We need to understand victims of domestic violence, not shame them

The absence of accurate figures on domestic violence speaks volumes about a society that disbelieves women who live in fear

More than 10,000 women and children face the possibility of being murdered or seriously injured by their partners or exes. Even more saddening is that this figure is an underestimation of the true scale of the domestic violence problem. Almost 40% of female murder victims, that is two women a week, die at the hands of someone that is, or was, an intimate partner. These statistics, horrific as there are, have an ability to simply wash over us and become part of the drip drip of things to feel awful about but powerless to change. The numbers never manage to fully convey the reality of a life terrorised by a person who insists a slap, punch or kick is a sign of love.

This week the organisation Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse published research on how agencies can effectively help children living with domestic violence, 50% of whom are unknown to public bodies. They are the faceless many: 130,000 to be exact. These children appear overly aggressive, at times agitated, and prone to jumping at the sound of bodies aggressively moving against each other, doors being slammed and objects smashed. Or they are distant in social contexts, unwilling and unable to bring friends back home, and particularly attuned to the ways in which voices can carry gut-wrenching fear of imminent physical pain.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/28/understand-victims-domestic-violence-shame