According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, roughly 1.5 million people report being victims of domestic violence in the United States each year.

About 85 percent of this number is made up of women. That adds up to 1.3 million women each year.

One in four women will experience Domestic Violence in her lifetime.

The scary part is, domestic violence is rarely ever reported. So this number, in reality, is much, much higher.

“It [domestic violence] certainly exists. I mean it exists within families, kids are exposed to it,” school Psychologist Anne Brosnan said. “Sometimes kids might not have someone who is involved in domestic violence right in their home, but in their neighborhood or in their community and then a lot of the time kids are involved in dating situations where they are exposed to domestic violence.”

The Ray Rice Situation

Domestic Violence has always been an issue. The recent actions of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice have brought the issue into the spotlight throughout the country. AHS students have also been talking about the events in question.

In April, surveilllance footage of Rice dragging his then-girlfriend, Janey Rice out of the doors of a Vegas casino elavator, surfaced. At the time, the NFL suspended Rice for two games.

Last week, a second video of Rice hitting his now-wife and her falling to the ground and hitting her head. The NFL commissioner, Roger Goddell claimed to have not seen the video.  Only after the second video became public did they take further action against Rice, suspending him indefinitely and terminating his contract with the Ravens.

“Rice should definitely be punished for what he did. It’s also unlikely that he will ever get a job in the NFL again, because teams don’t like to associate with such a person,” senior Mubeen Farukh said.   

However, despite so much media hype, only 15 percent of a sample of AHS students surveyed admitted to actually following the situation closely and knowing what was going on. 

The reason that the more recent domestic violence occurrence between Rice and his now-wife brought the issue to light is because of the way that the National Football League handled the situation.

Rather than immediately terminating Rice’s contract, the NFL suspended him for two games. This, after physically abusing his significant other, .

On top of all that, Goodell claimed to have not seen video of the incident, when in reality, the NFL had known about the footage for months. Only after it came to the public’s attention that the NFL had seen the video, did they take initiative against Rice.

“I think that Roger Goodell should have acted a lot earlier on the situation regardless of whether or not he saw the second video,” Farukh said. “Going forward, I think the NFL needs to define a clear policy on domestic violence, because there are still players with pending trials.”

The NFL shouldn’t be let off the hook though. There are still two other players, continuing to play, that have been accused of domestic violence, the Carolina Panthers’ Greg Hardy and the San Francisco 49ers’ Ray McDonald. Neither had been suspended or fined as of press time.

Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson was also deactivated for Sunday’s Week 2 game against the New England Patriots after being indicted in Texas on a charge of reckless or negligent injury to his 4-year-old child, who was then hospitalized because of Peterson’s actions. This presents another issue entirely that the NFL must tackle.

The Problem

Domestic violence is clearly a problem amongst partnerships in the U.S. However, many people do not see it as such, and that is a large part of the problem.

“It [domestic violence] can be really devastating for a person. The problem is that it can really make you feel out of control and scared,”” Brosnan said. “It can affect kids’ eating, it could affect their sleep habits, and definitely can cause problems for their ability to concentrate and focus on school and to do well academically.””

Domestic violence can create huge problems within the household, causing parents to miss work, students to miss school and exposing children to hostile environments.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, under their Child Maltreatment Prevention section, more than 3 million referrals of child maltreatment are received by state and local agencies each year.

That equates to around five referrals every minute.

Society at large is affected by domestic violence as well. 

According to a Fairfax County government report, domestic violence was the leading cause of homicide in Fairfax County in 2010. 7 of the 16 total homicides were accredited to this.

Solutions and Resources

While domestic violence is a very pressing issue in society, there are a lot of resources available to help those who become victims of it.

“There is the Woodburn mental health center, if people are in stress,” Brosnan said. “A good thing about living in NOVA is that there are a lot of agencies available to work with families to help them get the counseling they need so that they’re learning about the patterns of dealing with anger and with stress, both causes of domestic violence.””

One of the most important things that a person in danger of domestic violence can do is to call the police if they feel as if they are in danger.

“If a kid comes to me and they talk about something going on at home that is frightening to them; first of all, if they are in a dangerous situation I tell them to call the police, they need to get out of that dangerous situation,” Brosnan said. “If it’s something where they are feeling threatened, we call Child Protective Services if they’re feeling that they are the ones being hurt.””

Aside from having resources in the community, students afraid of being victims of domestic violence can come to their school to access different people there who want to help.

“In school counselors are definitely the first person that people [struggling with domestic violence] want to talk to,” Brosnan said. “And then, usually what we’ll do is if the school counselor is concerned they’ll pull me in or the social worker in to help with the process too.””

One thing a lot of teenagers don’t understand is that domestic violence can occur between kids.

“There’s dating abuse that goes on, even in high school, and that’s something that people need to be aware of,””Brosnan said. “If something doesn’t feel right, if they question your whereabouts a lot or if they get mad a lot, that should send up signals that this is not a healthy relationship, and that you need to get out of it.””

While domestic violence is one of the most commonly underreported crimes, it is important that people speak out. Speaking out can be the best thing to do, when it comes down to it, speaking out can save a life. 

“It is important that you speak out and you don’t feel like it’is your fault,” Brosnan said. “It is important that you don’t feel like it’is something you did, because the idea of abusers, what they want to do, is isolate people and they want to make you feel like the one who’s in trouble.”