Domestic violence can take many forms, including physical battery, emotional abuse, economic abuse, sexual abuse
and may involve using children, pets, threats, intimidation and isolation. This hideous crime will continue to
flourish and grow unless laws and views are drastically changed.

Some of the signs of domestic violence are jealousy or possessiveness. After the relationship becomes more
serious, the abuser may begin making threats, name calling and slamming doors or breaking dishes. Abusers often
use emotional or financial abuse to try to make the victim feel worthless or helpless. Typically after the battering starts, it continues and is likely to become worse. Battering for example starts with a slap which may
escalate over time to kicking and shoving and finally choking.

Domestic violence in America is so pervasive that one in three women will be victim to it in her lifetime. It runs
through all facets of society, young, old, rich, poor, Protestant, Catholic, atheist, it knows no boundary of
neighborhood, white, black, good or bad, yellow, brown or green. It knows not the difference of color although it
prefers African Americans who are poor; male or female it makes no difference although it prefers females ages 16-24. Eighty five to ninety percent of the victims know their attacker. Everyday four women die in this country as
a result of domestic violence, the euphemism for murders and assaults by husbands and boyfriends. That's approximately 1,400 women a year, according to the FBI. The number of women who have been murdered by their intimate partners is greater than the number of soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.

Although only 572,000 reports of assault by intimates are officially reported to federal officials each year, the most conservative estimates indicate 2-4 million women of all races and classes are battered each year. At least 170,000 of those violent incidents are serious enough to require hospitalization, emergency room care or a doctor's attention. Women are ten times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate. Young women, women who are separated, divorced or single, low-income women and African American women are disproportionately victims of assault and rape. Domestic violence rates are five times higher among families below poverty levels and severe spouse abuse is twice as likely to be committed by unemployed men as by those working full time. Violent attacks on Lesbians and Gay men
have become two to three times more common than they were prior to 1988.

Domestic violence has a great impact on children as well. Violent Juvenile offenders are four times more likely to
have grown up in homes where they saw violence. Children who have witnessed violence at home are also five times more likely to commit or suffer violence when they become adults.

Domestic violence is a serious, widespread social problem in America. It effects every fabric of our society it knows no limits. Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives. Nearly twenty five percent of American women report being raped and or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabitating partner, or date at sometime in their lifetime.

Police respond differently to domestic violence calls than to other calls. Women in jail for a killing in a domestic disturbance gets sentenced an average of 15 years while men get an average of 2-6 years. In 1990, there were some 3800 animal shelters and 1500 shelters for battered women.

In conclusion to this article, one might ask, "Why is there such a double standard or no standard?" Indeed it is a
very complicated issue that we are not going to solve today right here and now. But the laws on Domestic Violence
need to change, society's view of the problem has to change, and until that happens domestic violence as we know it
will continue to grow.