Domestic Violence Myths & Facts
MYTH: Domestic violence is rare and affects only a small percentage of the population. FACT:National studies estimate that nearly one in four women in the United States reports experiencing violence by a current or former spouse or boyfriend at some point in her life. In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published data collected in 2005 that finds that women experience two million injuries from intimate partner violence each year. Approximately thirty percent of female homicide victims are killed by partners or ex-partners and approximately 1,200 women are murdered as a result of domestic violence each year in the United States. |
MYTH: Domestic violence occurs only in poor, uneducated and minority families. FACT: Studies of domestic violence have consistently found that battering occurs among all types of families, regardless of income, profession, region, ethnicity, educational level or race. However, the fact that lower income victims and abusers are over-represented in calls to police, battered women's shelters and social services may be due to a lack of other resources. |
MYTH: Battered women are masochistic and provoke the abuse. They must like it or they would leave. FACT: Victim provocation is no more common in domestic violence than in any other crime. Battered women often make repeated attempts to leave violent relationships, but are prevented from doing so by increased violence and control tactics on the part of the abuser. Other factors which inhibit a victim's ability to leave include economic dependence, few viable options for housing and support, unhelpful responses from the criminal justice system or other agencies, social isolation, cultural or religious constraints, a commitment to the abuser and the relationship and also the fear of further violence. It has been estimated that the danger to a victim increases by 70% when she attempts to leave, as the abuser escalates his use of violence when he begins to lose control of the situation. |
MYTH: Alcohol abuse causes domestic violence. FACT: Although there is a high correlation between alcohol, or other substance abuse, and battering, it is not a causal relationship. Batterers use drinking as one of many excuses for their violence and as a way to place the responsibility for their violence elsewhere. Stopping the abuser's drinking will not stop the violence. Both battering and substance abuse need to be addressed separately, as overlapping yet independent problems. |
MYTH: Domestic violence is usually a one time, isolated occurence. FACT: Battering is a pattern of coercion and control that one person exerts over another. Battering is not just one physical attack. It includes the repeated use of a number of tactics, including intimidation, threats, economic deprivation, isolation and psychological and sexual abuse. Physical violence is just one of these tactics. The various forms of abuse utilized by batterers help to maintain power and control over their spouses and partners. |
MYTH: Domestic violence calls are the most dangerous for law enforcement, resulting in the highest number of police fatalities. FACT: According to the US Department of Justice, Domestic Violence ranks FIFTH in police fatalities, after 1) traffic violation stops, 2) unprovoked ambush situations, |
MYTH: Men who batter are often good fathers and should have joint custody of their children if the couple separates. FACT: Studies have found that men who batter their wives also abuse their children at least 50% of cases. Even when children are not directly abused, they suffer as a result of witnessing one parent assault another. Batterers often display an increased interest in their children at the time of separation, as a means of maintaining contact with, and thus control over, their partners. |
MYTH: When there is violence in the family, all family members must change for the violence to stop. FACT: Only the batterer has the ability to stop the violence. Battering is a behavioral choice for which the batterer must be held accountable. Many battered women make numerous attempts to change their behavior in the hope that this will stop the abuse. This does not work. Changes in family members' behavior will not cause the batterer to be non-violent. |
MYTH: Men have a right to discipline their partners for misbehaving. Battering is not a crime. FACT: While our society derives from a patriarchal legal system that afforded men the right to physically chastise their wives and children, we do not live under such a system now. Women and children are no longer considered the property of men, and domestic violence is a crime in every state in the country. |
adapted from The Clark County Prosecutor
