National Domestic Violence Awareness Month is an annual designation observed in October. For many, home is a place of love, warmth, and comfort. It’s somewhere that you know you will be surrounded by care and support, and a nice little break from the busyness of the real world. But for millions of others, home is anything but a sanctuary. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are victims of physical violence by a partner every year. 

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• Every 9 seconds, a woman in the U.S. is beaten or assaulted by a current or ex-significant other. 

• 1 in 4 men are victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner.

 

Here’s another shocking statistic: the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2012 is 6,488. The number of women who were murdered by current or ex-male partners during that same time frame is 11,766, according to the Huffington Post. That’s almost double the number of people who were killed fighting in the war. People who are in an abusive relationship will stay with their partner for a number of reasons:

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• Their self-esteem is totally destroyed, and they are made to feel they will never be able to find another person to be with.

• The cycle of abuse, meaning the ‘honeymoon phase’ that follows physical and mental abuse, makes them believe their partner really is sorry and does love them.

• It’s dangerous to leave. Women are 70 times more likely to be killed in the weeks after leaving their abusive partner than at any other time in the relationship, according to the Domestic Violence Intervention program.

• Statistics suggest that almost 5 percent of male homicide victims each year are killed by an intimate partner.

• They feel personally responsible for their partner, or their own behavior. They are made to feel like everything that goes wrong is their fault.

• They share a life. Marriages, children, homes, pets, and finances are a big reason victims of abuse feel they can’t leave.