On intimate partner violence
Modified: 12/17/2020 2:57:57 PM
The awareness around intimate partner violence (IPV) has been brought to the fore with the COVID-19 pandemic media attention has highlighted that globally, women already experiencing abuse are at risk of heightened violence along with a general proliferation of IPV overall during the pandemic.
Having worked in the field of domestic and sexual violence for over nine years, I know well the ways in which violence interrupts and affects women’s lives in brutal ways. My doctoral studies in public health at University of Massachusetts Amherst have given me the time to delve deeper into understanding this public health epidemic – and epidemic that I believe continues to be highly stigmatized, invisible to many, and dangerously mis-characterized and largely treated as a private issue.
Editor of the Reformer,
The awareness around intimate partner violence (IPV) and patriarchal abuse has been brought to the fore with the COVID-19 pandemic â media attention has highlighted that globally, women already experiencing abuse are at risk of heightened violence along with a general proliferation of IPV overall during the pandemic.
Pandemic or not, however, in 2013 the World Health Organization described this type of gender violence as âa global health problem of epidemic proportionsâ â affecting 30 percent of women worldwide. The violence women endure results in a myriad of health issues both physical and psychological, which at times can be long lasting and chronic. Having worked in the field of domestic and sexual violence for over nine years, I know well the ways in which violence interrupts and affects womenâs lives in brutal ways. My doctoral studies in Public Health at University of Massachusetts Amherst have given me the time to delve deepe