TOOLKIT to end VIOLENCE
against WOMEN
Toolkit to End Violence
Against Women (16 Chapters, PDF)
 Chapter
1 Strengthening Community-Based Services and Advocacy for
Victims
Chapter
2 Improving the Health and Mental Health Care Systems'
Responses to Violence Against
Women
Chapter
3 Enhancing the Response of the Justice System: Civil
Remedies
Chapter
4 Enhancing the Response of the Justice System: Criminal
Remedies
Chapter
5 Additional Justice System Responses
Chapter
6 Promoting Women's Economic Security
Chapter
7 Promoting Safety and Nonviolence on College and
University Campuses
Chapter
8 Promoting Safety and Nonviolence in the Workplace
Chapter
9 Intervention and Prevention for Children and Youth
Chapter
10 Educating and Mobilizing the Public About Violence
Against Women
Chapter
11 Engaging the Media, Advertising, and Entertainment
Industries
Chapter
12 Engaging Religious, Spiritual, and Faith-Based Groups
and Organizations
Chapter
13 Promoting Healthy, Nonviolent Attitudes and Behaviors
Through Sports
Chapter
14 Nation to Nation: Promoting the Safety of Native Women
Chapter
15 The Role of the U.S. Military in Preventing and
Responding to Violence Against Women
Source: U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Offices on Women's
Health
Domestic
violence encompasses partner violence, family violence,
spouse abuse, child abuse, battering and wife beating. This
type of violence takes many forms and can happen
consistently or sporadically and can include the following
behaviors exhibited by a boyfriend, husband or intimate
partner:
-
Name-calling or put-downs
-
Isolation from family or
friends
-
Withholding money
-
Actual or threatened
physical harm
-
Sexual assault
There are
other examples of domestic violence, however, the behaviors
listed are common warning signs -- knowing these signs is an
important step in preventing and stopping violence.
Approximately 95 percent of the victims of domestic violence
are women. However, violence also happens in both gay and
lesbian relationships and in a small number of cases, by
women against men. Battering is the establishment of control
and fear in a relationship through violence and other forms
of abuse. The batterer uses acts of violence and a series of
behaviors, including intimidation, threats, psychological
abuse, isolation, etc., to coerce and control the other
person. The violence may not happen often but it remains as
a hidden and constant terrorizing factor.
The facts
on domestic violence:
-
A woman is beaten every 15
seconds.
-
Domestic violence is the
leading cause of injury to women between ages 15 and 44 in
the United States, more than car accidents, mugging and
rape combined.
-
Battered women are more
likely to suffer miscarriages and give birth to low
birth-weight babies.
-
63% of young men between
the ages of 11 and 20 serving time for homicide have
killed their mother's abuser.
-
One in five women
victimized by their spouses or ex-spouses report they had
been victimized over and over again by the same person.
-
Domestic violence does not
occur only in poor, urban areas. Women of all cultures,
races, occupations, income levels and ages are battered.
-
22 to 35 percent of women
who visit medical emergency rooms are there for injuries
related to ongoing partner abuse.
-
One in four pregnant women
have a history of partner violence.
-
Women who leave their
batterers are at a 75% greater risk of being killed by
their batterer than those who stay.
-
In the United States, 50%
of all homeless women and children are on the streets
because of violence in the home.
-
There are nearly three
times as many animal shelters in the United States as
there are shelters for battered women and their children.
Sources: Bureau of Justice
Statistics, Report to the Nation on Crime and Justice,
October 1983; Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of
Investigation, 1991; Surgeon General, United States, 1992;
March of Dimes, 1992; The Basics of Batterer Treatment,
Common Purpose, Inc., Jamaica Plain, MA; Domestic Violence:
Battered Women, Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge, Mass.;
Journal of the American Medical Association, 1992; U.S.
Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Violence Against Women:
Victims of the System, 1991; National Coalition Against
Domestic Violence |
