Whenever domestic violence homicide makes the news, we all get a brief look at the most extreme form of an abuser's sense of entitlement. But his victim likely experienced a whole range of control tactics well before that fatal moment.
Across the country, thousands of women work to stay alive despite graphic death threats, and every day three more batterers become killers.
Because we're all downstream of this potential safety hazard, it's worth understanding a batterer's M.O.
* * *...
When we changed our name a few years ago from “Women's Crisis Center” to “Women's Freedom Center,” part of our aim was to broaden public awareness of the actual scope of our mission. Of course, that mission involves crisis intervention, but beyond that, we advocate to help women achieve...
For several decades now, Take Back the Night has become a spring ritual during Sexual Violence Awareness Month every April, when countless communities gather to speak out, spark change, and show solidarity with survivors of sexual assault. This year, the Women's Freedom Center is bringing back this annual gathering...
Since violence begins in the mind, it's time we ask ourselves a tough question: what myths still feed the epidemic of rape? In the U.S., sexual assault occurs every two minutes. One in five women are victims and, by age 12, one in four girls gets unwanted comments or is touched - even in public. While anyone can be a victim and while most men are not rapists, 98 percent of rapists are men, and they usually are not strangers.
In 2011, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force partnered with the National Center for Transgender Equality to put together one of the largest surveys of United States transgender people in history. The document they produced from this survey, “Injustice at Every Turn,” reflects a number of bleak realities. The organizations found that “transgender and gender non-conforming people face injustice at every turn: in childhood homes, in school systems that promise to shelter and educate, in harsh and exclusionary workplaces,
We were certainly inspired last month by the global #yesallwomen campaign to end all forms of violence against women. More than two million tweets told of growing outrage as well as activism worldwide. But just as you don't have to be female to be a feminist, it's not just women who are fed up and speaking out about sexism. Case in point: when a West Virginia restaurant owner got a recent online review of his business which suggested that female...
Anyone who caught the national Homelessness Marathon that was broadcast live from Brattleboro on Feb. 19 was no doubt struck by the courage and thoughtfulness of all the local participants interviewed and was no doubt reminded of our collective need to keep them and their plight from becoming invisible. But also poignant that night was the resilience and activism of two untelevised guests - a mother and her teenage daughter - with an added barrier to speaking out. They joined...
We'll never know how many victims do the best they can at work or anywhere else, even with domestic violence woven through every part of their lives. But what's clear from national headlines and our local experience is that a batterer's violence doesn't always stay home when victims leave the house. Each of us actually has the issue woven through our lives, whether visibly or not. Here in the U.S., one in five employed adults is the victim of domestic...