One of the most underrated issues in American society today is domestic violence. While many choose to blame silence, I choose to blame a lack of understanding.
In an attempt to inform you of the severity of this topic, I ask: What is domestic violence?
The first thing you need to know is that domestic violence can happen to absolutely anyone. Your race, age, sexual orientation, religion and gender cannot protect you from an abusive partner. They will not make you immune to your partner’s repetitive blows to your physical and emotional self. The only thing that can protect you is knowledge, knowing how to spot the abuse, and choosing to react.
An abusive partner will use physical, emotional, sexual and financial tactics to establish his/her power and control in the relationship. These tactics may be as subtle as acting jealous or possessive, or they may be as direct as slapping you for not doing the laundry.
It is not always easy to tell, at the beginning of the relationship, if your partner will become abusive, but if your partner’s possessive and controlling behaviors intensify throughout the span of your relationship, call The National Domestic Violence Hotline to talk about what’s going on.
Signs that your relationship is becoming abusive include: discouraging you, forbidding you from spending time with other people, shaming you in public, controlling the money in the household, frightening you, telling you that you’re a bad parent, preventing you from going to school or work, destroying your property, threatening you with or without the use of weapons and pressuring you to have sex or do drugs.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline reports that more than one in three women and one in four men in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime. In 2012, there were 1,602 reported domestic violence offenses in Alachua Country.
While this issue may seem far away to you in the early stages of your relationship, domestic violence is very real and very prominent in America today.
If you want to prevent domestic violence from creeping into your relationship, remember to communicate and set boundaries with your partner.
