Families combat violence -FBI est. 50% of women in US will be involved in a violent relationship

journal-news.net ^

[chance33_98]

Families combat violence

West Virginia ranks fourth in the nation for domestic assault

By EDWARD MARSHALL

Journal Staff Writer

MARTINSBURG - The goal of a recent Shenandoah Women's Center-sponsored public forum was to help increase public awareness of the growing problem of domestic violence throughout West Virginia.

But the forum's low turnout left some officials and audience members discouraged their message isn't reaching the public.

"I just thought it was interesting that we sent out over 400 flyers as well as doing a good job of publicizing the forum well in advance, yet the community didn't respond as we had hoped," said Ann Smith, executive director for the Shenandoah Women's Center.

Smith said there is a false notion that domestic violence is more of a personal issue and not an issue that affects the entire community.

For victims, the violence is deeply personal. For the community, domestic violence has a number of indirect, detrimental effects.

Increased court costs and caseloads, increased medical and insurance costs, more police hours diverted to handling domestic violence calls and businesses held liable if the violence occurs in the workplace are just a few examples.

In the case of medical and insurance costs, about 37 percent of women who seek treatment in emergency rooms for violence- related injuries were injured by a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend.

Since domestic violence became a crime in 1992, West Virginia has made great strides in attempting to educate the public about the problem of domestic violence and where victims can go to get help.

The violence emerges from the dark

"Years ago, you didn't hear so much about it," said Beth Shelley, of the Shenandoah Women's Center. "There was kind of a 'good ol' boy' attitude - it was a man thing. Now, it's starting to come more out in the open."

"Back then, when I was younger, nothing was said about it. You used to talk with people over the fence and ask them, 'Could you hear the beating last night?'" said Avis Baskerville of Martinsburg.

"Ten years ago, I never heard of shelters, domestic violence, or statewide programs. It wasn't until I started reading articles and getting information that my eyes opened up," Shelley said.

"Police are much more helpful now, too, A long time ago it used to be that the police had to witness the person beating you to do anything about it," said Vicki Johnson, of the Shenandoah Women's Center.

Though services are available to victims from state-funded agencies and nonprofit independent organizations like the Women's Center, domestic violence is a growing problem.

While West Virginia historically has had a low crime rate, domestic violence and intimate partner violence are common.

West Virginia has the fourth highest number of reported incidents of domestic violence in the entire country. And reported domestic violence incidents rose from 2,565 incidents in 1989 to 10,397 in 1998, according to statistics from the West Virginia Department of Justice.

In 1998, 30 percent of all West Virginia homicides were related to domestic violence. Every two weeks, there is a domestic violence-related homicide in West Virginia.

Heather Moses, of the Shenandoah's Women center, said one of the biggest myths is that domestic violence only affects specific segments of the population such as the underprivileged or the poor.

"Anybody can be affected by it. Domestic violence is about power and maintaining power. The abuser uses power to control the victim. Anyone, any class, gender, age, race or religion can become a victim. One of the biggest myths is that it only affects those in the lower classes," Moses said.

The FBI estimates 50 percent of women in the United States will be involved in a violent relationship some time in their lives. A Common Wealth Fund survey conducted in 1998 found that nearly one-third of American women reported being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some time.

Thirty percent of Americans report that they know a woman who has been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year.

Police are on the front lines of the fight

Combatting domestic violence is not easy. Police, courts, victims' services and the victims themselves face an uphill battle.

Solving the problem requires a close examination of all sides of the issue, officials say.

Police officers in West Virginia are often on the front lines of the battle. Domestic violence presents one of the highest risks in an officer's job.

The most well-known recent event was in Elkins when several officers were wounded while attempting to serve a domestic violence warrant on a man who allegedly had shot a police officer the day before.

And just days after Trooper First Class R.J. Elswick was awarded the purple heart medal earlier this month for being critically wounded in the line of duty in October 2002 after responding to a report of a domestic dispute, another West Virginia state trooper was shot.

On May 11, Senior Trooper F.E. Holcomb, 29, of the Point Pleasant Detachment, was ambushed in Mason County and shot while responding to a domestic dispute in progress.

Sgt. E.D. Burnett of the West Virginia State Police's Martinsburg Detachment said officers are trained to respond to domestic violence situations, but the inherent unpredictability at the scene can still pose a significant danger.

"In terms of danger on a scale of one to ten, I'd say domestic calls are about an eight or a nine," said Burnett.

Capt. Barb Bartley, of the Martinsburg City Police Department, agreed.

"It's extremely dangerous," Bartley said. "The standoff in Elkins proves the point. That and incidents such as the Elswick shooting really hit close to home."

[ClearCase_guy]

My understanding is that women hit men more often than men hit women. I also understand that domestic violence is higher in same-sex relationships than in heterosexual relationships -- and is especially high among lesbians.

So, the 50% figure probably indicates that women start it most of the time, and men are victims far more often than perpetrators. But ... that's the opposite of what they want you to believe.

[Drango]

If we include Super Bowl Sunday I bet the number is higher than 50%...

[putupon]

MARTINSBURG - The goal of a recent Shenandoah Women's Center-

Shenandoah Women's Center? This has to be fiction written by some kind of Blair clone; no way is there a medical facility in West Virginia not named after Robert (KKK) Byrd. The Shenandoah Valley isn't even in WVa anyhow, it's 2 valleys to the east.

[SauronOfMordor]

domesticviolence.org has:

Definition

Domestic violence and emotional abuse are behaviors used by one person in a relationship to control the other. Partners may be married or not married; heterosexual, gay, or lesbian; living together, separated or dating. 

Examples of abuse include:

• name-calling or putdowns 
• keeping a partner from contacting their family or friends 
• withholding money 
• stopping a partner from getting or keeping a job 
• actual or threatened physical harm 
• sexual assault 
• stalking 
• intimidation

Violence can be criminal and includes physical assault (hitting, pushing, shoving, etc.), sexual abuse (unwanted or forced sexual activity), and stalking. Although emotional, psychological and financial abuse are not criminal behaviors, they are forms of abuse and can lead to criminal violence. 

The violence takes many forms and can happen all the time or once in a while. An important step to help yourself or someone you know in preventing or stopping violence is recognizing the warning signs listed on the "Violence Wheel."

[ninenot]

Well, that's easy. The article points out: "former husbands, current-and-former-boyfriends."

If you dig a little deeper into the numbers, it's likely that you'll find 'married' abuse is the smallest part of the number--by far.

Boyfriend, former boyfriend, and former husband stuff is the vast majority of the problem.

If you play, you pay.

[ninenot]

It's nothing we can't handle with a $50 billion budget and twenty-five rooms full of bureaucrats!

You can expect to see more and more of these "news" stories as State budgets get smaller due to the recession.

[ninenot]

If we include Super Bowl Sunday I bet the number is higher than 50%...

Much higher.

It's simple: you ADD the SuperBowl Sunday number to the 'background' number, and you get 130% rate on just that day!!!!

[A. Pole]

domesticviolence.org has:

Examples of abuse include:[...] withholding money

Wow!

[cgbg]

There is a woman at work who is subjected to violence on a consistent basis.

She likes boyfriends who are ex-cons and then has children with them.

They don't work for a living so she kicks them out.

They get angry and periodically pay her a visit and beat her up.

Repeat the pattern a few times and you have one woman who is a punching bag.

My question for the statisticians is simply this:

What percent of women with an IQ over 100 have been subjected to physical violence?

[ladyjane]

the 50% figure probably indicates that women start it most of the time

LOL. Another Freeper Leap!

[mewzilla]

Well, I just e-mailed them with a request for the source for the fig. I'll let you know if they get back to me.

[chance33_98]

I'll let you know if they get back to me.

Tell them if they don't there is a 50% chance you will beat the crap out of them...

[lepton]

The FBI estimates 50 percent of women in the United States will be involved in a violent relationship some time in their lives.

Oh, it probably is true. Note how loose "violent" is defined, and how broadly "relationship" is defined - not to mention the qualification of "some time in their lives."

What I wonder is if they are including "violent relationships" where it is the woman conducting the bulk of the "violence".

How many men are involved in a violent relationship at least once in their life?

[maxwell]

Gad. The numbers getcha every time, don't they.

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that unless I personally measure it, any stat I see is bullsh!t, no matter who spouts it.

Trust noone. Believe nothing. And pass the pipe.

[mountaineer]

The U.S. Atty for the Northern District of W.Va. has gotten involved in the domestic violence issue, it seems, although it's not clear whether this is a state or federal program:

Although the war on terrorism continues, United States Attorney Thomas Johnston has launched another - the war on domestic violence.

During his keynote speech at the Fraternal Order of Police Law Day Dinner held at the River City Ale Works on Wednesday, Johnston said a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control in 2001 showed that West Virginia ranked fifth in domestic violence.

In 2002 Project Safe Homes was launched as an effort to curb domestic violence in the Northern District of West Virginia, he said. Since the project has been enacted, all persons convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence lose the right to own a firearm for life.

"In West Virginia we have our fair share of crime. Although it's low compared to other states, unfortunately we are one of the leaders in domestic violence," he said.

Although the amount of success has yet to be measured, the project's aim is to deter domestic violence. Another campaign to get the word out about Project Safe Homes is about to be launched. He is hopeful that success of the campaign and the project itself can be measured by the end of this year.

"Ninety percent of domestic violence victims are women ... children also suffer in these environments," he said. "We can do better for women and children in West Virginia." source.

[Jay D. Dyson]

The FBI estimates 50 percent of women in the United States will be involved in a violent relationship some time in their lives.

Wonder how they got that number? (Random # generator?)

No kidding. Reminds me of the bogus "news" that was released a few years ago that claimed that women were more likely to be assaulted by their husbands during the Superbowl. A few days later, the people behind the prank came forward and stated that they'd done it to show how gullible the media is when it hears a message it wants to hear.

Fifty-percent of all women will be in a violent relationship, eh? I'll bet the "violence" includes "incidents" in which the man actually (*gasp!*) raises his voice...

-Jay

[HiTech RedNeck]

"37% of women treated for trauma in Emergency rooms have been abused"?

For 37% that is the REASON for the ER visit? Or for 37% there has been some violent incident in their past regardless of how minor.

[LadyDoc]

You asked about the 37 percent of women in emergency rooms.

The number of abuse cases is not that high. But if you take a history if they have ever been abused, 37 percent or about one third will say yes.

But emergency rooms don't see a cross section of the public.

Car accidents are more common with drinkers and druggies and those who ride in cars with drunks and druggies. (like women who have abusive drunk/druggie boyfriends/husbands).

Many abused women are depressed, take drugs/alcohol or (more commonly) legal tranquillizers, and have accidents because they are klutzy when they take these drugs/medicines. so you see broken ankles, kitchen cuts, fall from porches etc. at a much higher rate than in the routine population (some are of course pushed off the porch etc by boyfriend/husbane and lie about it).

And abused ladies are often depressed/poor me/victims who just are so disorganized/lazy/depressed that they just can't manage to get to the doctor, so they come to the emergency room for colds etc that you or I would treat ourselves or wait to see the doctor the next day.

So the numbers tend to be higher in emergency rooms than in offices. However, if you include all abuse, the statistics for all women is probably 10 percent who have been seriously abused or serially abused. But I don't have statistics on this; like most personal things, it's hard to estimate correctly, because it's hard to draw the line on exactly what is abuse....

[mewzilla]

Here's a copy of the e-mail I received from Marshall:

Dear Reader: I received your email today inquiring about where I got the FBI statistic for the domestic violence article that I wrote. The statistic is from a report compiled by the West Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services. The report is entitled the West Virginia Stop Violence Against Women Plan for the fiscal year for 2001. Within the report you will find the statistic and numerous others as well as the citations for the original sources that were used to obtain the statistics. You can find an online copy of the report at www.wvdcjs.com/publications/vawaplan.pdf or by searching the West Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services website at www.wvdcjs.com. If you have any other questions feel free to email me. Edward Marshall Berkeley County Crime Reporter The Martinsburg Journal Visit The Journal Online http://www.journal-news.net/

I haven't had time to check out his citation yet, so I'm not sure how this is an FBI stat. But I'll give him points for getting back to me with his source.