Have you ever heard anyone talk about these myths?
Domestic violence does not affect many people.
Every year, as many as 4 million American women are physically abused by men who promised to love them.
Each year more than ten million children witness domestic violence.
(Family Violence Prevention Fund, 1999)
A woman is more likely to be assaulted by a stranger than her husband or boyfriend.
Sixty percent (60%) of female homicide victims were wives or intimate acquaintances of their killers.
(Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1998 Supplementary Homicide Report)
There is really no cost for domestic violence.
Health-related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking, and homicide committed by intimate partners exceed $5.8 billion each year, according to a report released
[April 28, 2003] by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Of this amount, nearly $4.1 billion are for direct medical and mental health care services.
[Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States is available through the CDC’s web site, http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/ipv_cost/ipv.htm
Businesses do not need to be concerned about domestic violence.
Nearly $1.8 billion are for indirect costs of lost productivity or wages.
Each year victims of physical assaults committed by intimate partners lose an estimated 9.5 million days of activity.
Each year stalking victims lose an average of 2.9 million days of activity.
[CDC Study, Apr 2003]
Domestic violence only happens in poor, urban areas--it does’t affect me or my job.
Women of all cultures, races, religions, occupations, income and education levels, and ages are battered--by husbands, boyfriends, lovers and partners.
(Surgeon General Antonia Novello, as quoted in Domestic Violence: Battered Women, a publication of the Reference Department of the Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge, MA)
Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Human Resource professionals polled said that domestic violence is a workplace issue.
(Personnel Journal, April, 1995, page 65.)
