Without the federal government, almost no money exists to fight domestic violence

By

Mel Leonor Barclay , Jasmine Mithani

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Today, 4 out of every 10 women say they’ve experienced violence at the hands of an intimate partner. Among men, a quarter report being victims. Intimate partner violence can be deadly, particularly for women: More than half of all women homicide victims are killed by a current or former partner.

Congress in 1989 declared October to be Domestic Violence Awareness Month, following a decades-long campaign to frame intimate partner violence as a national public health and safety issue — not a private family matter. That work eventually led to the passage of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994, creating a dedicated fund to support domestic violence shelters and crisis help organizations.

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