A local law enforcement officer recently was a victim of kidnapping as a result of prolonged domestic violence.
“Domestic violence is the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. It includes physical violence, sexual violence, threats and emotional abuse,” according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV).
In Mississippi, more than 39 percent of women and more than 31 percent of men experience intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner sexual violence and/or intimate partner stalking in their lives, NCADV stated.
In recent years, the number of domestic violence reports in Mississippi has drastically dropped, placing the state at 22nd in the United States down from fifth, according to NCADV.
Unfortunately, none of these numbers are completely accurate since many people do not report the occurrences of domestic violence.
In many cases, a person living with domestic violence does not realize he/she is in an abusive relationship.
Some people often live with the threat and horror of constant abuse rather than face the fact – the embarrassment-- of being labeled a “victim.”
When they work up the courage to file a report against their partners, victims of domestic violence are often blamed for the crimes committed against them. So, they continue to suffer in silence while the perpetrator is allowed to continue his/her acts of violence.
As Mississippi is 22nd in the nation for domestic violence reports, this issue is not limited to this state, with one in three women and one in four men in the U.S. experiencing some form of physical violence by an intimate partner, according to NCADV.
Many cases include firearms, such as the recent kidnapping of a local law official, where the more severe abuse is prevalent.
Sixty-five percent of all murder-suicides involve an intimate partner, and 96 percent of the victims of these cases are female, according to NCADV.
Reporting incidents of domestic violence earlier and more often along with the public understanding that a victim does not choose to be violently victimized could reduce these numbers and severe suffering.
