Summary
As young people begin dating, their risk for violence increases, as does their receptivity to messages about relationships. We must target this age group with messages that violence and abuse are unacceptable, and give them the information and skills to build healthy relationships. Focusing on this age group allows us to identify those young people who are already experiencing - or have already experienced - physical and sexual abuse. We can break the cycle that often begins when victimized children enter abusive adolescent relationships and have their own children young, with little support. Action steps include:
While immigrant and refugee women donít necessarily experience greater levels of intimate panner violence than the general population, they do face unique and culturally-specific barriers to accessing help and ending rhe abuse. Language barriers, unfamiliarity with systems and legal rights, social and economic isolation, lack of cultural competence by service providers, and antiimmigrant bigotry all contribute to a situation where many immigrant victims and their children are forced to stay in abusive relationships and perpetrators are not held accountable for rheir behavior. The Violence Against Women Act includes many vital protections for immigrant victims of violence and trafficking, however services remain inadequate to address the complex needs of diese victims. Action steps include:[Editors' note: Funding is also needed to address elder abuse (www.ncea.aoa.gov), and violence among same-sex couples. Existing efforts must change heterosexist assumptions and develop programs explicitly to reach the LGBT community. Beth Leventhal, director of The Network/La Red, a Massachusetts program working to end abuse in lesbian, bisexual women's, and transgender communities, told Peacwork rhat funding for anti-violence projects in rhe community is woeful. There are only five beds throughout the state, and only a parttime hotline. Most states offer no programs at all. See www.thenetworklared.org.]See the full content of this document
Extract
Preventing Domestic Violence
This excerpt is from a policy memo by the Family Violence Prevention Fund, which works to end violence against women and children around the world, 383 Rhode Island St. #304, San Francisco, CA 94103; 415/252-8900; www.endabuse.org.
The physical and sexual abuse of women and children remains a public health problem of epidemic proportions in the United States and around the world. More than one in three women will be abused at some point in their lives, and more than 15 million children in the US witness this abuse every y...See the full content of this document
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