I have never understood how anyone of any sex or nationality could think that beating on another human being was in any way acceptable -- especially someone the person claims to "love". But evidently millions of men disagree with me worldwide.A new report has been published in the latest issue of the journal Science, which shows violence toward women is at epidemic proportions all across the globe. The report was done by several researchers, who synthesized 141 previous studies from 81 different countries. The report is shocking in its conclusions.
That's because it says that worldwide at least 30% of women aged 15 and older have been the victim of violence from an intimate partner -- including physical attacks and sexual attacks. The rate varies in different parts of the world, and reaches unbelievable highs in certain areas (like the 2/3 rate in sub-Saharan central Africa) -- but it is way too high in all parts of the world.
Even here in North America, where we consider ourselves to be a bit more enlightened, the rate is about 20%. That means one out of every five women either has been or will be victimized by their intimate partner abusing them physically. In a country the size of the United States, that means there are many millions of victims. And the rate actually may be larger than the 20%, because many women do not report the physical abuse out of fear or shame.
And the problem of abuse grows much larger if we include abuse other than actual physical attacks. Rita Smith, executive of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, says:
"Those numbers are consistent with what domestic-violence advocates know happens in local communities all over the country. What is important to notice about this report: there's a whole other layer of violence that happens that isn’t physical - emotional, economic, verbal, stalking, threats with weapons - that would raise those numbers exponentially. They are still terrifying. They are ways to control another human being. We need to pay attention to the (new) numbers because when we have this amount of people being physically assaulted, it indicates a much broader problem of violence."
Frankly, this makes me wonder just how civilized we humans really are -- both those who would commit such violence, and those who allow others to do it without taking action to stop it. This is a huge problem, and we must not just try to stop the abusers -- we need to make even the idea of abuse something that our society (worldwide) will not tolerate.
