Domestic violence: a criminal justice and public health concern

Creating a 'whole' person is priority for RAVE staff

By Rhonda Westfall

The mass of statistical data on domestic violence and sexual assault that is churned out each year by various national agencies is certainly necessary and worthwhile.

Those cold, hard numbers don't mean that much to people like Hope Hause and Marjorie Tait, however.

As members of the RAVE counseling staff, their concern is with real people - mending broken spirits and creating a new, emotionally stable individual. Both ladies agree that process is long, and sometimes even impossible.

"It can take years - a really, really long time," says Hause, a sexual assault counselor at RAVE, the majority of whose clients are survivors of incest - a particularly heinous form of domestic violence.

For incest survivors, just taking the initial step of seeking help often comes years after the assaults occurred.

"Many of the clients I work with come to me in their late 20s - they get to that point in their lives and just can’t handle (the guilt) anymore," Hause says, noting that in the majority of incest cases, the mother knew what was happening but did nothing to protect her daughter.

"It's rare to have a client whose mother offered her protection - quite often, the mother herself was being abused."

Because the assault took place when the person was a young child - and they had no help or protection from adults - their instinct is to suppress their feelings. Incest victims often feel that they did something to cause the assaults, and may end up in abusive situations with their own partners later in life.

"During their childhood, they learned to be a victim," Hause says. "Often, subconsciously, they feel like they need to be punished."

Feelings of guilt and denial also run high among women who live with an abusive partner.

"Typically, a person doesn’t enter into a relationship expecting it to be abusive," says Tait, a legal advocate counselor at RAVE. "They may ignore warning signals and focus on the more positive points in the relationship.

"As the tactics of abuse come more into focus, the victim often has such a vested interest in keeping the relationship going that it's harder to get out."

Adding to the feelings of guilt and denial is the fact that batterers often hide behind excuses and are good at camouflaging the assaults.

"Batterers can be very charming - the episodes of verbal and physical violence are mixed with messages of love, commitment, and loyalty," Tait says. "Domestic abuse is about power and control - it's not about the relationship."

Breaking that cycle of violence and abuse is difficult.

"A turning point for incest survivors is when they get angry - at both the perpetrator and at the mother who did nothing to protect them," Hause says. "They need to re-direct the anger and guilt they’ve been taking on themselves, and then work through that anger."

While incest survivors will always feel some amount of rage at what they’ve experienced, it is possible to come out as a "whole" person.

"An individual I've worked with has been able to leave a marriage that involved an abusive partner and is making good choices now for herself and her children," Hause says. "She's not afraid of being alone and on her own."

Obtaining that feeling of self-sufficiency is a vital part of the healing process for all individuals involved in scenarios of domestic violence.

"Once the victim is able to define themself, there are still a number of issues to work through - safety being paramount," Tait says, noting that an increased awareness about domestic violence and sexual assault is creating a better environment for individuals to gain assistance.

"Public service providers and law enforcement agencies know what the warning signs of abuse and assault are, and can offer support.

Domestic violence: a criminal justice and public health concern

Nearly 5 million intimate partner rapes and physical assaults against women - and close to 3 million rapes and assaults against men - take place each year in the United States.

That makes the issue of intimate partner violence "a serious criminal justice and public health concern," according to the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which conducted a survey on the topic and released its findings in July 2000

The following data is part of the executive summary from that national report.

* Intimate partner violence is pervasive in U.S. society. Nearly 25 percent of surveyed women and 7.5 percent of surveyed men said they were raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date at some time in their lifetime.

* 1.5 percent of surveyed women and 0.9 percent of surveyed men said they were raped and/or physically assaulted by a partner in the previous 12 months. According to these estimates, approximately 1.5 million women and 834,732 men are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the U.S. * Because many victims are victimized more than once, the number of intimate partner victimizations exceeds the number of intimate partner victims annually. Approximately 4.9 million intimate partner rapes and physical assaults are perpetrated against U.S. women annually, and approximately 2.9 million intimate partner physical assaults are committed against U.S. men annually.

* Violence perpetrated against women by intimates is often accompanied by emotionally abusive and controlling behavior. Women whose partners were jealous, controlling, or verbally abusive were significantly more likely to report being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked by their partners, even when other sociodemographic and relationship characteristics were controlled.

* Having a verbally abusive partner was the variable most likely to predict that a woman would be victimized by an intimate partner. These findings support the theory that violence perpetrated against women by intimates is often part of a systematic pattern of dominance and control.

* Women experience more chronic and injurious physical assaults at the hands of intimate partners than do men. Women who were physically assaulted by an intimate partner averaged 6.9 physical assaults by the same partner, but men averaged 4.4 assaults.

* 41.5 percent of the women who were physically assaulted by an intimate partner were injured during their most recent assault, compared with 19.9 percent of the men..

* The U.S. medical community treats millions of intimate partner rapes and physical assaults annually. Of the estimated 4.9 million intimate partner rapes and physical assaults against women, approximately 2 million will result in an injury to the victim, and 570,457 will result in some type of medical treatment to the victim.

• Of the estimated 2.9 million intimate partner physical assaults against men annually, 581,391 will result in an injury to the victim, and 124,999 will result in some type of medical treatment to the victim.
• Because many medically treated victims receive multiple forms of care (e.g., ambulance services, emergency room care, or physical therapy) and multiple treatments (e.g., several days in the hospital) for the same victimization, medical personnel in the United States treat millions of intimate partner victimizations annually.