NATIONAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH
National Domestic Violence Awareness Month is an annual designation observed in October. For many, home is a place of love, warmth, and comfort. It’s somewhere that you know you will be surrounded by care and support, and a nice little break from the busyness of the real world. But for millions of others, home is anything but a sanctuary. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are victims of physical violence by a partner every year.
Every 9 seconds, a woman in the U.S. is beaten or assaulted by a current or ex-significant other.
1 in 4 men are victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner.
Federal Way police dedicated to breaking the cycle of domestic violence
By Andy Hwang
Federal Way Chief of Police
Domestic violence is a serious crime that affects people of all incomes, races, ages, and gender. This social problem exists in every community and Federal Way is no exception.
In our city, police officers respond to over 2,700 domestic violence calls each year and it is consistently in our top five calls-for-service each month – about seven calls-per-day. Even with the significant number of calls responded to by police, 70% of domestic violence that occurs goes unreported.
Read more Here
HOW TO OBSERVE
Use #DomesticViolenceAwareness to post on social media. Sometimes, people don’t know if they are really in an abusive relationship because they’re used to their partner calling them crazy or making them feel like all the problems are their own fault. Here are a few ways to know if you’re in an abusive relationship that you need to get out of.
Your partner has hit you, beat you, or strangled you in the past.
Your partner is possessive. They check up on you constantly wondering where you are; they get mad at you for hanging out with certain people if you don’t do what they say.
Your partner is jealous. (A small amount of jealousy is normal and healthy) however, if they accuse you of being unfaithful or isolate you from family or friends, that means the jealousy has gone too far.
Your partner puts you down. They attack your intelligence, looks, mental health, or capabilities. They blame you for all of their violent outbursts and tell you nobody else will want you if you leave.
Your partner threatens you or your family.
Your partner physically and sexually abuses you. If they EVER push, shove, or hit you, or make you have sex with them when you don’t want to, they are abusing you (even if it doesn’t happen all the time.)
Seattle Action Network 