The bigger picture at hand

What can be learned from the most recent Poultney murder?

BY BENJAMIN DANIEL

Eye brows raised, questions asked, and the rude comfort of Vermonters’ home computers have shaped the way people look at our student body from all over the state. There have been constant what ifs, buts, and every other raw emotions running rampant through the minds of those who were directly and indirectly involved in the murder of Castleton State College’s Instructor Linda Wiggin. However, no matter how awful it sounds, there is no going back into the past and changing the events that took place.

We need to take this as a sign of awareness and growth, as a Green Mountain Community and as a society as a whole. We need to look at the bigger picture of this tragedy – domestic violence.

Domestic violence can be defined as a pattern of abusive behavior that one person uses to gain and maintain power and control over an intimate partner. Tactics may include physical, emotional, and economic abuse and isolation. Other terms commonly associated with domestic violence are Intimate Partner Violence or Battering. Domestic violence is not a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but is a pattern of abusive strategies that affect all aspects of a victim’s life, and can even lead to homicide.

Domestic violence can be seen as emotional abuse such as name-calling, put-downs, and other verbal threats. Physical abuse can be anything from hair-pulling, shoving, slapping, kicking, and punching to assaults with objects or weapons. Sexual abuse can be such acts as sexual humiliation and hurtful or forced sex. Abusers often times use isolation tactics to control access to transportation and telephones. They also tend to isolate the victims from their families and friends. Abusers have also been known to control the family’s income, preventing victims from working, causing debt and bad credit.

From a study done on the National Coalition against Domestic Violence a great deal of chilling information was brought to the table. It is said that one in every four women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime, and one out of thirty three men will have experienced an attempted or completed rape. There is an estimated 1.3 million women every year that are victims of physical assault by their intimate partners. The vast majority of family violence is directed towards women – they are victims of spousal and boyfriend in 84 and 86 percent of cases respectively.

According to the Vermont Network against Domestic and Sexual Violence (VNADSV) there were 8,692 recorded victims of domestic violence in Vermont alone, out of which 538 were placed in shelters and safe homes statewide in 2006. Furthermore, 9,119 children were reported having been exposed to domestic violence; 214 were sheltered in network programs while 1,450 children received services in addition to shelter. As if that wasn’t enough, 293 children and youth under the age of 18 were victims of sexual violence.

Nearly 95 percent of these violent crimes were done by an intimate partner, an acquaintance, or a victim’s family member in 2006. There were 145 forcible rapes were reported in Vermont in 2005. Also, 48 individuals reported they had been kidnapped by an intimate partner in 2006. Forty percent of Vermont homicides were related to domestic violence in 2006, while over the past 10 years, 50 percent of the homicides in Vermont have been attributed to domestic violence.

With all of these pieces of information, the question is what to do about them. In Vermont alone, there are sixteen domestic violence member programs scattered throughout the state. The VNADSV was founded in 1988 and was created for the support of victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence in their communities. The sixteen programs provide 24-hour toll-free hotlines, shelter, crisis support services, legal support, peer support, support groups, prevention education, awareness activities, and trainings.

WHAT CAN YOU DO? There are many ways to make a difference and to help someone who is experiencing abuse. Volunteer at your local program, do anything that will help ease the situation so many Vermont women are finding themselves in. Answer hotline calls and show your support. Most importantly talk to your friends and family about sexual and domestic violence. The only way to prevent further violence is by making your voice heard. When it is time to call 911, it is already too late!

Where do we go from here? What steps do we take to get through the, ifs, ands, or buts about life? Firstly, if you hear a domestic dispute that sounds out of control and someones safety may be in harms way, DO NOT hesitate to contact officials. It will only help in the long run. More importantly, we need to intervene before it gets to this point. If you know anyone who is struggling with an abusive relationship, you need to talk and express the changes that need to be made in that person’s life. Maybe you’re not going to change much, but refer them to places like the VNADSV where there are trained personel to help.

As a group of young adults we must realize that our generation will eventually lead our country. It is now at this age that we need to be informed on this horrible epidemic that is plaguing so many families across the United States. We need to take these pieces of information and continue to fight. We need to step up against domestic violence and prevent this behavior from happening in our society today!

For more information or to get help, please contact the Vermont Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-ABUSE95

The National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE

Short URL: http://www.themountaineer.org/?p=280

Posted by Ben Daniel on Dec 19, 2008 Filed under Community, First-Person, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry