Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/innovative-strategies-to-help-families-cope-with-the-effects-of-domestic-violence/5019776/
Women and children coping with issues of domestic violence abuse urgently require help from early childhood professionals. The U.S. Department of Justice (2008) details these women and children are in peril:• Childbearing women have the highest per capita rates of intimate violence and have a higher rate of being a victim of intimate murder.
• The leading cause of death for pregnant women is homicide.
• In America, each year over 3 million women are abused.
• On average, a woman is beaten every 12 seconds.
• Over 50% of suspected child abuse cases are also domestic violence cases, as more than 50% of male batterers abuse their children.
• In addition, it takes a woman about 7-10 times to leave an abusive situation.
• One in three females will be abused in their lifetime.
The scope of domestic violence
This article focuses on female domestic violence abuse. The American Psychological Association Task Force operationally defines domestic violence as:
“. . . a pattern of abusive behaviors including a wide range of physical, sexual, and psychological maltreatment used by one person in an intimate relationship against another to gain power unfairly ...