Transcript When Love Hurts - United Church of Jesus Christ (Apostolic)

Confronting Domestic Violence
Debra Johnson, JD
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While at UCLA
◦ Rape Crisis Center
◦ Battered Women Shelter
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While in Office
◦ DVTF
◦ DV March
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Domestic violence is a pattern of behavior
used to establish power and control over
another person through fear and
intimidation, often including the threat or use
of violence. Domestic violence can include
physical, emotional, psychological, economic,
and/or sexual abuse. Abusers use threats,
intimidation, isolation, and other behaviors to
gain and maintain power over their victims.
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Domestic violence can affect anyone,
regardless of income, race, ethnicity, sexual
orientation, gender identity or religion. One
in four women will experience domestic
violence in her lifetime. Domestic violence
occurs in same-sex relationships, and men
can be victims as well.
Other terms for domestic violence
include intimate partner violence, battering,
relationship abuse, spousal abuse, or family
violence.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice,
domestic violence may include:
 Physical abuse such as slapping, kicking,
hitting, shoving, or other physical force.
 Sexual abuse including rape, sexual assault,
forced prostitution, or interfering with birth
control.
 Emotional abuse such as shouting, namecalling, humiliation, constant criticism, or
harming the victim’s relationship with her or
his children.
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Psychological abuse including threats to harm
the victims' family, friends, children, coworkers, or pets, isolation, mind games,
destruction of victims' property, or stalking.
Economic abuse such as controlling the
victim’s money, withholding money for basic
needs, interfering with school or job, or
damaging the victim’s credit.
Several or all of the above forms of violence
and abuse may take place.
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Are you ever afraid of your partner?
Does your partner threaten to hurt you?
Does your partner control all the money?
Has your partner ever pushed you or shoved you,
thrown things at you, or forced you to have sex?
Does your partner stalk you or show up uninvited
at your job or when you’re out with friends?
If you said yes to one or more of these questions,
you may be a victim of domestic violence.
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Talk with people you trust such as friends, family,
neighbors and co-workers. Let them know what is
happening and talk about ways they might be able to help.
Consider what you might do to increase safety during an
argument or if you can tell abuse is coming. For example,
some rooms in your home may be safer than others.
Memorize the numbers you might need to use in an
emergency, like 911, a friend’s or family member’s
number, or the local hotline. In New York City, you can get
to Safe Horizon’s Domestic Violence Hotline by calling
311. Keep in mind that the person hurting you could take
your cell phone from you, so memorizing numbers or
keeping a list of numbers somewhere safe may be helpful.
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Plan how you would escape if you needed to. If you live in an apartment
building, make sure you know all the ways out of the building. Consider
what routes you could take to get to transportation, and where you
could go to get to safety. You could learn how to get to a local police
station, fire department, hospital emergency room, or 24-hour store.
You might want to identify a route to the subway that is different from
your usual route, and plan to use that in an emergency.
Consider talking with your children about safety. Some survivors teach
their children how to call 911, or talk with them about a neighbor’s
home or place in the community that may be a safe place to go in an
emergency.
Prepare an emergency bag. You may want to put together a bag that
includes money, copies of house and car keys, medicine, and copies of
important papers such as birth certificates, social security cards,
immigration documents, court orders, and health insurance information.
The bag could also include extra clothes, important phone numbers, or
other things you might need if you had to leave your home in a hurry. If
you prepare an emergency bag, you may be able to keep it at a trusted
friend’s or family member’s home.
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The Violence Against Women Act: has provisions designed
to improve both victim services and arrest and prosecution
of batterers. As described by the National Coalition of
Domestic Violence, VAWA created a national domestic
violence hotline and allocated substantial funds for a
number of different kinds of initiatives and programs,
including shelters and other services for battered women,
judicial education and training programs, and programs to
increase outreach to rural women. A provision of VAWA
that created a federal civil right of action—a right of action
that would have allowed a victim of violence, such as
sexual assault or domestic violence, to sue the perpetrator
for civil damages resulting from the attack—was
challenged as unconstitutional under United States law.
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The Family Violence Prevention and Services
Act
The Family Violence Prevention and Services
Act (FVPSA) provides the main federal funding
to help victims of domestic violence and their
dependents (such as children). Programs
funded through FVPSA provide shelter and
related help. They also offer violence
prevention activities and try to improve how
service agencies work together in
communities.
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The Victims of Trafficking and Violence
Prevention Act of 2000 created a new form of
relief for victims of domestic violence in the
United States. The new law created “U-Visas,”
which allow immigrants who are victims of
certain crimes, including domestic violence,
or have information about those crimes, to
apply for residency in the United States. A law
enforcement official must certify that the
individual’s assistance is necessary for the
investigation.
 New
York
 New Jersey
 North Carolina
 South Carolina
 Maryland
 UCJC
Black Book
 Local Church by-laws and
policies
 Women’s Departments
 Support groups