Domestic Abuse And Violence:

Don’t Do Nothing

In this day and age, trust seems to be a fence line that requires constant patrol. In the past two weeks we have found wide breeches where trusted financial institutions used to stand. Our economy and financial prospects seem to have escaped our control. We are left reevaluating the things in which we place our trust. For many, this reevaluation is a process of pulling inward to a core of safety and protection we find at home among loved ones. It is hard to imagine where we would be without them. For too many people, however, home is a place where trust and safety are routinely violated — where life must somehow be lived with no protective fence line. That is why we are highlighting Domestic Violence Awareness Month this month with a series of articles on the problem, beginning this week on page B12.

Each year, more than 1,650 men and women are killed by a domestic partner in the United States, many of them in front of children. The killings are often the culmination of systematic emotional and physical abuse that has gone on in the home for years. Many abusers are themselves victims of abuse. They may feel powerless and vulnerable out in society or in the workplace, so they seek to create a place in their homes where they may absolutely dominate and control others though isolation, psychological abuse, and outright violence. And as more people feel powerless and vulnerable in an increasingly uncertain world, the conditions ripen for domestic violence to infect more and more struggling families. No demographic is immune. The Women’s Center of Greater Danbury reports that in 2007, 27,730 men, women, and children sought support and protection through the agency — 1,731 of them from Newtown.

As one expert explained to us this week, when domestic violence or abuse is suspected, the worst thing one can do is to do nothing. Seek help. Free and completely confidential counseling is available from the Women’s Center — call its hotline at 731-5207. The Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence offers information on domestic violence programs in Connecticut at 860-282-7899.

Today more than ever, we all need to help when we see the need to mend fence lines of trust and protection around the powerless and vulnerable victims of domestic violence.