October is, was, has been Domestic Violence Awareness month. But as this article points out, many news outlets, media outlets and women’s magazines would much rather focus on the other “awareness” for the month, Breast cancer. Both very important causes, neither more important than the other. Unfortunately the same stigma that keeps many victims of domestic abuse silent seems to be filtering over and keeping people from bringing awareness to the problem of domestic violence. Please make yourself aware of the following statistics.
- The health-related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking, and homicide by intimate partners exceed $5.8 billion each year.
- Of this total, nearly $4.1 billion is for victims requiring direct medical and mental health care services.
- Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women.
- 15% of all Domestic abuse victims are men
- Intimate partner violence victims lose nearly 8.0 million days of paid work each year - the equivalent of more than 32,000 full-time jobs and nearly 5.6 million days of household productivity
- 96% experience problems at work due to abuse
- 54% miss entire days of work
- 1,232 women are killed each year by an intimate partner.
