We're number one in domestic violence homicides. We also have a high rate of alcohol abuse and drug abuse and there's a high lethality rate when you get those factors involved, so the shelter has 52 beds, certainly it is never empty.
For too many women pregnancy is just the start of loneliness and abuse. It is a cruel reality.
It's a subject that is often hidden and very secretive, but it's something which I feel should have a light shone upon it.
I spend my time on Crimewatch appealing for criminals on the run. Domestic violence is one of the few crimes I can think of where the victim is often forced to go on the run.
Domestic violence and sexual assault go hand in hand.
I grew up with an extremely abusive father. As a mother, I wanted to protect my own children from exposure to violence. When I found out one of my daughters was in an abusive relationship, it broke my heart. Finally, she left him ?- but only after his abuse started spreading to the children.
After I became an attorney, the mother of two girls I'd known in high school came to see me. She'd endured years of heinous abuse from her husband that nearly destroyed her. I'd never suspected a thing.
Domestic violence can be so easy for people to ignore, as it often happens without any witnesses and it is sometimes easier not to get involved. Yet, by publicly speaking out against domestic violence, together we can challenge attitudes towards violence in the home and show that domestic violence is a crime and not merely unacceptable.
When you're in a broken family and your role model is a violent male, boys grow up believing that's the way they're supposed to act. And girls think that's an accepted way men will treat them.
The key thing is to ensure that we give the criminal-justice system the tools it needs, so that women's rights are turned into reality. It is not enough to say domestic violence is a crime ?- in order for the laws to be successful, lawyers and courts must have the necessary means to prosecute it.
It is difficult to get Latina and Asian women to speak out. We must make it clear it's not their problem, it's our problem. We need magazines like this one to keep talking about the issue. And know that we women in Congress are with you 100 percent.
The time when domestic violence is the most lethal is when the person is trying to leave the situation.
Women trapped in violent relationships need to know that there's no shame in talking out and walking out on their abusive partners.
One main problem with raising awareness of LGBT abuse is the denial. The term "domestic violence" is perceived as something akin to alcoholism, ("I don't sit on a park bench drinking") and people do not see that they are perpetrating or are a victim of DV because they have a set idea about what it is.
Pregnant women are more likely to die from homicide by domestic violence than any other cause of death.
I will also continue to fight to provide better economic security for victims of domestic violence.
This October, we renew the fight against domestic violence and abuse in America. Together, we can eliminate domestic violence from homes across the country and ensure that our children grow up in healthy, peaceful communities.
To help break the cycle of domestic violence, we must allow survivors to take time off from work without fear of losing their job, to go to court, to see a doctor or to find a safe place to live.
I represent an affluent district, but when I worked to form my county's first battered-women's shelter, some nights there were no beds left. Violence against women crosses all economic lines.
In my state, two women who came to the U.S. as 'mail-order brides' were killed by abusive husbands. They had risked everything to come to this country, and it cost them their lives. We must let women know they have options.
It's still hard for me to talk about the day I visited a shelter for children who were victims of a domestic-violence household. The kinds of abuse they had suffered, and what it had done to them physically and emotionally ?- I don't have words for what I saw. This has to stop.
There are many women in their late teens and early twenties who have either experienced violence in a relationship or have witnessed it at home in their childhood.
When my kids were in preschool, I was part of a carpooling group. One mother sometimes showed up with bruises on her body. She always had an excuse. Then one morning, she didn't show up. Later, I learned she'd fled a violent marriage. I've always thought, If only I'd known, maybe I could have helped.
The effects of abuse are devastating and far-reaching. Domestic violence speaks many languages, has many colours and lives in many different communities.
Violence against women is not random or anonymous. In West Virginia, 88 percent of sexual-assault victims already know their attacker. In my hometown, Alicia McCormick, an advocate for our domestic-violence shelter at the YWCA, was killed in her home by a man doing handiwork in her apartment complex. That one of my greatest advocates could fall victim to something she fought against her whole life was a tragedy that moved me to action.
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