How To Help Children Who Have Witnessed Domestic Violence
Domestic violence doesn't just impact the individual who experiences it. For the estimated 3.3-10 million children who witness domestic violence every year, that trauma can result in serious long-term consequences. The potential effects of domestic violence on...
The Importance of Safe and Supportive Housing for Domestic Violence Survivors
When it comes to escaping domestic violence, much of the conversation is centered around the abuse itself—how to identify abuse, how to leave an abusive partner, etc. While these things are important, it's equally important that we talk about what happens after...
Who Is Most Affected by Domestic Violence?
Domestic violence can happen to anyone, and survivors of domestic violence encompass every gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. However, some groups experience domestic violence at higher rates than others. Studying these demographic trends can help...
How To Leave an Abusive Relationship
Leaving an abusive relationship is rarely as easy or simple as most people would like to believe it is. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, it takes domestic violence survivors an average of seven attempts to leave their abusive partner before they...
What Is the Cycle of Abuse?
The cycle of abuse is a term that refers to the cyclical nature of domestic violence. While specific incidents of domestic violence are usually unexpected, in general, domestic violence often tends to follow predictable patterns. The Cycle of Abuse (also known as the...
Linking PTSD and Domestic Violence
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is defined as "a mental health disorder that some people develop after they experience or see a traumatic event." Typically, many people think of PTSD as being caused by life-threatening natural disasters or active combat. But in...
How To Heal the Trauma of Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is an extremely traumatic experience, and the repercussions (whether physical, emotional, or mental) can follow survivors for years to come. While recovering from trauma and living a happy, fulfilled life is possible with the right circumstances and...
How Are Substance Abuse and Domestic Violence Related?
Domestic violence is a complex phenomenon. When it occurs, it can rarely be attributed to a single cause; rather, abuse typically sits at the nexus of a complicated network of risk factors. One of the most common of those risk factors is substance use. Here, we'll...
The Impact of Domestic Violence
As with most forms of trauma, the impacts of domestic violence frequently far outlast the abuse itself. What's more, domestic violence survivors aren't the only ones affected. The repercussions of abuse are often far-reaching, and can also impact children, family,...
Stigma and Domestic Violence
In spite of the shocking prevalence of domestic violence (around 1 in 4 women will experience violence at the hands of a partner), according to the Crime Report, nearly half (44%) of domestic violence cases go unreported. The reasons for this are complex, but one of...
Why Domestic Violence is a Public Health Issue
Most people probably don't think of domestic violence as being a public health issue. If anything, we're probably more likely to think of domestic violence as a private matter—something that happens behind closed doors, as a result of individual factors, and which...
What Does Emotional Abuse Look Like?
One of the common misconceptions about abuse is that it always involves physical violence. In fact, abuse can take multiple different forms, including emotional abuse. What Is Emotional Abuse? The definition of emotional abuse includes any behavior intended to...
How to Help Survivors of Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is a public health crisis, one that everyone can play a part in stopping. And yet, even if you know how to recognize the signs of domestic violence, knowing how to react and how to help survivors of domestic violence can still be confusing. Here,...
How to Spot Abuse
Anyone can be affected by abuse, and for some domestic violence survivors, all it takes is one person with a discerning eye to start the process of getting help. Knowing how to recognize domestic violence can make a huge difference in your ability to intervene with a...
Risk Factors for Domestic Violence
Although domestic violence is a complex phenomenon, in many cases, abusers and abusive relationships display the same red flags. Knowing the risk factors and causes of domestic violence is an important aspect of being able to prevent or intervene in abuse, either for...
Chicago Author Teams Up with CAWC to Raise Awareness About DV
In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Lana Orndorff, a fellow advocate and local author is donating $1 of each purchase of her second novel, The Narrative of Mary James, throughout the month of October to CAWC! The Narrative of Mary James is told through the...
Domestic Violence and the Impact on Children
Domestic violence is a traumatic experience for anyone who experiences or witnesses it, and that particularly includes children. According to the Child Witness to Violence Project, at least a third of children in the US have witnessed violence between their...
Domestic Violence and the COVID-19 Pandemic
The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic were a time of stress and uncertainty for everyone. And for many people, it wasn't just our physical health and safety that was at risk—across the world, people experienced disruptions and setbacks to their jobs, finances,...