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 Domestic violence is an insidious
widespread societal problem that impacts not only the family, but
the entire community. In the United States alone, it is estimated
that 1 in 4 couples experience domestic violence in their intimate
partner relationships. It is also reportedly the leading cause of
serious injury to American women between the ages of 15 and 44, and
is more common than automobile accidents, muggings, and rapes
combined. (Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence, 1999). It is
also widely accepted that the incidences of intimate partner
violence is highly underreported because of the victim's sense of
fear, guilt and shame associated with the abuse.
 This article will attempt to provide a basic
understanding of domestic violence, dispel some myths about the nature and
causes of domestic violence, solicit a call to action in our local churches
to be proactive in addressing domestic violence, and highlight the need for
coordinated services that address domestic violence in our communities.
What is Domestic Violence?
There are varying definitions of domestic violence
that often lead to inconsistencies and misinformation about what domestic
violence really is. A behavioral or clinical definition of domestic violence
is often different from and more comprehensive than its legal definition,
(The Family Prevention Fund, 1995) while a superficial knowledge of domestic
violence may conjure up only images of the most brutal and gruesome physical
assaults without an in-depth understanding of the pattern of repeated
behaviors in which physical violence is one of several tactics. For purposes
of this article, a behavioral definition rather than a legal definition of
domestic violence will be used.
Domestic violence can be defined as "a pattern of
assaultive and coercive behaviors, including physical, sexual, psychological
and emotional attacks as well as economic coercion that adults or
adolescents use to control their intimate partners." (The Family Prevention
Fund, 1995) Victims of domestic violence are traumatized in many of the same
ways as victims of violence by a stranger. The intimate context of the abuse
influences how the abuser and the victim relate to the violence and make the
trauma that much more perplexing for the victim. Unlike domestic violence,
the overwhelming majority of incidences of violence perpetrated by a
stranger are single-incident occurrences while domestic violence, by its
very nature, is a cycle of violence in which the victim repeatedly
experiences trauma at the hands of an intimate partner. This is not meant to
mitigate the effects of any incident of purposeful violence on the victim
but simply to highlight the complex nature of violence when experienced
within an intimate relationship.
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