VAWnet News Blog

I resisted therapy until I was well into full-fledged adulthood, at which point I had earned my masters degree in social work and felt qualified enough to engage others in the counseling and coaching process. What I didn’t know then was how powerful self-discovery can be to personal empowerment (the process of gaining control over one’s own life), and to the journey of healing and resilience.

What Would You Do? campaign, which focuses on the role of bystanders in preventing domestic violence, had 88,000 visits by mid December.

The ubiquity and popularity of social media have made it easier for people to keep track of one another. This has presented professionals who work with victims of domestic violence with a host of opportunities and challenges.

When a woman is murdered in the United States, an intimate partner — a former or current dating partner or spouse — is often to blame. Black women like Dixon, Thornton, and Hammond are especially vulnerable. One government report found that African-American women were four times more likely than white women to be murdered by a boyfriend or girlfriend. Researchers say the phenomenon can be largely explained by the position black women occupy on the socioeconomic scale.

One in four U.S. women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime, according to the Center for Disease Control, and 99 percent of those victims will also experience financial abuse, according to the Center for Financial Security.

The research coincides with new figures showing a steep increase in women seeking homelessness services because they are escaping violence. Almost 300 women a day sought support for homelessness last financial year – a 33 per cent increase in four years, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found.