2. What is Domestic Violence?
• Domestic Violence is a pattern of abusive behaviors used against an
intimate partner
• Physical, sexual, and psychological attacks
• Economic coercion
• One partner’s need to control the other
• Domestic violence behaviors can:
• Frighten, terrorize, manipulate, humiliate, hurt, blame, often injure and
sometimes kills a current or former intimate partners
• Domestic violence is a never ending cycle
4. How Big is the Problem?
• 1 in 4 women are victims of domestic violence in their lifetime
• Domestic violence has a serious impact on victims’ health
• No accurate account of victims of domestic violence
• 1 in 5 children in the United States are exposed to domestic violence each year
• 1 in 10 of all murders in the United States are domestic violence homicides
(Statman, 1995)
5. Who are the victims?
Domestic Violence can happen to anyone
Certain factors may increase the risk of being abused
Gender
Socioeconomics status
Immigration status
Ethnicity
6. What is the impact of domestic
violence?
Major social problems with serious consequences for victims and their
families
Healthcare
Workplace
Children
Law enforcement
7. Why Does Domestic Violence
Happen?
Variety of factors at all levels of social environment allows domestic
violence to exist
Individual
Relationship
Community
society
8. Power and
Control
Wheel
The Power and Control Wheel
represents the lived experience of
women who live with a man who
beats them. It does not attempt to
give a broad understanding of all
violence in the home or
community but instead offers a
more precise explanation of the
tactics men use to batter women.
We keep our focus on women’s
experience because the battering
of women by men continues to be
a significant social problem--men
commit 86 to 97 percent of all
criminal assaults and women are
killed 3.5 times more often than
men in domestic homicides
Domestic Abuse Intervention Project
9. Characteristics of a batterer
May have low self-esteem or very narcisstic
May have been abused as a child or saw mother/sister abused
Rigid gender stereo-types
Confuses possessiveness with love
Believes a man has the right to keep his woman in check
May use Scripture as an excuse to abuse
Blames the victim, minimizes his abuse & or denies the abuse ever
happened
10. Why batter?
Battering is not an anger management problem
It is on purpose and a deliberate behavior aimed at gaining power and control
Battering is not caused by mental illness
It grows from attitudes and values
Battering is about control, entitlement, and possessiveness
11. Help from church leaders
Pastors often hold positions of great respect, trust and confidence
Pastors, ministers and church leaders play a critical part in responding to
domestic violence
Church leaders need to be willing to educate themselves and the lay
persons about domestic violence
Survivors of domestic violence may feel safe and agree for counseling if
their church leaders has received domestic violence training
Church leader need to know when to refer batterers to intervention
programs
12. How to help a batterer
Draw attention to the behavior
Tell him honestly what you think
Discuss loving behaviors
Offer suggestions and solutions
Realize that he may not like it
Or, he may take your advice and decide to change
(Hunter, 2008)
13. How to help a victim
Let her know you are concerned
Acknowledge that she is in a very difficult and scary situation
Be supportive
Be non-judgmental
If the marriage ends, continue to be supportive
Help her to develop a safety plan
Encourage her to seek help from domestic violence agencies
Remember, you can’t rescue her
(Statman, 1995)
