Domestic Violence Awareness Month 2016 "Go Purple"

What is Domestic Violence #DVAM

Domestic violence generally is defined as a violent crime committed in the context of an intimate relationship. However, domestic violence is no longer just a family matter. It is a crime involving the use of power, coercion and violence to control another. This crime is recognized by state law and prosecutable by law enforcement.

Domestic violence is different from other random crimes because a perpetrator and victim are not strangers. Instead they are intimate partners, family members or parents of common children. This relationship, therefore, binds a victim to his or her perpetrator. For example, the victim may rely on the perpetrator for economic support or child support. Ongoing domestic violence is characterized by a pattern of escalating abuse in which one partner in the relationship controls the other through force, deprivation and/or the threat of deprivation or violence.