Myth: Domestic violence affects only a small percentage of the population.
Fact: One in four women has experienced intimate partner violence in her lifetime (women account for 85% of the victims of intimate partner violence, men for approximately 15%). Estimates range to up to 3 million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year. On average, more than three women and one man are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day. Read more.
Myth: Domestic violence occurs only in low-income, uneducated, and minority populations.
Fact: Intimate partner violence occurs among all types of families, regardless of income, profession, region, ethnicity, educational level or race. That low-income people are over-represented in calls to police, shelters and social services may be due to a lack of other resources at their disposal.
Myth: Alcohol causes domestic violence.
Fact: While there is a correlation between alcohol and perpetration of domestic violence, batterers tend to use alcohol as an excuse for loss of control and for violence itself.
Myth: Domestic violence incidents are isolated occurrences.
Domestic violence is a pattern of coercive behavior aimed at gaining and then maintaining power and control over the behavior of an intimate partner. The pattern is often described as a cycle, and because with each episode, the seriousness of abuse escalates, the pattern can also be well-described as a spiral. Domestic violence progresses from tension building, escalates to abuse, proceeds to honeymoon, then back to the build up of tension.
