Behind Closed Doors ($8.3 billion annually)

[donsu]

http://www.counterpunch.com/marshall10202006.html


The Invisibility of Domestic Violence


October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM). Coming as it does during the same month as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) and Halloween, DVAM receives far less attention than the pink ribbons, ghosts and goblins. This is ironically fitting since domestic violence (DV) is so frequently an unseen crime. Despite being the most common type of violence experienced by women, only 20% of rapes and sexual assaults and 25% of physical assaults against women in the U.S. are reported to law enforcement authorities.

Definitions of domestic violence can include stalking and psychological abuse as well as physical and sexual assault, such as rape. While men can also be victimized by domestic violence, 85% of the victims are women and 95% of the perpetrators of domestic violence against both men and women (as well as children) are men. Domestic violence is the most common form of violence against women, not only here in the U.S., but globally as well. A recent study by the World Health Organization found that intimate personal violence (IPV) rates around the world varied from 15% in Yokohama, Japan to 71% in Ethiopia. Here in the U.S. one out of four women will be assaulted by a partner during her lifetime.

The economic costs of intimate personal violence are also enormous. According to the latest figures, in 2003 dollars, IPV costs $8.3 billion annually in the U.S. alone. Costs include the cost of physical and psychological care as well as lost work time. It is estimated that victims of severe IPV lose 8 million days of paid work every year.

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Unfortunately for many women, making the homeland safer is not much use while they are being terrorized in their own homes. We will not be able to stop domestic violence until the personal safety of women is seen as an inalienable human right whose defense is a top priority in our national expenditures.
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and the cost to the children that witness this is uncountable