October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In honor of victims of DV, please wear purple this month and on our Zoom meeting (or pink for breast cancer.) To raise awareness, please check out the GFWC frames that you can add to your Facebook profile picture. They can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/GFWCMembers/

Strangulation has been identified as one of the most lethal forms of domestic violence and sexual assault: unconsciousness may occur within seconds and death within minutes. When domestic violence perpetrators choke (strangle) their victims, not only is this felonious assault, but it may be an attempted homicide.

Strangulation is an ultimate form of power and control where the batterer can demonstrate control over the victim’s next breath: it may have devastating psychological effects or a potentially fatal outcome. Non-fatal strangulation is a form of DV which is getting much more attention now. If a woman suffers a non-fatal strangulation incident, she is at great risk of being murdered in the future.

Here is a link to an article about non-fatal strangulation which is too lengthy to include here: https://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/full/10.2217/fnl-2018-0031.

Linda M. & Janice M.