custody cases.

Collaborative efforts are needed to provide opportunities for the exchange of methodology, research measures, and designs to foster the development of controlled studies that can compare the results of innovative treatment approaches with routine counseling programs in community services.

Comprehensive Community Initiatives

Evaluations of batterer treatment programs, protective orders, and arrest policies suggest that the role of these individual interventions may be enhanced if they are part of a broad-based strategy to address family violence. The development of comprehensive, community-based interventions has become extremely widespread in the 1990s; examples include domestic violence coordinating councils, child advocacy centers, and elder abuse task forces. A few communities (most notably Duluth, Minnesota, and Quincy, Massachusetts) have developed systemwide strategies to coordinate their law enforcement and other service responses to domestic violence.

Comprehensive community-based interventions must confront difficult challenges, both in the design and implementation of such services, and in the selection of appropriate measures to assess their effectiveness. Many evaluations of comprehensive community-based interventions have focused primarily on the

design and implementation process, to determine whether an individual program had incorporated sufficient range and diversity among formal and informal networks so that it can achieve a significant impact in the community. This type of process evaluation does not necessarily require new methods of assessment or analysis, although it can benefit from recent developments in the evaluation literature, such as the empowerment evaluations discussed in Chapter 3 .

In contrast, the evaluation challenges that emerge from large-scale community-based efforts are formidable. First, it may be difficult to determine when an intervention has reached an appropriate stage of implementation to warrant a rigorous assessment of its effects. Second, the implementation of a community-wide intervention may be accompanied by a widespread social movement against family violence, so that it becomes difficult to distinguish the effects of the intervention itself from the impact of changing cultural and social norms that influence behavior. In some cases, the effects attributed to the intervention may appear weak, because they are overwhelmed by the impact of the social movement itself. Third, the selection of an appropriate comparison or control group for community-wide interventions presents formidable problems in terms of matching social and structural characteristics and compensating for community-to-community variation in record keeping.

These challenges require close attention to the emerging knowledge associated with the evaluation of comprehensive community-wide interventions in areas unrelated to family violence, so that important design, theory, and measurement insights can be applied to the special needs of programs focused on child maltreatment, domestic violence, and elder abuse. Although no single model of service integration, comprehensive services, or community change can be endorsed at this time, a range of interesting community service designs has emerged that have achieved widespread popularity and support at the local level. Because their primary focus is often on prevention, rather than treatment, comprehensive community interventions have the potential to achieve change across multiple levels of interactions affecting individuals, families, communities, and social norms and thus reduce the scope and severity of family violence as well as contribute to remedies to other important social problems.

A growing research literature has appeared in other fields, particularly in the area of substance abuse and community development, that identifies the conceptual frameworks, data collection, and methodological issues that need to be considered in designing evaluation studies for community-based and systemwide interventions. As an example, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention in the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has funded a series of studies designed to improve methodologies for the evaluation of community-based substance abuse prevention programs that offer important building blocks for the field of family violence interventions.

Developing effective evaluation strategies for comprehensive and systemwide programs is one of the most challenging issues for the research community

in this field. No evaluations have been conducted to date to examine the relative advantages of comprehensive and systemwide community initiatives compared with traditional services. Evaluations need to consider the mix of components in comprehensive interventions that determine their effectiveness and successful implementation; the comparative strengths and limitations of inter- and intra-agency interventions; community factors, such as political leadership, historical tensions, diversity of ethnic/cultural composition, and resource allocation strategies; and the impact of comprehensive interventions on the capacity of service agencies to provide traditional care and effective responses to reports of family violence.

Shelter Programs and Other Domestic Violence Services

Over time, most battered women's shelters have expanded their services to encompass far more than the provision of refuge. Today, many shelters have support groups for women residents, support groups for child residents, emergency and transitional housing, and legal and welfare advocacy. Nonresidential services also have expanded, so that any battered woman in the community is able to attend a support group or request advocacy services. Many agencies now offer educational groups for men who batter, as well as programs dealing with dating violence. Some communities have never opened a shelter yet are able to offer support groups, advocacy, crisis intervention, and safe homes (neighbors sheltering a neighbor, for example) to help battered women and their families in times of crisis. In addition to providing services for victims, the battered women service organizations also define their goal as transforming the conditions and norms that support violence against women. Thus these organizations work as agents of social change in their communities to improve the community-wide response to battered women and their children.

Shelter services and battered women's support organizations are ready for evaluations that can identify program outcomes and compare the effectiveness of different service interventions. Research studies are also needed that can describe the multiple goals and theories that shape the program objectives of these interventions, provide detailed histories of the ways in which different service systems have been implemented, and examine the characteristics of the women who do or do not use or benefit from them.

Protective Orders

Protective orders can be an important part of the prevention strategy for domestic violence and help document the record of assaults and threatening actions. The low priority traditionally assigned to the handling of protective orders, which are usually treated as civil matters in police agencies, requires attention, as do the procedural requirements of the legal system. Courts have

accepted alternative forms of due process, including public notice, notice by mail, and other forms of notification that do not require personal contact. Efforts are needed now to compare the effectiveness of short-term (30-day) restraining orders with a longer (1-year) protective order in reducing violent behavior by offenders and securing access to legal and support services for the complainants.

In-depth case studies and interviews with victims who have had police and court contacts because of domestic violence are needed to highlight individual, social, and institutional factors that facilitate or inhibit victim use of and perpetrator compliance with protective orders in different community settings. Such studies could (1) reveal patterns of help-seeking contacts and services that affect the use of protective orders and compliance with their requirements, (2) highlight the forms of sanctions that are appropriate to ensure compliance and to deter future violent behavior, (3) explore the extent to which the effects of protective orders are enhanced in reducing violence if victim advocates, shelter services, or other social support resources are available and are used by the victim in redefining the terms of her relationship with her partner, and (4) examine the extent to which protective orders can mitigate the consequences of violence for children who may have been assaulted or who may have witnessed an assault against their mother.

Child Fatality Review Panels

The emergence of child fatality review teams in 21 states since 1978 represents an innovative effort in many communities to address systemwide implications of severe violence against children and infants. Child fatality review teams involve a multiagency effort to compile and integrate information about child deaths and to review and evaluate the record of caseworkers and agencies in providing services to these children when a report of abuse or neglect had been made prior to a child's death. These review teams can provide an opportunity to examine the quality of a community's total approach to child abuse and neglect prevention and treatment.

The experience of child fatality review teams in identifying systemic features that enhance or weaken agency efforts to protect children needs to be evaluated and made accessible to individual service providers in health, legal, and social service agencies. Key research issues include: the effect of review team actions on the protection of family members of children who have died as a result of child maltreatment; the impact of child fatality review reports on the prosecution of offenders; the influence of review team efforts on the routine investigation, treatment, and prevention activities of participating agencies; the impact of review teams on other community child protection and domestic violence prevention efforts; and the identification of early warning signals that emerge in child homicide investigations that represent opportunities for preventive interventions.

Child Witness to Violence Programs

Child witness programs represent an important development in the evolution of comprehensive approaches to family violence, but they have not yet been evaluated. Evaluation studies of these programs should examine the experience with symptomatology among children who witness family violence, to determine whether and for whom early intervention influences the course of development of social and mental health consequences, such as depression, anxiety, emotional detachment, aggression and violence, and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Such studies could also compare variations in the developmental histories of children who witness violence with those of children who are injured or otherwise are directly victimized by their parents or who witness violence in their communities. Evaluation studies should consider the recommended forms of treatment for these children, the standards of eligibility that determine their placement in treatment programs, and the impact of institutional setting (hospital, shelter, or social service agency) and reimbursement plans on the quality of the treatment.

Elder Abuse Services

Only seven program evaluation studies have been published on elder abuse interventions, none of which includes random groups and most of which involve small sample sizes. Three major issues challenge effective interventions in this area: the degree of dependence between perpetrators and victims, restricted social services budgets, general public distrust of social welfare programs, and the relationship between judgments about competence and the application of the principles of self-determination and privacy to the problem of elder abuse.

Evaluation studies should consider the different types and multiple dimensions of elder abuse in the development of effective interventions. The benefits of specific programs need to be compared with integrated service systems that are designed to foster the well-being of the elderly population without regard to special circumstances. Evaluation research should be integrated into community service programs and agency efforts on behalf of elderly persons to foster studies that involve the use of comparison and control groups, common measures, and the assessment of outcomes associated with different forms of service interventions.

Topics For Basic Research

The committee identified four basic research topics that require further development to inform policy and practice. These topics raise fundamental questions about the approaches that should be used in designing treatment, prevention, and enforcement strategies. As such, they highlight important dimensions of family violence that should be addressed in a research agenda for the field.

birth, infancy, and adolescence. Other issues linked to family formation include the use of corporal punishment in child discipline, gender roles, privacy, and strategies for resolving conflict among adults or siblings.

A third approach would be studies to discern the protective factors inside and outside families that enable some children who are exposed to violence to not only survive but also to develop coping mechanisms that serve them well later in life. This analysis would have widespread implications for assessing the impact of biological and experiential factors in specific domains, such as fear, anxiety, self-blame, identity formation, helplessness, and help-seeking behaviors. Such research could also identify abuse-related coping strategies (such as excessive distrust of or overdependence on others) that may contribute to other problems that emerge in the course of adolescent and adult development.

first-time parents, victims and offenders who have substance abuse histories, etc.)

Forging Partnerships Between Research And Practice

Although it is premature to expect research to offer definitive answers about the relative effectiveness of the array of current service and enforcement strategies, the committee sees valuable opportunities that now exist to accelerate the rate by which service providers can identify the types of individuals, families, and communities that may benefit from certain types or combinations of service and enforcement interventions. Major challenges must be addressed, however, to improve the overall quality of the evaluations of family violence interventions and to provide a research base that can inform policy and practice. These challenges include issues of study design and methodology as well as logistical concerns that must be resolved in order to conduct research in open service systems where the research investigator is not able to control factors that may weaken the study design and influence its outcome. The resolution of these challenges will require collaborative partnerships between researchers, service providers, and policy makers to generate common approaches and data sources.

The integration of research and practice in the field of family violence, as in many other areas of human services, has occurred on a haphazard basis. As a result, program sponsors, service providers, clients, victims, researchers, and community representatives have not been able to learn in a systematic manner from the diverse experiences of both large and small programs. Mayors, judges, police officers, caseworkers, child and victim advocates, health professionals, and others must make life-or-death decisions each day in the face of tremendous

uncertainty, often relying on conflicting reports, anecdotal data, and inconsistent information in judging the effectiveness of specific interventions.

The development of creative partnerships between the research and practice communities would greatly improve the targeting of limited resources to specific clients who can benefit most from a particular type of intervention. Yet significant barriers inhibit the development of such partnerships, including disagreements about the nature and origins of family violence, broad variations in the conceptual frameworks that guide service delivery, differences over the relative merits of service and research, a lack of faith in the ability of research to inform and improve services, a lack of trust in the ability of service providers to inform the design of research experiments and the formation of theoretical frameworks, and concerns about fairness and safety in including victims and offenders in experimental treatment groups. These fundamental differences obscure identification of outcomes of interest in the development of evaluation studies, which are further complicated by limitations in study design and access to appropriate subjects that are necessary for the conduct of research.

Even if greater levels of trust fostered more interaction between the research community and service providers, collaborative efforts would be challenged by factors such as the lack of funding for empirical studies, the availability of limited resources to support studies over appropriate time frames, and the social and economic characteristics of some of the populations served by family violence interventions that make them difficult to follow over extended periods of time (chaotic households, high mobility of the client population, concerns for safety, lack of telephones and permanent residences, etc.).

Service providers and program sponsors have often been skeptical of efforts to evaluate the impact of a selected intervention, knowing that critical or premature assessments could jeopardize the program's future and restrict future opportunities for service delivery. Service providers have also been less than enthusiastic in seeking program evaluations, knowing that the programs to be evaluated have been underfunded and are understaffed and present a less than ideal situation; in their view, the assessment may diminish future resources and affect the development of a particular strategy or programmatic approach. The tremendous demand for services and the limited availability of staff resources create a pressured environment in which the staff time involved in filling out forms for research purposes is seen as being sacrificed from time that might be used to serve people in need. In some cases, research funds support demonstration programs that are highly valued by a community, yet few resources are available to support them once the research phase has been completed.

Researchers and service providers need to resolve the programmatic tensions that have sometimes surfaced in contentious debates over the type of services that should be put into place in addressing problems of family violence. The mistrust and skepticism present major challenges that need to resolved before the technical challenges to effective evaluations can be addressed. A reformulation of the

research process is needed so that, while building a long-term capacity to focus on complex issues and conduct rigorous studies, researchers can also provide useful information to service providers.

The committee has identified three major principles to help integrate research and practice in the field of family violence interventions:

• Evaluation should be an integral part of any major intervention, particularly those that are designed to be replicated in multiple communities. Interventions have often been put into place without a research base to support them or rigorous evaluation efforts to guide their development. Evaluation research based on theoretical models is needed to link program goals and operational objectives with multiple program components and outcomes. Intensive marketing and praise for a particular intervention or program should no longer be a substitute for empirical data in determining the effectiveness of programs that are intended to be replicated in multiple sites.
• Coordinating policy, program, and research agendas will improve family violence interventions. Evaluation research will help program sponsors and managers clarify program goals and experience and identify areas in need of attention because of the difficulties of implementation, the use of resources, and changes in the client base. Research and data-based analysis can guide ongoing program and policy efforts if evaluation studies are integrated into the design and development of interventions. The knowledge base can be improved by (1) framing key hypotheses that can be tested by existing or new services, (2) building statistical models to explore the system-wide effects of selected interventions and compare these effects with the consequences of collaborative and comprehensive approaches, (3) using common definitions and measures to facilitate comparisons across individual studies, (4) using appropriate comparison and control groups in evaluation studies, including random assignment, when possible, (5) developing culturally sensitive research designs and measures, (6) identifying relevant outcomes in the assessment of selected interventions, and (7) developing alternative designs when traditional design methodology cannot be used for legal, ethical, or practical reasons.
• Surmounting existing barriers to collaboration between research and practice communities requires policy incentives and leadership to foster partnership efforts. Many interventions are not evaluated because of limited funds, because the individuals involved in service delivery consider research to be peripheral to the needs of their clients, because the researchers are disinterested in studying the complexity of service delivery systems and the impact of violence in clients' lives, or because research methods are not yet available to assess outcomes that result from the complex interaction of multiple systems. This situation will continue until program sponsors and policy officials exercise leadership to build partnerships between the research and practice communities and to provide funds for rigorous evaluations in the development of service and law enforcement
• interventions. Additional steps are required to foster a more constructive dialogue and partnership between the research and practice communities.

Partnership efforts are also needed to focus research attention on the particular implementation of an individual program rather than the strategy behind the program design. Promising intervention strategies may be discarded prematurely because of special circumstances that obstructed full implementation of the program. Conversely, programs that offer only limited effectiveness may appear to be successful on the basis of evaluation studies that did not consider the significant points of vulnerability and limitations in the service design or offer a comparative analysis with the benefits to be derived from routine services.

The establishment and documentation of a series of consensus conferences on relevant outcomes, and appropriate measurement tools, will strengthen and enhance evaluations of family violence interventions and lead to improvements in the design of programs, interventions, and strategies. May opportunities currently exist for research to inform the design and assessment of treatment and prevention interventions. In addition, service providers can help guide researchers in the identification of appropriate domains in which program effects may occur but are currently not being examined. Ongoing dialogues can guide the identification and development of instruments and methods that can capture the density and distribution of relevant effects that are not well understood. The organization of a series of consensus conferences by sponsors in public and private agencies that are concerned with the future quality of family violence interventions would be an important contribution to the development of this field.

Reports of mistreated children, domestic violence, and abuse of elderly persons continue to strain the capacity of police, courts, social services agencies, and medical centers. At the same time, myriad treatment and prevention programs are providing services to victims and offenders. Although limited research knowledge exists regarding the effectiveness of these programs, such information is often scattered, inaccessible, and difficult to obtain.

Violence in Families takes the first hard look at the successes and failures of family violence interventions. It offers recommendations to guide services, programs, policy, and research on victim support and assistance, treatments and penalties for offenders, and law enforcement. Included is an analysis of more than 100 evaluation studies on the outcomes of different kinds of programs and services.

Violence in Families provides the most comprehensive review on the topic to date. It explores the scope and complexity of family violence, including identification of the multiple types of victims and offenders, who require different approaches to intervention. The book outlines new strategies that offer promising approaches for service providers and researchers and for improving the evaluation of prevention and treatment services. Violence in Families discusses issues that underlie all types of family violence, such as the tension between family support and the protection of children, risk factors that contribute to violent behavior in families, and the balance between family privacy and community interventions.

The core of the book is a research-based review of interventions used in three institutional sectors—social services, health, and law enforcement settings—and how to measure their effectiveness in combating maltreatment of children, domestic violence, and abuse of the elderly. Among the questions explored by the committee: Does the child protective services system work? Does the threat of arrest deter batterers? The volume discusses the strength of the evidence and highlights emerging links among interventions in different institutional settings.

Thorough, readable, and well organized, Violence in Families synthesizes what is known and outlines what needs to be discovered. This volume will be of great interest to policymakers, social services providers, health care professionals, police and court officials, victim advocates, researchers, and concerned individuals.

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My Story of Domestic Violence Got Redacted, So I Wore It Instead

After parts of comedian and screenwriter Chelsea Devantez’s memoir, I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This, were blacked out, making a dress out of her old journal entries allowed her to speak.

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When I fell in love for the first time, I was sure we’d be together forever, but forever turned sour in just a few short months. I’d heard that my boyfriend cheated on me, so I angrily confronted him in a park. ​​He looked off to the side and started shuffling backwards, as he weakly offered: Are you just gonna believe everything people tell you? The breakup happened fast. My heartache felt dramatically poetic, but it was actually quite cumbersome: I had to set my backpack down and wiggle my trembling arms free of his denim jacket one by one and hand it over. Then I had to reach behind my neck, pull at the leather knot of his shark tooth necklace, and struggle to loosen it until finally I could pull it over my head and toss it at him. With that, I had turned in all my girlfriend accoutrements.

A few days later he began begging for me back, doing wildly romantic gestures and apologizing in long monologues and handwritten letters. I happily fell back into his arms. Then something terrible would happen in the relationship and we’d break up again. His romantic gestures turned into menacing threats, and this break-up-and-get-back-together cycle continued until eventually he did three drive-by shootings of my house.

Anytime I used to tell someone this story, horror would flash across their face, and I would quickly follow it up with, “Don’t worry, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds.”

When we picture domestic violence, we often conjure a muted color palette, shadows looming in the corners, as brutal images tumble about to a vicious soundtrack. But that’s not what it like felt to live it. Abuse occurs in the mundane: It happens as you’re grabbing Skittles from 7-Eleven, and when he’s telling you how beautiful you look that day. Abuse sometimes feels like just another moment when you can’t believe what a shithead your boyfriend is, because your brain learned to ignore the red flags way back when you were even entering into the relationship. During the worst of it, I was not a shattered woman hiding in a closet; I was still wondering if my butt looked okay in my jeans or if I had left my flat iron on.

I told the story of my relationship and those shootings in my upcoming memoir, I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This , which is out on June 4. But when I turned in the manuscript, I was told to delete the story of domestic violence. They said something like, “It’s too dangerous to share.” I was enraged at the decision and I couldn’t get out of bed for days. I called in sick to work as I wrestled with the concept of deleting the entire story I’d worked my whole life to have the stamina to share.

I Shouldn't Be Telling You This: (But I'm Going to Anyway)

I am not someone you would ever expect to have been a victim of domestic violence. I’m a comedian and TV writer for a living, I love a bold lip, and sadly, I used to quote Lean In back when I made other terrible decisions, like wearing peplum tops and Santa-sized belts out to the club. You would never expect me to have been in a violent relationship, but that’s because you never expect anyone you know to be a victim of domestic violence. But statistically, it’s one in four—it’s happening to the woman next to you at the grocery store, or it could be your best friend, your mom, your sister, your girlbossing annoying manager. No one looks or acts like your typical domestic violence victim, because our stories have lived in the shadows, so much so that most people don’t know what to look for, including the ones going through it.

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We relegate these stories to thrillers and Lifetime movies and murder podcasts. But the more intimate partner violence stories are kept in the dark and deleted from books, the harder it is to have examples in culture of how to say something, fight back, or survive. I had wanted to tell the story of my relationship in a way that could help someone inside one recognize themselves. I even wanted to make it funny, just to be able to tell one of these stories in a genre it’s not usually allowed into. (Now, you are probably wondering how in the hell I planned to make my story funny, but what if I told you that he and his friends called themselves “The Big Dawgs” and would bark in harmony along to 2Pac songs. I mean, c’mon, that’s at least kind of funny.)

So I refused to delete it. Instead, I redacted just enough words so that technically they couldn’t tell me no. Instead of telling my story, I used the black bars in my book to tell a new one, perhaps a more important one: the story of how our systems are set up to silence victims in the name of protection. And now, my comedy gal memoir is more blacked out than a bachelor party.

Before turning in my final draft, I fact checked everything in the book with the dozens of journals I had kept when I was younger. When I began to read through them, I found that a younger me had written pages and pages of details that would put Brett Kavanaugh’s so-called calendars to shame. As my fingers paged through each diary, I realized that despite thinking that “maybe it wasn’t that bad,” it was, in fact, far worse than I had ever remembered. That’s when I decided to do what any traumatized debut author slash comedian might: I scanned 900 pages of my journals via an app on my phone and sent them to the designer Diego Montoya to make into a dress for me to wear on my book tour.

They might tell me that I can’t tell my story, but it doesn’t matter, because I already did, years ago in the pages of my journals that now rest on my skirt.

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Violence against women and girls is one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world, affecting one in three women. Addressing and eradicating it requires more than just reacting to violence when it happens; it mandates proactive and innovative solutions.

A key to these solutions lies in investing in and empowering women’s rights organizations. They possess the knowledge, tools, and determination to reshape societies to be safer, more inclusive, and just.

Recognizing this potential, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund), a global inter-agency grantmaking mechanism managed by UN Women on behalf of the UN system, distilled lessons from its archive  and worked with 70 civil society organizations worldwide and to identify Ten pathways to prevent violence against women and girls :

Empowering women to break the silence on violence  

Mobilizing women to become change agents emerged as vital to address violence. When projects mobilize women as community facilitators and create safe spaces, they can better reach particularly marginalized communities and make prevention initiatives more effective.

In Nepal, The Story Kitchen held “storytelling workshops”, where community facilitators who were survivors of the country’s civil war interviewed other women about their experiences of violence, offering them a chance to own their personal narratives to break the cycle of intergenerational violence. The Story Kitchen conceived of such spaces, not only as “safe spaces”, but also as “brave spaces”.

Community mobilization

Grassroots organizations are pivotal in mobilizing communities and building trust, which is critical to avoid backlash against or distancing from prevention programmes.

• Raising Voices has pioneered the SASA! approach, which combines identifying power imbalances within communities, a phased roll-out of initiatives, reaching community members at different levels including police and health care workers, and reinforcing the positive benefits of non-violence.
• In Nicaragua, MADRE , in partnership with Wangki Tangni, mobilized communities to create action plans whereby communities collectively identified key issues and priority actions for addressing violence against women.

Considering women’s diverse realities

Adopting an intersectional perspective when addressing gender-based violence is essential. Understanding how different women’s realities overlap and influence their experiences of violence allows for more effective strategies and prevents overlooking vulnerabilities.

• HelpAge Moldova found that gender-based violence services were unaware of violence experienced by older women in their homes and addressed this gap through its programme.
• In Colombia, Fundación Mundubat empowered Afro-Colombian and Indigenous women in rural and poverty-stricken areas by focusing on prevention and care to challenge community systems of patriarchy, racism, and classism.

Transformative learning

Effective prevention requires training for behaviour change. Tools like manuals, apps, and websites are vital to reinforce best practices and strengthen institutional knowledge.

• Physicians for Human Rights trained clinicians, police, and legal experts on documenting sexual violence forensically. They also introduced a medical glossary to enhance understanding of sexual violence crimes.
• Breakthrough Trust in India draws heavily from multimedia and social media in interventions. The initiative’s youth activists received training on core gender and human rights concepts, as well as on executing digital campaigns.

Engaging religious and community leaders

Faith-based and traditional figures play a pivotal role in violence prevention, acting as cultural gatekeepers and shaping social norms, either supporting or hindering initiatives.

• In Togo, many women and girls are forced to engage in harmful traditional widow cleansing practices for fear of reprisals. Alafia , an NGO working to end this harmful practice, found local communities were more receptive to changing their practices when human rights laws were put in the context of their traditional beliefs.

Navigating inaction and backlash

Organizations tackling violence against women frequently face resistance, including legal gaps, denial of gender-based violence, and inaction. More aggressive, or active, forms of pushback occur when certain groups try to obstruct changes, or when vulnerable groups face discrimination and violence from those in power.

• Serbia’s Association Roma Novi Bečej found that despite Roma leaders showing an increased awareness of early and forced marriage, their support was nominal and did not result in changing practices. The organization focused on boosting public awareness of the issue to garner broad support for policy improvements.
• In Turkey, the AÇEV Mother Child Education Foundation ’s partnership with a state ministry crumbled, severely disrupting its program. This challenge spurred a shift to a grassroots model by engaging with local communities and partners.

Adaptive programming

Women’s rights organizations often face unstable conditions, complex partnerships, and shifting sociopolitical landscapes. Knowledge gathering, flexible funding, and adaptive approaches are crucial to address changing circumstances.

• The Institute for Young Women’s Development in Zimbabwe holds monthly meetings with an activist committee to review, adjust and evaluate its strategy to guarantee programme success.
• The Women’s Justice Initiative in Guatemala met local leader resistance but adapted its programme by holding more explanatory meetings and boosting leader participation.

Empowering youth

Adolescence, especially for girls, is a critical stage for early interventions to prevent violence. Many projects chose to empower young people as agents of change to enhance the outcome of prevention interventions.

• Plan International Viet Nam applied a whole-school approach to empower adolescents to form peer support groups and raise awareness for violence prevention.
• In Nepal, Restless Development empowered adolescent girls and civil society organizations to campaign against chhaupadi, a practice that prohibits young girls and women from participating in normal activities while menstruating. They rallied national leaders and media to secure the government’s focus to enforce a 2008 directive against the harmful practice.

Survivor-centered responses

Gender-based violence prevention initiatives must center on survivors, involve them in the design process, and prioritize their needs.

• World Hope International in Cambodia enhances service providers and multisectoral systems aiding victims.
• Al Shehab in Egypt provides direct survivor-centred support to survivors, including medical, legal, and psychological services.

Institutionalizing prevention

To effectively implement gender-based violence prevention laws and policies the police and government ministries need proper training and mindset shifts. Civil society organizations can play a key role in fostering these changes and connecting communities with formal mechanisms.

• In Palestine, the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling gave young female sharia lawyers training in violence prevention.
• Pragya in India established community kiosks offering legal guidance and government service connections, staffed by informed volunteers.

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Essay on Domestic Violence

Introduction to Domestic Violence

Domestic violence, a prevalent and multifaceted problem, involves a recurring pattern of abusive behavior by one partner in an intimate relationship aimed at gaining and asserting power and control over the other. This form of violence transcends boundaries of age, race, gender, and socio-economic status, affecting individuals worldwide. For example, consider a scenario where a woman, Sarah, endures years of emotional and physical abuse from her husband, leaving her isolated and fearful. Such instances underscore the urgent need to address this societal ill. This essay delves into the various facets of domestic violence, including its types, causes, effects, and preventive measures, aiming to raise awareness and promote action against this deeply entrenched problem.

Importance of addressing domestic violence

Addressing domestic violence is of utmost importance, as it has wide-ranging impacts on individuals, families, communities, and society as a whole. Here are detailed points highlighting its significance:

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• Human Rights Violation: Domestic violence is a blatant violation of human rights , depriving individuals of their right to safety, security, and dignity within their own homes.
• Health Consequences: Victims of domestic violence often suffer physical injuries, psychological trauma, and long-term health issues. Addressing domestic violence is crucial for mitigating these health risks.
• Impact on Children: Children who experience domestic violence are at a heightened risk of experiencing a variety of adverse outcomes, including behavioral issues, academic challenges, and long-lasting psychological difficulties. Intervening in domestic violence can shield children from these detrimental effects.
• Cycle of Violence: Addressing domestic violence is key to breaking the cycle of violence. Without intervention, children who witness or experience violence are at an increased risk of becoming either perpetrators or victims themselves in the future.
• Economic Consequences: Domestic violence can have significant economic costs, including healthcare expenses, lost productivity, and the need for social services. Addressing domestic violence can help reduce these economic burdens.
• Community Well-being: Domestic violence erodes the fabric of communities, leading to increased social isolation, distrust, and fear. By addressing domestic violence, communities can promote safety, trust, and social cohesion.
• Gender Equality: Domestic violence is often rooted in unequal power dynamics between genders. Addressing domestic violence is essential for promoting gender equality and empowering women and marginalized genders.
• Legal and Social Justice: Domestic violence is a crime that should be addressed through legal and social justice mechanisms. By holding perpetrators accountable and supporting victims, we can uphold principles of justice and fairness.
• Prevention of Intergenerational Transmission: Addressing domestic violence can prevent the transmission of violent behaviors from one generation to the next, breaking the cycle of abuse within families.
• Public Health Priority: A multi-sectoral approach involving healthcare, social services, law enforcement, and community organizations is required to recognize domestic violence as a public health issue. Addressing domestic violence is essential for promoting public health and well-being.

Types of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence manifests in various forms, each equally destructive and harmful. These are the different types of domestic violence:

• Physical Abuse: This encompasses any type of physical harm or injury inflicted upon the victim by the abuser. It may include hitting, punching, kicking, slapping, choking, or using weapons to cause harm.
• Emotional/Psychological Abuse: Emotional abuse characterizes behaviors that undermine the victim’s self-worth, confidence, and emotional well-being. This can include verbal threats, insults, intimidation, manipulation, gaslighting, and isolation from friends and family.
• Sexual Abuse: Sexual abuse encompasses any unwanted sexual activity or coercion imposed by the abuser. This may include rape, sexual assault, forced sexual acts or coercion to engage in sexual activities against the victim’s will.
• Financial Abuse: Financial abuse transpires when the abuser controls or exploits the victim’s financial resources to wield power and control. This can include withholding money, preventing access to bank accounts, sabotaging employment or education opportunities, or coercing the victim into financial dependence.
• Digital Abuse: The proliferation of technology has led to an increase in digital abuse. This involves using technology, such as smartphones, social media, or surveillance apps, to monitor, harass, or control the victim. It may include cyberstalking, tracking the victim’s online activity, or spreading humiliating or threatening messages online.
• Spiritual Abuse: Spiritual abuse involves the use of religious beliefs or practices to manipulate, control, or justify abusive behavior. This can include using religious teachings to justify violence, coercing the victim to adhere to specific religious practices, or preventing the victim from practicing their own faith.
• Reproductive Coercion: Reproductive coercion involves controlling or interfering with the victim’s reproductive choices, such as contraception use, pregnancy, or abortion. This may include sabotaging birth control methods, pressuring the victim to become pregnant or terminate a pregnancy against their will, or refusing to use protection during sexual activity.

Causes of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a multifaceted issue with complex causes. Understanding these underlying factors is essential for devising effective prevention and intervention strategies. Here are some key causes of domestic violence:

• Historical and Cultural Factors: In many societies, there is a history of gender inequality and patriarchal norms that have normalized the use of violence against women and marginalized genders. Cultural beliefs that condone or justify violence can contribute to its perpetuation.
• Social and Economic Factors: Poverty , unemployment, lack of education, and economic stress can contribute to domestic violence. Financial dependence on the abuser can make it difficult for victims to leave abusive situations.
• Psychological Factors: Individuals who have experienced trauma, abuse, or neglect in their own lives may be more likely to perpetrate domestic violence. Mental health problems like anxiety, depression, and personality disorders can also contribute to domestic violence.
• Substance Abuse: Drug and alcohol abuse can lower inhibitions and impair judgment, leading to an increase in violent behavior. Substance abuse can also exacerbate existing conflicts and tensions within relationships.
• Family Dynamics: A family history of violence or exposure to domestic violence in childhood can perpetuate the cycle of violence. Unhealthy family dynamics, such as inadequate communication or boundary-setting, can also contribute to domestic violence.
• Lack of Social Support: Isolation from friends, family, and community support networks can make victims more vulnerable to domestic violence. Lack of access to supportive services can also hinder victims from seeking help.
• Cultural and Societal Norms: Beliefs and norms that prioritize male dominance and control in relationships can contribute to domestic violence. Media, religion, and social institutions may reinforce these norms.
• Lack of Legal and Social Support: Weak or ineffective legal frameworks, lack of access to justice, and stigma surrounding domestic violence can discourage victims from seeking help and enable perpetrators to continue their abusive behavior.

Effects of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence can have profound and enduring effects on individuals, families, and communities. These effects can manifest in diverse ways and permeate every aspect of a person’s life. Here are some of the key effects of domestic violence:

• Physical Health Consequences: Domestic abuse victims frequently sustain wounds that range in severity from minor cuts and bruises to more serious ailments like internal injuries, fractured bones, and traumatic brain injuries. In some cases, domestic violence can result in long-term health issues or disabilities.
• Psychological Effects: Domestic violence can have severe psychological consequences, including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other mental health disorders. Victims may experience feelings of fear, helplessness, and low self-esteem as a result of the abuse.
• Impact on Children: Exposure to domestic violence can have negative impacts on children’s behavior, development, and emotions. They may also be at higher risk of experiencing abuse themselves or becoming abusers in the future.
• Socio-Economic Effects: Domestic violence can have significant socio-economic consequences, including loss of income, housing instability, and barriers to employment. Victims may also incur medical expenses related to injuries sustained during the abuse.
• Isolation and Alienation: Victims of domestic violence often experience social isolation and alienation from friends, family, and community due to shame, fear, or restrictions imposed by the abuser. This can intensify feelings of loneliness and helplessness even more.
• Impact on Relationships: Domestic violence can strain relationships with family members, friends, and intimate partners. Victims may have difficulty trusting others or forming healthy relationships in the future.
• Disruption of Daily Life: Domestic violence can disrupt every aspect of a person’s daily life, including work, school, and other activities. Victims may struggle to maintain their responsibilities and may experience difficulties in functioning on a day-to-day basis.
• Cycle of Violence: Domestic violence can perpetuate a cycle of violence, where victims may become trapped in abusive relationships or become abusers themselves in future relationships.
• Legal and Criminal Consequences: Domestic violence is a crime, and perpetrators may face legal consequences, including arrest, prosecution, and incarceration. Victims may also be involved in legal proceedings, such as obtaining protective orders or seeking custody of children.
• Impact on Community: Domestic violence can have broader impacts on communities, including increased healthcare costs, strain on social services, and a breakdown of community cohesion.

Prevention and Intervention

Preventing and intervening in domestic violence requires a multi-faceted approach involving individuals, communities, and society as a whole. Here are key strategies for prevention and intervention:

• Education and Awareness: Educating individuals about the signs of domestic violence, its impact, and available resources is crucial for prevention. Awareness campaigns can assist in reducing stigma and motivating victims to seek help.
• Empowerment Programs: Empowering individuals, especially women and marginalized groups, with knowledge, skills, and resources can help them recognize and resist abusive behavior.
• Early Intervention: Early identification and intervention in abusive relationships can help prevent escalation. This can include training professionals to recognize signs of abuse and providing support to victims.
• Legal Measures: Strengthening laws and enforcement mechanisms can deter perpetrators and protect victims. This can include criminalizing domestic violence, providing legal aid to victims, and enforcing protective orders.
• Support Services: Offering accessible and comprehensive support services, such as shelters, counseling, and hotlines, can assist victims in safely exiting abusive situations and rebuilding their lives.
• Counseling and Rehabilitation: Offering counseling and rehabilitation programs for perpetrators can help them address underlying issues and learn non-violent ways of resolving conflicts.
• Community Involvement: Engaging communities in prevention efforts can help change attitudes and norms that perpetuate domestic violence. This can include promoting healthy relationships and bystander intervention.
• Intersectional Approaches: It is crucial to recognize the nexus between domestic violence and other forms of oppression, such as racism , sexism, and homophobia, to prevent and intervene effectively.
• Coordination of Services: Coordinating various stakeholders, including government agencies, non-profit organizations, and community groups, ensures a comprehensive and effective response to domestic violence.
• Research and Evaluation: Continuously researching and evaluating prevention and intervention strategies can help identify best practices and improve outcomes for victims and perpetrators.

Challenges and Barriers

Addressing domestic violence is a complex and challenging task due to various barriers and obstacles. Some of the key challenges include:

• Lack of Awareness: Many people, including victims, perpetrators, and the general public, may not fully understand what constitutes domestic violence or may underestimate its severity. This can lead to underreporting and a lack of appropriate responses.
• Stigma and Shame: Victims of domestic violence often face stigma and shame, which can prevent them from seeking help or disclosing abuse. Cultural norms and societal attitudes that blame or discredit victims can further exacerbate this barrier.
• Financial Dependence: Economic factors can make it difficult for victims to leave abusive relationships. Financial dependence on the abuser, lack of access to resources, and fear of losing financial stability can all contribute to victims staying in abusive situations.
• Lack of Support Services: In many communities, there is a lack of adequate support services for victims of domestic violence. This includes shelters, counseling, legal aid, and other resources that are essential for helping victims safely leave abusive relationships.
• Legal Barriers: The legal system can be complex and intimidating for victims of domestic violence. Legal barriers, such as the cost of legal representation, the need to prove abuse in court, and the lack of protection for undocumented immigrants, can all hinder access to justice for victims.
• Cultural and Religious Norms: Cultural and religious beliefs that prioritize family harmony or emphasize male authority can act as barriers to addressing domestic violence. These norms can discourage victims from seeking help or speaking out against abuse.
• Lack of Coordination: Addressing domestic violence requires a coordinated response from multiple sectors, including law enforcement, healthcare, social services, and the justice system. Lack of coordination between these sectors can result in service gaps and ineffective responses.
• Perpetrator Accountability: Holding perpetrators accountable for their actions can be challenging. Factors like fear of retaliation, insufficient evidence, and lenient legal consequences can all contribute to a lack of accountability for abusive behavior.
• Limited Resources: Resources for addressing domestic violence, including funding for support services and prevention programs, are often limited. This can result in inadequate services and long wait times for victims seeking help.
• Intersectionality: Domestic violence intersects with other forms of oppression, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism. Victims who belong to marginalized groups may face additional barriers and challenges in accessing support and services.

Domestic violence is a pervasive and deeply entrenched issue that has devastating consequences for individuals, families, and communities. It constitutes a violation of human rights and represents a substantial public health concern that demands urgent attention and action. Addressing domestic violence necessitates a comprehensive approach encompassing prevention, intervention, support services, and advocacy efforts. By raising awareness, challenging cultural norms, providing support to survivors, holding perpetrators accountable, and promoting gender equality, we can work towards creating safer and more supportive environments for all individuals affected by domestic violence. Together, we must strive to end the cycle of abuse and build a society free from violence and fear.

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Prevention of Domestic Violence

• Speech analysis

Domestic violence may occur in the form of emotional, economic, physical, and sexual abuse of a family member or any relative. Preventing it is a major concern for the US government and other civilized societies all over the world. The statistics show that domestic violence affects each community across the globe (Wilson, 2009). For instance, the study on the social economic cost of this issue has indicated that it affects growth and stability significantly. Some of its retrogressive effects include the decline in the productivity of the economy, uncalled-for health care expenditures, and legal fees. However, the prevention of domestic violence is associated with economic benefits (Patel & Taylor, 2012). Therefore, the best preventive methods must be applied to curb this matter. The critical review of the causes, dynamics, and problems associated with domestic violence shows that the primary and secondary prevention are the better approaches to curbing the issue. It is better rather than the tertiary method addressing the consequences.

Proactive and preventive ways should be used in curbing domestic violence due to its complex dynamics. Among the three methods recommended for tackling the issue, i.e. primary, secondary, and tertiary ones, one should say the following fact. The first way which entails the prevention of domestic violence before it happens, is the most effective. The studies have shown that several factors contribute to violence within a household. Some examples include alcohol and drug abuse, mental health disorders, the family history, where an abused child is more likely to become aggressive in adulthood, and ignorance or the lack of awareness. Smith and Segal (2014) assert that if the measures are put in place to tackle these predisposing attributes, this matter can be prevented. It is the role of the government to enhance the health and well-being of any society. Organizations and governmental departments set up to address domestic violence cannot lay down the strategies that seem to emphasize only on providing cure for the victims and a punishment for perpetrators. They should design the best ways that create awareness, educate on consequences, and prosecute facilitators of drugs and substance abuse. Additionally, self-empowerment programs that raise self-esteem on married couples and community activism should also be put in place to address the problem. Such approaches would cost the government much less than what it is now to restore broken families, counsel, and treat the victims.

The studies indicate that although some attributes are to blame for contributing to violence, the actual cause could be more complex. Therefore, it is difficult to eliminate domestic violence through the control of risk factors. Violent intimate partners become cruel and abuse their partners or family members physically and even sexually when they reach their homes. Similarly, such people exhibit normal behavior before they consume drugs or alcohol. Therefore, domestic violence among drug and alcohol abusers seems to be premeditated even before the consumption of some intoxicating substances. It is apparent that the children of drunkards have to face chaos and embarrassing events because the behavior of their parents is often unpredictable (Harrington-Lowe, 2016). The various tactics that aggressors use include intimidation, dominance, humiliation, threats, denial, isolation, and blame. It makes it difficult to find those individuals who are already suffering from this problem (Smith & Jeanne, 2014). Separately, mental health disorders have been regarded as the causes of domestic violence. However, it has been noted that these states are sometimes caused by home cruelty, rather than the other way round. Some people come from abusive families but are not violent as adults. Therefore, child abuse may not be a principal cause of domestic violence among kids in their later lives. Similarly, some men and women are brought up in the backgrounds with no history of abuse. However, they end up being violent towards their families and partners. However, alcohol and drug abuse as well as child abuse should be prevented as early as possible because they contribute to domestic violence. Family members with mental disorders should be treated or taken for their rehabilitation. Consequently, their chances of causing chaos and physical injuries will be reduced. Therefore, further interventions are necessary, given the above-mentioned phenomena. However, the primary prevention is still the best method of curbing home cruelty (Howard & Agnew-Davies, 2013). It is imperative that predisposing factors are addressed appropriately rather than reacting to the consequences of domestic violence. The reason for it is that its prevention is cheaper than the mitigation of its negative consequences.

In addition to primary prevention, secondary one can help in addressing domestic violence more than mitigating the after-event effects. Most consequences of home cruelty are irrevocable, especially after they reach advanced levels. Repeated cases of child abuse that go undetected may start as mild and turn into grievous cases such as sexual harassment and child rape. The violent behaviors towards intimate partners may start as minor mistreatments that can be easily ignored. However, if proper interventions are not instituted, such partners may become extremely aggressive, causing permanent physical injuries or disabilities to their spouses or victims. Interventions like home visitation for families that are at a high risk of domestic violence can address the problem effectively. Additionally, family members with a high probability of becoming the victims such as people living with disabilities and those that are likely to perpetuate violence, i.e. drug and alcohol abusers, should be provided with specialized care.

The government is capable of facilitating secondary preventive methods effectively through its public health and nursing sectors. Such interventions can save people from the negative effects of domestic violence. For instance, children and infants can be saved from potentially abusive parents or caretakers. Such strategies can be developed by defining the principles of healthy childrearing. Therefore, if children are brought up by supportive and nurturing environment, they are most likely to exhibit positive trends in socialization. On the other hand, those from domestic violence homes may have short-term or long-term psychological problems (CDV, 2014). Preventive interventions can be made before a child is exposed to violence by the use of such guidelines. It is apparent that this kind of intervention would reduce cases of domestic violence, particularly towards children.

Statistics on domestic violence rely on reported cases to authorities. For instance, it is indicated that 5 million children are witnesses of domestic violence every year in the United States while more than 40 million adults grew in families where domestic violence was rampant (CDV, 2014). It is believed that there are many cases of child abuse, intimate partners’ violence and other forms of domestic violence that go unreported. Thus, such cases are unaccounted for in the provided statistics, and that makes the figures an underestimate of the actual cases. Stigmatization of victims makes them not report domestic violence cases. Some victims are reluctant to report cases like rape because they fear how the community will perceive them or strangely redirect the blame to them. For instance, in some intimate partners’ violent cases, the man may fear to report when the aggressor is a woman for the fear that he would be regarded as a failure, rather than a victim. Therefore, prevention of domestic violence would address the problem better as it does not rely on reported incidences.

The most commonly used method for preventing domestic violence is the tertiary approach. However, it has been found to be the most expensive and the most ineffective way of preventing domestic violence. It emphasizes on finding, punishment, and the treatment of perpetrators and victims. Time and resources are wasted in attempts to rehabilitate and change behaviors of the perpetrators. Damage has already been done to the victims, and sometimes only little can be done to ease the pain. In some cases, the situation may even be beyond control.

The collaboration of various agencies would be necessary for tertiary prevention method to address chronic domestic violence, and this can be expensive. The reason for this is that there is a possibility of family break-ups and in the case of child abuse, the perpetrator, most probably a parent, may face a jail sentence. Consequently, it would require alternative special care programs to feed, educate, and provide shelter for children left under no parental care after their parents have been convicted. Medical care and re-integration back to the society for the victims after post-trauma counseling sessions will also come with a burdening financial and social cost. There are other drawbacks associated with this approach. For instance, some perpetrators may have subdued their victims through threats and other psychological trauma such that the victim may never report violence incidences. Some family members may even attempt to hide or protect the perpetrator in fear of dire consequences associated if they report them to authorities. There, is no reason to wait until violence occurs and then seek to apply mitigation and rehabilitative measures when primary and secondary preventive methods would have helped before situations got worse.

Proponents of tertiary prevention of domestic violence may assert that primary and secondary approaches do not often prevent cases of violence. Therefore, they may not be effective, especially the secondary approach that is usually employed when violence is already taking place. It might be seen that there is no point of claiming to prevent violence when it has already been orchestrated. However, it is apparent that primary and secondary approaches have reduced incidences of domestic violence significantly. For example, cases of domestic violence reduced by more than 70 percent, after the enactment of laws which enforced the identification of abuse, helping of victims, and the prosecution of offenders (Cohn, 2014). Therefore, primary and secondary approaches to the prevention of domestic violence are better.

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In conclusion, it has been established that emphases emphasis and focus should be shifted from the tertiary approach to addressing domestic violence to the primary and secondary prevention methods if a significant impact is to be achieved in the fight against the problem. Primary and secondary prevention approaches have many benefits when the right strategies are implemented. They even provide a better platform for controlling and preventing other vices in the society that form a vicious cycle, which leads to domestic violence. For example, early pregnancies, alcohol and drug abuse, depression, and low self-esteem, if addressed, controlled, and prevented appropriately, domestic violence can be prevented. It is apparent that the issue requires more attention because governments and other agencies have not done enough to curb domestic violence. Therefore, instituting of prevention strategies before domestic violence occurs are the best approaches to achieve its successful prevention. There is also a need for accurate data to provide statistics that portray the actual magnitude of the vice. Consequently, this would draw attention of relevant authorities and agencies to increase their effort in eliminating domestic violence in the society. Current data do not represent the facts about domestic violence on the ground. Therefore, primary and secondary preventive measures are the best methods of preventing domestic violence.

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Understanding and Addressing Domestic Violence

• Categories: Domestic Violence

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Words: 586 |

Published: Jan 30, 2024

Words: 586 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Definition of domestic violence, causes of domestic violence, effects of domestic violence, prevention and intervention.

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Essay On Domestic Violence

500 words essay on domestic violence.

Domestic violence refers to the violence and abuse which happens in a domestic setting like cohabitation or marriage. It is important to remember that domestic violence is not just physical but any kind of behaviour that tries to gain power and control over the victim. It can affect people from all walks of life and it basically subjects towards a partner, spouse or intimate family member. Through an essay on domestic violence, we will go through its causes and effects.

Causes of Domestic Violence

Often women and children are the soft targets of domestic violence. Domestic violence is a gruesome crime that also causes a number of deaths. Some of the most common causes of domestic violence are illiteracy and economical dependency on the menfolk.

The male-dominated society plays an important role in this problem. Further, dowry is also one of the leading causes which have the consequence of violence against newly-wed brides. In many parts of the world, physically assaulting women and passing horrendous remarks is common.

Moreover, children also become victims of this inhuman behaviour more than often. It is important to recognize the double standards and hypocrisy of society. A lot of the times, the abuser is either psychotic or requires psychological counselling.

However, in a more general term, domestic violence is the outcome of cumulative irresponsible behaviour which a section of society demonstrates. It is also important to note that solely the abuser is not just responsible but also those who allow this to happen and act as mere mute spectators.

Types of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence has many ill-effects which depend on the kind of domestic violence happening. It ranges from being physical to emotional and sexual to economic. A physical abuser uses physical force which injures the victim or endangers their life.

It includes hitting, punching, choking, slapping, and other kinds of violence. Moreover, the abuser also denies the victim medical care. Further, there is emotional abuse in which the person threatens and intimidates the victim. It also includes undermining their self-worth.

It includes threatening them with harm or public humiliation. Similarly, constant name-calling and criticism also count as emotional abuse. After that, we have sexual abuse in which the perpetrator uses force for unwanted sexual activity.

If your partner does not consent to it, it is forced which makes it sexual abuse. Finally, we have economic abuse where the abuser controls the victim’s money and their economic resources.

They do this to exert control on them and make them dependent solely on them. If your partner has to beg you for money, then it counts as economic abuse. This damages the self-esteem of the victim.

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Conclusion of the Essay on Domestic Violence

To conclude, domestic violence has many forms which include physical aggression like kicking and biting and it can also be sexual or emotional. It is essential to recognize the signs of domestic violence and report the abuser if it is happening around you or to you.

FAQ of Essay on Domestic Violence

Question 1: Why is domestic violence an issue?

Answer 1: Domestic violence has a major impact on the general health and wellbeing of individuals. It is because it causes physical injury, anxiety, depression. Moreover, it also impairs social skills and increases the likelihood that they will participate in practices harmful to their health, like self-harm or substance abuse.

Question 2: How does domestic violence affect a woman?

Answer 2: Domestic violence affects women in terms of ill health. It causes serious consequences on their mental and physical health which includes reproductive and sexual health. It also includes injuries, gynaecological problems, depression, suicide and more.

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Strategies To Prevent Domestic Violence: Raising Awareness and Stopping Violence Before It Begins

by Dr. Anchal Goyal

Editor(s): Dr. A.D. Gray; Tabitha M. Chapman, MFT

Domestic violence is serious, it affects a large proportion of the population. The harm it causes can last a lifetime and spans generations. This has caused serious adverse effects on health, education, and employment. Thus, it is important to prevent all forms of domestic violence. The ultimate goal is to stop the violence before it begins and promote healthy, respectful, and nonviolent relationships and communities.

Studies have reported that there are multiple strategies and approaches which can prevent the harmful and long-lasting effects of domestic violence on individuals, families, and communities. (Niolon et al., 2017) In addition, the primary prevention of these types of violence will save the physical, mental, and economic well-being of survivors.

Domestic violence is serious, it affects a large proportion of the population.

Prevention Approaches for Domestic Violence

In acknowledging the large-scale and extensive consequences of the problem, various strategies and approaches have been used to prevent domestic violence. Examples of current best practices in the primary prevention of domestic violence include early childhood and family-based approaches; school-based approaches; public information and awareness campaigns; and structural and policy approaches. (Niolon et al., 2017; Harvey, Garcia-Moreno, & Butchart, 2007).

Early childhood and family-based approaches

Early childhood interventions are important not only for securing the health and well-being of children but for promoting healthy behavior and social functioning—including non-violent intimate partnerships and respectful, consensual sexual activity—throughout the lifespan. Key elements of this approach include teaching parents to model healthy relationships, to manage their children’s behavior positively and without harsh physical punishment, and fostering children’s anger management, impulse control, problem-solving, conflict resolution, and social skills. (Chapman & Monk, 2015; Braithwaite & Fincham, 2014).

Researchers have found that programs that seek to reduce children’s aggressive behavior and promote the development of positive skills have been effective in preventing the developmental trajectory of ongoing violent and delinquent behavior (Chapman & Monk, 2015; Farrington, 2006). These programs include early childhood home visitation programs and parent training programs that teach children and parents about non-violent disciplinary techniques and behavior management skills. (Niolon et al., 2017; Miller, 2017; Fortson, Klevens, Merrick, Gilbert, & Alexander, 2016; Ball et al., 2012).

School-based Approaches

School-based violence prevention programs have been used to tackle a range of issues including child sexual abuse, bullying, dating violence, and sexual assault. These interventions typically aim to build children’s knowledge about child sexual abuse and their capacity to protect themselves.

Key components of these programs include educating children about different kinds of touch, self-esteem, secrets, and self-protection strategies such as shouting, insisting on being left alone, threatening to tell, and telling a trusted adult. Example of such curricula includes Good-Touch/Bad-Touch® (USA). (Fortson et al., 2016; Makleff et al., 2020).

Public Information and Awareness Campaigns

At present, public information and awareness campaigns have evidence supporting its effectiveness to raise awareness of domestic violence as a societal problem and as a crime to change public attitudes and norms to contribute to its prevention. Such campaigns often disseminate messages through mass media channels and may include other mechanisms such as town meetings or community theatre.

Campaign goals include raising public awareness (e.g. about the extent of the problem, about domestic violence as violations of women’s human rights, about men’s role in ending violence against women), providing accurate information, and dispelling myths and stereotypes about domestic violence, and changing public opinion. (Moreno Martín, Alvarez, Alonso, & Villanueva, 2020; Harvey et al., 2007).

Media campaigns are a key element in preventative public health approaches and have been utilized as a part of the strategy to end violence. Media campaigns convey messages about healthy behavior to broad populations via television, radio, the Internet, newspapers, magazines, posters, and other printed materials. Media campaigns have focused on raising awareness of violence in whole communities or encouraged victims to recognize their partner’s abusive behaviors. Also, campaigns encouraged victims to seek help from appropriate services. (Stanley et al., 2016) The great promise of mass media campaigns lies in their ability to disseminate well-defined behaviorally focused messages to large audiences repeatedly, over time, and at a low cost per head. (Wakefield, Loken, & Hornik, 2010).

Public awareness campaigns on domestic violence aimed at reaching both perpetrators and victims of abuse to educate community members about the severity of the issue, encourage people to take action to promote social change, and alert survivors to the availability of services. (Keller, Wilkinson, & Otjen, 2010) The goal of these campaigns is to empower victims to escape abusive situations and to encourage perpetrators to seek assistance in changing their behaviors. Through public service announcements and advertisements, such campaigns typically provide information regarding warning signs of domestic violence as well as community resources for victims and perpetrators. (Moreno Martín et al., 2020; Keller et al., 2010).

For example, in the United States, domestic violence public awareness campaign is orchestrated by the National Domestic Violence Hotline in conjunction with the Department of Defense. The ultimate goal of this campaign is to inform men, women, and their families about domestic violence and provide a vital link to life-saving services by connecting people to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides support, crisis intervention information, education, and referral services to help survivors of domestic violence so they can live positive, healthy, and free of abuse lives. (Battered Women’s Justice Project, 2014).

Structural and policy approaches

Laws and policies that make violent behavior an offense send a message to society that it is not acceptable. Both public health and human rights advocates believed that structural interventions hold great promise for significant achievements in the prevention of domestic violence. These approaches include fostering gender equality and women’s empowerment; and legal reform and strengthening criminal justice system responses. (Harvey et al., 2007; Babaee et al., 2021).

Fostering gender equality is an integral part of the prevention of domestic violence. Women’s human rights should be respected, protected, and fulfilled. Legal reform and concrete social policy measures in the areas of education, employment, and social protection are needed to raise women’s status, fulfill their rights, increase their access to and control over resources, and ensure that laws do not discriminate against them. (World Health Organization, 2009; Kuskoff & Parsell, 2020; Babaee et al., 2021).

Most criminal justice system responses to domestic violence do not qualify as primary prevention, but rather are focused on intervening once violence is disclosed, to prevent further violence and to facilitate recovery and access to justice (e.g. sexual assault response teams, specialized police units, restraining orders, and pro-charging policies). Although legal protection against domestic violence reinforces non-violent norms by sending the clear message that such acts will not be tolerated, the criminal justice response must include clear laws and policies with effective enforcement; training for police, prosecutors, and judges; and coordinated interagency responses for victims to prevent domestic violence. (Harvey et al., 2007; Tam, Tutty, Zhuang, & Paz, 2016).

Future Implications

In a nutshell, awareness-raising initiatives may be diverse as far as the type of measures and the societal factors that contribute to them are concerned. They can take place in a range of settings, depending on the content and the target audiences. Therefore, communities are encouraged to implement strategies based on the best available evidence and to continuously evaluate whether the strategy is a good fit with the community context and achieving its goal of preventing violence. As we know, future research is always aimed at improvement. Thus, continuous research is needed to understand the effectiveness of strategies and approaches that result in greater reductions in domestic violence.

Niolon, P. H., Kearns, M., Dills, J., Rambo, K., Irving, S., Armstead, T., & Gilbert, L. (2017). Preventing Intimate Partner Violence Across the Lifespan: A Technical Package of Programs, Policies, and Practices . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/ipv-technicalpackages.pdf

Harvey, A., Garcia-Moreno, C., & Butchart, A. (2007). Primary prevention of intimate partner violence and sexual violence: Background paper for WHO expert meeting May 2-3, 2007 . World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/publications/violence/IPV-SV.pdf

Chapman, A. & Monk, C. (2015). Domestic Violence Awareness. American Journal of Psychiatry , 172:944–945. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2015.15070853

Braithwaite, S. R., & Fincham, F. D. (2014). Computer-based prevention of intimate partner violence in marriage. Behaviour Research and Therapy , 54(2014), 12-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2013.12.006

Miller E. (2017). Prevention of and Interventions for Dating and Sexual Violence in Adolescence. Pediatric clinics of North America , 64(2), 423–434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcl.2016.11.010

Fortson, B. L., Klevens, J., Merrick, M. T., Gilbert, L. K., & Alexander, S. P. (2016). Preventing child abuse and neglect: A technical package for policy, norm, and programmatic activities . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/can-prevention-technical-package.pdf

Ball, B., Tharp, A. T., Noonan, R. K., Valle, L. A., Hamburger, M. E., & Rosenbluth, B. (2012). Expect respect support groups: preliminary evaluation of a dating violence prevention program for at-risk youth. Violence against women , 18(7), 746–762. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801212455188

Makleff, S., Garduño, J., Zavala, R.I., Barindelli, F., Valades, J., Billowitz, M., Marquez, V.I.S., Marston, C. (2020). Preventing Intimate Partner Violence Among Young People—a Qualitative Study Examining the Role of Comprehensive Sexuality Education. Sexuality Research and Social Policy , 17, 314–325. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-019-00389-x

Moreno Martín, F., Alvarez, M. J., Alonso, E. A., & Villanueva, I. F. (2020). Campaigns against intimate partner violence toward women in Portugal: types of prevention and target audiences. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma , 29(7), 876-895.

Stanley, N., Ellis, J., Farrelly, N., Hollinghurst, S., Bailey, S., & Downe, S. (2017). “What matters to someone who matters to me”: using media campaigns with young people to prevent interpersonal violence and abuse. Health expectations: an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy , 20(4), 648–654. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.12495

Wakefield, M. A., Loken, B., & Hornik, R. C. (2010). Use of mass media campaigns to change health behaviour. Lancet (London, England) , 376(9748), 1261–1271. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60809-4

Keller, S.N., Wilkinson, T., & Otjen, A.J. (2010). Unintended effects of a domestic violence campaign. Journal of Advertising , 39(4):53-67.

Battered Women’s Justice Project. (2014, January). Public Awareness Campaign: Take a Stand Against Domestic Violence . https://www.bwjp.org/resource-center/resource-results/public-awareness-campaign-take-a-stand-against-domestic-violence.html

World Health Organization. (2009). Promoting gender equality to prevent violence against women . https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/44098/9789241597883_eng.pdf

Babaee, E., Tehrani-Banihashem, A., Asadi-Aliabadi, M., Sheykholeslami, A., Purabdollah, M., Ashari, A., & Nojomi, M. (2021). Population-Based Approaches to Prevent Domestic Violence against Women Using a Systematic Review. Iranian journal of psychiatry , 16(1), 94–105. https://doi.org/10.18502/ijps.v16i1.5384

Kuskoff, E. & Parsell, C. (2020). Preventing Domestic Violence by Changing Australian Gender Relations: Issues and Considerations. Australian Social Work , 73:2, 227-235. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2019.1641529

Tam, D.M.Y., Tutty, L.M., Zhuang, Z.H., & Paz, E. (2016). Racial Minority Women and Criminal Justice Responses to Domestic Violence. Journal of Family Violence , 31, 527–538. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-015-9794-7

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• v.324(7332); 2002 Feb 2

Preventing domestic violence

Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, or psychological. Physical and sexual violence by an intimate partner are common problems, affecting 20-50% of women at some stage in life in most populations surveyed globally. 1 Between 3% and 50% of women have experienced it in the past year. 1 Domestic violence has a profound impact on the physical and mental health of those who experience it. As well as injuries, it is associated with an increased risk of a range of physical and mental health problems and is an important cause of mortality from injuries and suicide. 2

Review of international literature on risk of domestic violence shows that although it is greatest in relationships and communities where the use of violence in many situations is normative, notably when witnessed in childhood, it is substantially a product of gender inequality and the lesser status of women compared with men in society. 3 Except for poverty, few social and demographic characteristics define risk groups. Poverty increases vulnerability through increasing relationship conflict, reducing women's economic and educational power, and reducing the ability of men to live in a manner that they regard as successful. Violence is used frequently to resolve a crisis of male identity. Domestic violence is often associated with heavy alcohol drinking. 3 Research suggests that the different factors have an additive effect.

Although interventions that alter the prevalence of any of these risk factors may alter the prevalence of domestic violence, few programmes that seek primarily to reduce, for example, poverty or consumption of alcohol evaluate the impact on the prevalence of domestic violence. A notable exception was the Grameen Bank project in Bangladesh, where ethnographic evaluation suggested that women participating in the microcredit programme were protected to some extent against domestic violence by having a more public social role. 4

Evidence suggests that domestic violence can be prevented in populations in developing countries that have not been specifically identified as affected through life skills type programmes that address gender issues and include relationship skills. A review of qualitative evaluations and experiences using the Stepping Stones , 5 a training package to promote sexual and reproductive health in various communities in Africa and Asia, found a reduction in conflict and violence in sexual relationships to be a major impact in all communities studied. 6

Most interventions on domestic violence focus on women and men who have been identified as abused or abusing. Evaluation of initiatives has been sorely lacking. The only review of programmes to prevent domestic violence found 34 projects that had been evaluated, two thirds of which were in the criminal justice system. 7 In many countries interventions focus on legal redress and secondary prevention through protection orders, shelters, counselling services, specialised police units and courts, and mandatory arrest laws. Although many women find these helpful, evidence of their effectiveness in preventing domestic violence is limited. 8 Treatment programmes for abusers are similarly found in many countries but, unless compulsory, they are plagued by very high drop out rates. Again the evidence for their effectiveness is weak. 9

The two papers in this issue confirm previous research that shows that domestic violence is a common underlying problem in clinical practice (pp 271, 274). 10 , 11 Bradley et al show strong associations with anxiety and depression. 10 The papers also confirm research findings from the United States that show that most women welcome inquiries, but doctors and nurses rarely ask about it. 10 , 11 One obvious explanation for this is that they are not trained to do so and are uncertain what they can do. 12 Gender and health issues, including domestic violence, feature little in undergraduate and postgraduate medical training programmes and textbooks.

In many parts of the world training programmes on domestic violence for staff in service focus on training staff to ask direct questions about abuse, assess safety, provide a simple supportive message such as no woman deserves to be beaten, and provide information on legal rights and where to go for further support or counselling. However, the evidence that these activities benefit women is still limited. Research is hampered by the fact that many programmes have failed to achieve the desired change in clinical practice, 12 although this is more likely to occur if programmes are supported by other changes in the working environment such as having inquiry protocols, posters reminding staff, or prompts in the case notes. 13 Other key problems with training have been that programmes are too short (often one to three hours long), neglect the personal experiences of domestic violence of the staff that may influence their approach to the issue, fail to provide an adequate understanding of this complex behavioural problem, and fail to set it in a broader gender context. Advances in effectiveness of efforts to introduce routine inquiry into clinical practice are needed before large scale evaluation is possible.

Unfortunately the lack of evidence of effectiveness of interventions may pose a barrier to action, 14 and Richardson et al argue that indeed it should be. 11 However the question of what is effectiveness in this context has not been resolved and it is premature to suggest that lack of evidence equates to ineffectiveness. Bradley et al present an important argument that inquiry about domestic violence should be regarded as a way of “uncovering and reframing a hidden stigma” and that inquiry is in itself beneficial, even if no action immediately follows from it. 10

The impact of domestic violence on health has been well established and the rationale for prioritising prevention, including addressing it in clinical practice, is strong. A need exists for much more research on screening outcomes, acceptability, effectiveness, and effective interventions in changing clinical practice. Fresh medical graduates need to be equipped with an understanding of gender issues in society, the impact of gender inequality on health, and of the dynamics of the problem of domestic violence so that they are better placed to respond to the issue, understand the possibilities and limitations of their role, and adjust their practice to emerging scientific evidence. Socioeconomic inequalities have become a mainstream part of medical teaching—it is now time for the medical establishment to embrace the issue of gender.

Life size wood silhouettes representing women and children murdered as a result of domestic violence in Wyoming, USA since 1985.

Papers pp  271 , 274

‘Filled to the gills’: San Diego’s domestic violence resource center badly needs to expand, city says

Your Safe Place offers a walk-in clinic, medical exams, therapy and lawyer referrals, victim risk assessments and counseling. It’s also a homelessness prevention program, supporters say.

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San Diego’s one-stop shop for domestic violence victims has outgrown its downtown headquarters and needs a larger spot to accommodate additional expansion plans and new social service partnerships.

“We are filled to the gills,” said City Attorney Mara Elliott, who has revived the center and broadened its mission since taking over its operations from the San Diego Police Department in 2018. Since she took over, the center’s annual budget has risen from $1 million to a requested $2.7 million this year.

In addition to changing the name from Family Justice Center to Your Safe Place , Elliott has added services for victims of human trafficking, sexual assault and elder abuse.

Your Safe Place offers a walk-in clinic, forensic medical exams, referrals to lawyers, therapy referrals for abused children, victim risk assessments and counseling.

But it’s also a homelessness prevention program, supporters say. Your Safe Place arranged 550 free hotel nights in 2023 for victims who couldn’t go home because they lived with the person who abused them.

“It’s one of the most impactful homeless prevention services we have,” City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert said.

Elliott last year also added an on-site forensic interview center for children to help them feel safe talking about witnessing or suffering violence. This year she secured funding for a sexual assault center to expand exam availability.

She also launched mobile clinics in 2022 to reach victims in the city’s more marginalized communities. Your Safe Place conducted 91 clinics in 2023 that reached nearly 200 people.

San Diego domestic violence center to expand programs, footprint

San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott is expanding and reinventing the Family Justice Center, a one-stop shop for domestic violence victims that was considered a national model before several recent years of decline.

May 10, 2018

But the center’s achievements have brought with them new needs.

Elliott added a new case management system last year but needs $91,000 to maintain the software licenses needed to operate it. She said she hopes the City Council will add that money during final budget negotiations this Friday and next Tuesday.

The center is also partnering with many more community groups and social service agencies — the number had dwindled to fewer than 20 when Elliott took over but climbed to 85 last year. But those partners need space to operate, and they should be under the same roof, Elliott said.

Your Safe Place has also continued to add workers, and plans to add three more full-time employees this year to the 14 already on staff.

“Your Safe Place outgrew its current 22,000-square-foot facility years ago,” Elliott told the City Council last month during a budget hearing. “Office sharing and the use of cubicles by our staff and community partners is not practical because the work we do — exams, counseling, legal services — require confidential workspace.”

A similar center launched by the county District Attorney’s Office in San Marcos is 40,000 square feet, she pointed out. While she’s not sure exactly how much space she needs, Elliott said it’s got to be a significant bump.

“If we had a 40,000-square-foot facility, we would fill it,” she said.

An inviting, safe place that isn’t overcrowded is crucial because victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking sometimes give up and return to their abusers when efforts to seek help don’t go well, Elliott said.

She said Your Safe Place’s existing site at 11th Avenue and Broadway is not ideal even if it was large enough. “It doesn’t feel safe to our clients at times,” she said.

Mayor Todd Gloria agreed last month to fund a full-time security guard for Your Safe Place, which costs $68,000 a year.

Diane Doherty, executive director of Your Safe Place, said it’s crucial for people who are trying to escape violence to arrive at a place with adequate security and no chaos.

Despite concerns about the site, city officials have explored expanding within the five-story building, which is owned by the Housing Commission. Elliott said that idea proved unworkable and has been abandoned.

Elliott said city real estate officials have known about the space problem for several years but haven’t managed to find a suitable site for expansion. Any new location must be near transit and have adequate parking, she said.

The city’s lease for the site, which expires at the end of 2025, requires monthly rent of $48,000.

Elliott said despite all the expansion, the mission has and will remain stopping family violence, boosting victim safety, holding batterers accountable and providing long-term support to victims and their children.

Your Safe Place helped victims secure 912 restraining orders in 2023. It handled nearly 20,000 requests for service.

Founded by former City Attorney Casey Gwinn in 2002, the center was folded into the Police Department in 2009 as part of budget cuts during the Great Recession.

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How effective are domestic violence advertising campaigns for preventing violence against women?

by David Waller, Kaye Chan, Mihajla Gavin and Sonika Singh, The Conversation

Domestic violence is a significant personal, community and social issue attracting much attention.

After several recent horrific cases, media discussion, calls for a royal commission to end the violence and public rallies, Australia is saying " enough is enough ."

Domestic violence can be fatal and repercussions can last for years. Yet domestic violence is one of the most under-reported crimes locally and internationally , and the least likely to end in conviction.

Violence against women takes a profound and long-term toll on women's health, well-being and their economic security, and negatively impacts families, communities and society at large.

Using marketing campaigns to tackle the issue

Over the past 40 years, government bodies and community organizations have attempted to tackle this problem through social marketing campaigns worldwide.

These campaigns aim to raise awareness of the issue and ultimately prevent domestic violence.

Some have received coveted awards, such as the Salvation Army South Africa campaign " Why is it so hard to see black and blue ." But others have been criticized and even banned for their violent images, like the UK Women's Aid campaign " The Cut " featuring actress Keira Knightley, which showed violent physical abuse.

'Stop it at the Start'—a campaign for respect

In April 2016, the Australian government launched a national campaign " Stop it at the Start ."

This prevention campaign was jointly funded by all state and territory governments to reduce violence against women and children.

It aimed to help break the cycle of violence by encouraging adults to reflect on their attitudes and have conversations about respect with young people , addressing how violence against women starts with disrespect.

One part of the campaign encouraged community members to "unmute yourself"—to stand up to disrespectful behaviors and support those who are experiencing abuse.

The campaign's latest phase centers on the notion of "bring up respect," which encourages parents and other influencers of young people to positively role model and create education around respectful behavior.

How effective are these campaigns for preventing violence?

Since "Stop it at the Start" was a prevention campaign, we examined ABS data to understand its impact in preventing domestic violence.

Reports released in 2012, 2016 and 2021 showed the number of women who had experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a cohabiting partner since age 15 increased from 5% (467,300) to 23% (2.3 million) during this period.

We also examined the average word search of "domestic violence" using data obtained from Google Trends, which showed an overall increase in average search interest by 29.1% from 2012 to 2022.

This may indicate an increased awareness of domestic violence in the broader population. However, the increasing number of reported cases during the same time period suggests domestic violence campaigns, on their own, may be ineffective in reducing or preventing violence against women, although they may help increase awareness of the problem.

How effective are past campaigns?

This raises an important question of how campaigns send a message to prevent gendered violence.

To assess this, we searched various platforms such as YouTube and AdsoftheWorld and industry media, including 120 print and 25 video advertisements on YouTube. We were interested in understanding who the perceived target audience of the advertising was and its messaging.

In reviewing the advertisements, we found older examples showed a higher degree of violence by perpetrators, sometimes extremely graphic.

This type of " shock advertising " aims to get the viewer's attention.

Shock advertising has been used in public health and safety campaigns for many years to scare people about HIV/AIDS prevention , for example.

However, research has found the use of violence in shock advertising overpowers key messages and audiences can become desensitized.

More recent campaigns appear to have moved away from shock messages to try to send the message to the broader community.

Our research team reviewed the advertising messages and created a perceptual mind map based on the (1) target of the message (perpetrator or community) and (2) the degree of violence (non-violent or graphic).

Positioning of domestic violence advertising images

We observed messaging change depending on the target audience—shocking for awareness/understanding of the issue to the perpetrator, and educating the issue/supporting the survivor to the community.

However, we identified a major gap in the messaging—the survivor.

Targeting victims and survivors

There appears to be movement from violent, shock advertisements to campaigns aimed at the community to support victim-survivors.

But few campaigns have identified the strength and empowerment needed for survivors to take action, although the NSW government's recent campaign " it's not love, it's coercive control " is a start.

Domestic violence is a complex problem and more work is needed to prevent violence. In doing the same thing over and over in campaigns, there is a risk of "outsourcing" this important preventative work to future generations, as others have recently argued .

We need to also focus on more immediate actions to prevent violence in the short-term.

Provided by The Conversation

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What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S.

More Americans died of gun-related injuries in 2021 than in any other year on record, according to the latest available statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That included record numbers of both gun murders and gun suicides. Despite the increase in such fatalities, the rate of gun deaths – a statistic that accounts for the nation’s growing population – remained below the levels of earlier decades.

Here’s a closer look at gun deaths in the United States, based on a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the CDC, the FBI and other sources. You can also read key public opinion findings about U.S. gun violence and gun policy .

This Pew Research Center analysis examines the changing number and rate of gun deaths in the United States. It is based primarily on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The CDC’s statistics are based on information contained in official death certificates, while the FBI’s figures are based on information voluntarily submitted by thousands of police departments around the country.

For the number and rate of gun deaths over time, we relied on mortality statistics in the CDC’s WONDER database covering four distinct time periods:  1968 to 1978 ,  1979 to 1998 ,  1999 to 2020 , and 2021 . While these statistics are mostly comparable for the full 1968-2021 period, gun murders and suicides between 1968 and 1978 are classified by the CDC as involving firearms  and  explosives; those between 1979 and 2021 are classified as involving firearms only. Similarly, gun deaths involving law enforcement between 1968 and 1978 exclude those caused by “operations of war”; those between 1979 and 2021 include that category, which refers to gun deaths among military personnel or civilians  due to war or civil insurrection in the U.S . All CDC gun death estimates in this analysis are adjusted to account for age differences over time and across states.

The FBI’s statistics about the types of firearms used in gun murders in 2020 come from the bureau’s  Crime Data Explorer website . Specifically, they are drawn from the expanded homicide tables of the agency’s  2020 Crime in the United States report . The FBI’s statistics include murders and non-negligent manslaughters involving firearms.

How many people die from gun-related injuries in the U.S. each year?

In 2021, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., according to the CDC. That figure includes gun murders and gun suicides, along with three less common types of gun-related deaths tracked by the CDC: those that were accidental, those that involved law enforcement and those whose circumstances could not be determined. The total excludes deaths in which gunshot injuries played a contributing, but not principal, role. (CDC fatality statistics are based on information contained in official death certificates, which identify a single cause of death.)

What share of U.S. gun deaths are murders and what share are suicides?

Though they tend to get less public attention than gun-related murders, suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths . In 2021, 54% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides (26,328), while 43% were murders (20,958), according to the CDC. The remaining gun deaths that year were accidental (549), involved law enforcement (537) or had undetermined circumstances (458).

What share of all murders and suicides in the U.S. involve a gun?

About eight-in-ten U.S. murders in 2021 – 20,958 out of 26,031, or 81% – involved a firearm. That marked the highest percentage since at least 1968, the earliest year for which the CDC has online records. More than half of all suicides in 2021 – 26,328 out of 48,183, or 55% – also involved a gun, the highest percentage since 2001.

How has the number of U.S. gun deaths changed over time?

The record 48,830 total gun deaths in 2021 reflect a 23% increase since 2019, before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic .

Gun murders, in particular, have climbed sharply during the pandemic, increasing 45% between 2019 and 2021, while the number of gun suicides rose 10% during that span.

The overall increase in U.S. gun deaths since the beginning of the pandemic includes an especially stark rise in such fatalities among children and teens under the age of 18. Gun deaths among children and teens rose 50% in just two years , from 1,732 in 2019 to 2,590 in 2021.

How has the rate of U.S. gun deaths changed over time?

While 2021 saw the highest total number of gun deaths in the U.S., this statistic does not take into account the nation’s growing population. On a per capita basis, there were 14.6 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2021 – the highest rate since the early 1990s, but still well below the peak of 16.3 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 1974.

The gun murder rate in the U.S. remains below its peak level despite rising sharply during the pandemic. There were 6.7 gun murders per 100,000 people in 2021, below the 7.2 recorded in 1974.

The gun suicide rate, on the other hand, is now on par with its historical peak. There were 7.5 gun suicides per 100,000 people in 2021, statistically similar to the 7.7 measured in 1977. (One caveat when considering the 1970s figures: In the CDC’s database, gun murders and gun suicides between 1968 and 1978 are classified as those caused by firearms and explosives. In subsequent years, they are classified as deaths involving firearms only.)

Which states have the highest and lowest gun death rates in the U.S.?

The rate of gun fatalities varies widely from state to state. In 2021, the states with the highest total rates of gun-related deaths – counting murders, suicides and all other categories tracked by the CDC – included Mississippi (33.9 per 100,000 people), Louisiana (29.1), New Mexico (27.8), Alabama (26.4) and Wyoming (26.1). The states with the lowest total rates included Massachusetts (3.4), Hawaii (4.8), New Jersey (5.2), New York (5.4) and Rhode Island (5.6).

The results are somewhat different when looking at gun murder and gun suicide rates separately. The places with the highest gun murder rates in 2021 included the District of Columbia (22.3 per 100,000 people), Mississippi (21.2), Louisiana (18.4), Alabama (13.9) and New Mexico (11.7). Those with the lowest gun murder rates included Massachusetts (1.5), Idaho (1.5), Hawaii (1.6), Utah (2.1) and Iowa (2.2). Rate estimates are not available for Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont or Wyoming.

The states with the highest gun suicide rates in 2021 included Wyoming (22.8 per 100,000 people), Montana (21.1), Alaska (19.9), New Mexico (13.9) and Oklahoma (13.7). The states with the lowest gun suicide rates were Massachusetts (1.7), New Jersey (1.9), New York (2.0), Hawaii (2.8) and Connecticut (2.9). Rate estimates are not available for the District of Columbia.

How does the gun death rate in the U.S. compare with other countries?

The gun death rate in the U.S. is much higher than in most other nations, particularly developed nations. But it is still far below the rates in several Latin American countries, according to a 2018 study of 195 countries and territories by researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

The U.S. gun death rate was 10.6 per 100,000 people in 2016, the most recent year in the study, which used a somewhat different methodology from the CDC. That was far higher than in countries such as Canada (2.1 per 100,000) and Australia (1.0), as well as European nations such as France (2.7), Germany (0.9) and Spain (0.6). But the rate in the U.S. was much lower than in El Salvador (39.2 per 100,000 people), Venezuela (38.7), Guatemala (32.3), Colombia (25.9) and Honduras (22.5), the study found. Overall, the U.S. ranked 20th in its gun fatality rate that year .

How many people are killed in mass shootings in the U.S. every year?

This is a difficult question to answer because there is no single, agreed-upon definition of the term “mass shooting.” Definitions can vary depending on factors including the number of victims and the circumstances of the shooting.

The FBI collects data on “active shooter incidents,” which it defines as “one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.” Using the FBI’s definition, 103 people – excluding the shooters – died in such incidents in 2021 .

The Gun Violence Archive, an online database of gun violence incidents in the U.S., defines mass shootings as incidents in which four or more people are shot, even if no one was killed (again excluding the shooters). Using this definition, 706 people died in these incidents in 2021 .

Regardless of the definition being used, fatalities in mass shooting incidents in the U.S. account for a small fraction of all gun murders that occur nationwide each year.

How has the number of mass shootings in the U.S. changed over time?

The same definitional issue that makes it challenging to calculate mass shooting fatalities comes into play when trying to determine the frequency of U.S. mass shootings over time. The unpredictability of these incidents also complicates matters: As Rand Corp. noted in a research brief , “Chance variability in the annual number of mass shooting incidents makes it challenging to discern a clear trend, and trend estimates will be sensitive to outliers and to the time frame chosen for analysis.”

The FBI found an increase in active shooter incidents between 2000 and 2021. There were three such incidents in 2000. By 2021, that figure had increased to 61.

Which types of firearms are most commonly used in gun murders in the U.S.?

In 2020, the most recent year for which the FBI has published data, handguns were involved in 59% of the 13,620 U.S. gun murders and non-negligent manslaughters for which data is available. Rifles – the category that includes guns sometimes referred to as “assault weapons” – were involved in 3% of firearm murders. Shotguns were involved in 1%. The remainder of gun homicides and non-negligent manslaughters (36%) involved other kinds of firearms or those classified as “type not stated.”

It’s important to note that the FBI’s statistics do not capture the details on all gun murders in the U.S. each year. The FBI’s data is based on information voluntarily submitted by police departments around the country, and not all agencies participate or provide complete information each year.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published on Aug. 16, 2019.

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