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Domestic Violence

  • Healing the Family After Child Sexual Abuse

    Have you discovered that your child has been abused? It is an overwhelming time for you and your family. One step you may find helpful is to use this trauma as the impetus to create a very open, honest, and supportive family life. Here's how...

  • Tips for Safeguarding Your Child

    Above all, encourage children to recognize, trust and follow their instincts -- and listen to your own instincts. If a situation or person makes you or your child uneasy, believe in your feelings and act on them.

  • Helping a Friend Break the Cycle

    If you know someone who is being abused, you can help her by showing you care. Let her speak confidentially about her situation and without judgment. You may be the only person with whom she feels comfortable. Show you care in these ways:

    • Listen to her
    • Believe her
    • Do not minimize her struggle
    • Do not judge her
    • Do not blame her
    • Assure her that she is not responsible for the abuse
    • Tell her it's not her fault. You can never make someone else hurt you

  • Domestic Violence: Myths and Facts

    Myths and facts about domestic violence

    Myth: Domestic violence does not affect many people.

    Fact: Nearly one in three adult women experiences at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood. (American Psychological Assn., Violence and the Family: Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family, 1996)

    Myth: Battering is only a momentary loss of temper.

  • Personalized Safety Plan

    Your safety is the most important thing. Listed below are tips to help keep you safe. These resources can help you to make a safety plan that works best for you. It is important to get help with your safety plan.

  • The Facts About Domestic Violence

    Domestic violence is a problem that affects every community across the country. It crosses all races, social and economic backgrounds, cultures, religions and relationship types

  • What Happens in Court

    You will probably have to wait in the courthouse before your case comes up, so you should plan to spend most of the day there. Some courthouses have child care services. Try to find out before you go to court, If they do not, try to leave your children with someone...

  • Can People Who Batter Change?

    This is a common question with a complicated answer. Some people do make changes in their actions and the beliefs that underlie the violence. Such change takes a long period of time. And some people may not change, even if they attend a batterer intervention program.

  • What Can You Do to Change a Life?

    Many children who witness traumatizing acts are reluctant to speak about them. Some are threatened by adults, and some are simply embarrassed to admit what's going on at home. Non-judgmental support, comfort and understanding are the most important things to offer children of abuse.

  • Are You in Danger?

    All battering is dangerous; one push or shove could result in death. Battering increases in frequency and severity over time. Certain behaviors, actions and words by an abuser, however, indicate particular danger for you.

  • Survival

    When I was about 7, a close relative married a man about 20 years her senior. My parents trusted them. This was family after all. As a couple, they took my sister and me everywhere with them. This "gentle" man was a public official in town. All of my family thought he was a man to be respected.

  • Am I Being Abused?

    Think about how you are being treated and how you treat your partner. Remember, when one person scares, hurts or continually puts down the other person, it's abuse.

  • Facing Violence as a Child

    As a child, I was witness to many events that a child should not see. Many had no clue of the horrors that went on behind closed doors and those that knew turned a blind eye. As a child I had no understanding of what was going on around me. I only knew a life of violence handed out to my mother by my alcoholic father.

  • Helping a Friend Break the Cycle

    If you know someone who is being abused, you can help her by showing you care. Let her speak confidentially about her situation and without judgment. You may be the only person with whom she feels comfortable. Show you care in these ways:

    • Listen to her
    • Believe her
    • Do not minimize her struggle
    • Do not judge her
    • Do not blame her
    • Assure her that she is not responsible for the abuse
    • Tell her it's not her fault. You can never make someone else hurt you

  • Child Sexual Abuse

    Child sexual abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year, but the number of unreported instances is far greater, because the children are afraid to tell anyone what has happened, and the legal procedure for validating an episode is difficult.

  • Domestic Violence: Myths and Facts

    Myths and facts about domestic violence

    Myth: Domestic violence does not affect many people.

    Fact: Nearly one in three adult women experiences at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood. (American Psychological Assn., Violence and the Family: Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family, 1996)

    Myth: Battering is only a momentary loss of temper.

  • Barriers to Leaving A Violent Relationship

    Reasons why women stay generally fall into three major categories -- lack of resources, institutional responses and traditional ideology.

  • Personalized Safety Plan

    Your safety is the most important thing. Listed below are tips to help keep you safe. These resources can help you to make a safety plan that works best for you. It is important to get help with your safety plan.

  • Predictors Of Domestic Violence

    The following signs often occur before actual abuse and may serve as clues to potential abuse

  • Healing the Family After Child Sexual Abuse

    Have you discovered that your child has been abused? It is an overwhelming time for you and your family. One step you may find helpful is to use this trauma as the impetus to create a very open, honest, and supportive family life. Here's how...