October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and national attention is laser-focused on this horrible disease.
Every television station and corporate PR department is rolling out a promotion, a walk or other event. Millions of dollars will be raised for research and prevention efforts. Google “breast cancer awareness” and a plethora of websites appear encouraging and facilitating donations.
The American Cancer Society reports that about one in eight — 12 percent — of women in the U.S. will develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime. Certainly, this is a disease worthy of our attention and dollars.
October is also Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Did you miss the national news, commercials and corporate announcements regarding the crime of domestic violence, other than those surrounding the acts of football players? Note that the National Football League has raised some $4.5 million to fight breast cancer over the past few years. It has raised zero to prevent domestic violence.
Statistics regarding domestic violence should be sobering and should engender the type of attention focused on cancer, heart disease and other ailments that kill.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the U.S. a woman is assaulted or beaten every nine seconds. Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women — more than car accidents, muggings and rapes combined. Every day in the U.S., more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends.
And, this is just the result of the direct violence. Consider also that studies suggest that up to 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually, and that men who as children witnessed their parents’ domestic violence were twice as likely to abuse their own wives as sons of nonviolent parents.
It is estimated that the costs of partner violence in the U.S. alone exceed $5.8 billion per year; $4.1 billion for direct medical and health care services, while productivity losses account for nearly $1.8 billion.
If we want the violence perpetrated against our daughters and wives to stop, we need to end our denial that this violence is epidemic. We need to convince our leaders and institutions that this issue needs to be addressed with others at the top of our national agenda and we want this to change now.
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