If it didn’t involve famed NFL player Ray Rice, and if it wasn’t under the unblinking eye of today’s omnipresent elevator cameras, the incident of a man beating his fiancé to the point of unconsciousness would be just another case of horrific abuse.
Just another case — like the tens of thousands reported each year in Oregon alone. By one national survey, one in three Oregonian women reported having experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner. In Multnomah County, county records indicate that one out of every seven women aged 18-64 is physically abused by an intimate partner in the course of a year. That’s 28,000 women in Multnomah County in one year.
Unfortunately it often takes a novelty angle— like a celebrity player or an unexpected college setting — to elevate the issue of sexual and domestic violence to the public conscience. But so be it. We’re talking about it.
Beyond the sensationalist coverage is the ongoing reality that women and men of all backgrounds, education and class can and do become victims of domestic and sexual violence. And it is well established that homelessness and poverty will aggravate the chances for survival, as it does with virtually every issue.
Access to shelter is paramount for escaping a domestic and sexual violence. According to information compiled by the Oregon Alliance to End Violence Against Women, access to shelter services leads to a 60 to 70 percent reduction in incidence and severity of re-assault during the 3-month to 12-month follow-up period compared to women who did not access shelter. Safe shelter is proven more successful in preventing severe repeat assaults than court-ordered or law enforcement protections.
In 2011, more than 20,000 requests for emergency shelter in Oregon could not be met. That same year, the vast majority of unmet requests for domestic violence services in Oregon were requests for housing.
The cycle works in both directions, with a large percentage of women who turn to welfare services for housing reporting domestic violence as a factor in their need for assistance. And surveys also show that the lack of shelter is cause for some women to even stay in an abusive relationship to avoid becoming homeless.
It’s a vicious cycle, as they say.
So let’s talk about domestic and sexual violence, but let’s talk about what it takes to really create a survival network for people trying to escape it. We can ask why — why people do what they do in these situations — or we can listen to what we already know. Housing and safe shelter is an integral part of survival. It doesn’t grab headlines, but it should.
