Assault Is Not A Private Affair

The Newtown Police Department released 2004 crime statistics for the town, and generally the news was good. Homes and businesses were more secure with fewer burglaries and larcenies than in the previous year. Even the roads were safer; fewer traffic summons were issued and drunk driving arrests were down by 25 percent. And yet a threefold increase in aggravated assault stuck out like a black eye in the report.

Most of these assaults are the result of domestic violence, according to the police, which is a disturbing trend. Violence visits every kind of home, not just poor ones. It happens wherever people decide that they have the right to physically abuse someone else to get their way. And we are not just talking about men. Women and children are becoming more violent as well, often responding to violence with more violence.

Unfortunately, violence often thrives in the privacy of the home, where the abuser believes it is nobody else’s business and no one is watching. Assault, however, is a crime, and criminals by their acts relinquish their right to privacy.

Perhaps the increasing assault statistics are the result of better policing — catching those abusers who got away with their crimes in the past. Whatever the cause, the community’s response needs to be collaborative and immediate whenever abuse is suspected. Law enforcement officials, medical and mental health professionals, and the clergy already know not to look the other way when a home is wracked by violence. Friends and neighbors need to join the cause of exposing and eliminating the suffering before the self-perpetuating cycle of violence widens to claim even more victims next year and the next. It is a problem that threatens everyone’s safety and security.