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The “Real” Cycle of Violence

Imagine that every woman who is hit or beaten reports the incident to the police, the batterer receives effective treatment, and the abuse ends.  Unfortunately, scenarios like the one described above are more likely to occur in our imagination than in reality. 

In reality:

• Most women who are struck for the first time do not call the police;

• Many states do not fund, or provide little funding for, batterers programs; and

• A man who beats a woman will likely do it again and again.

This is reality!

Domestic violence is a vicious cycle and there are many pieces to the puzzle.  In many ways, identifying the problem is easy.  Solving the problem is another matter.  Among the complexities:

• Medical professionals are often the first to spot signs of domestic abuse, but they are not mandated to report it;

• Shelters throughout the country turn away hundreds of women because they lack the capacity to serve them;

• Serving warrants on abusers can be a lengthy process;

• The correlation between domestic violence and child abuse is very high; and

• Few programs for batterers provide bilingual or culturally competent services.

In reality, there has to be a comprehensive approach to ending domestic violence because the problem does not exist in a vacuum.  Many victims return again and again to suffer the same fate at the hands of a violent abuser.