If you spent any time catching this weekend’s NFL games, you’ll note the League’s Better-late-than–never Public Service campaign about domestic violence awareness. The PSA is slick and very well done and you can read more about it and see the spot here. This is one of those issues that the NFL might want to focus more time and effort on. Seeing the players and coaches in hot pink for breast cancer awareness is just fine, but perhaps the League should mix up their charity awareness more to highlight areas where they fall short. And I sure hope the NBA, the NHL and Major League baseball are watching the NFL’s work here as well.
Federal statistics on domestic abuse are all over the place when it comes to recent research with much of it sourced to studies done in the 1990s. The numbers are stark and scary.
The best and most recent science available from the US Centers for Disease Control & Injury Prevention (CDC) is the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) published in 2010. NISVS is an ongoing, nationally-representative telephone survey that utilized rigorous scientific methodologies to collect detailed information on IPV, sexual violence and stalking among adult women and men in the US:
- A key finding of NISVS is that while 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men have experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner, women are disproportionally affected by sexual violence, intimate partner violence and stalking.
- Women are over 4 times more likely to be beaten, 6 times more likely to be slammed against something, and 9 times more likely to be hurt by choking or suffocating.
- 81% of women who experienced rape, stalking or physical violence by an intimate partner reported significant short or long term impacts related to the violence experienced in this relationship such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms and injury, while 35% of men report such impacts of their experiences.
The traits of an abusive man are worth noting to see; with greater education comes more effective ways to stop domestic abuse. It seems that the journey from verbal abuse to worse isn’t all that far. And its important to note, men are often victims in domestic abuse as well.
It’s nearly halfway through Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Anaheim. Perhaps one of the best things we could do is let victims of this abuse know where to turn for help. Which brings me to one of my favorite charities – The Eli Home, run by Lorri Galloway who’s also the Democratic candidate for Mayor of Anaheim. I’m not sure if the Eli Home keeps a record of every family they’ve helped over the years, but if you or someone close to you is in a violent relationship and protection is needed, contact the Eli Home. They provide a number of services that help not just battered women but whole families. Children who witness repeated abuse have a high likelihood of becoming abusers themselves and the Eli Home has an entire program designed to help end the cycle.
The success stories of families helped show the program works.
The NFL has yet to finalize a policy against domestic violence, preferring, instead, to throw Roger Goodell out on the podium to distract from the matter at hand. Likewise, it’s bad PR strategy for companies to slap pink on their products as a show of solidarity as drill-bit manufacturer Baker Hughes did with tarnished Susan G. Komen. Expect Goodell to hang on to his job as front man for team owners who simply don’t want to face the music of domestic violence.