Our communities are made up of tremendous resources to fight domestic violence: People.
We very likely know someone who has experienced domestic abuse or someone a victim has turned to for help. We have residents who understand the connections between violence in the home and cultural values and social norms that enable domestic abuse. Most importantly, we have people like you who want to improve their cities and neighborhoods.
That’s why the key in any community is to educate residents on the social changes needed outside the home to prevent violence within it.
Society’s expectations and assumptions must change
We live with social norms that enable domestic violence:
- Accepting traditional gender roles, where “being a man” means taking control, dominating relationships and taking part in dangerous behaviors and “being a lady” is to be meek, helpless and less assertive.
- Valuing power over others.
- Tolerating, even rewarding, aggression and violence while blaming and disbelieving victims.
- Protecting individual and family privacy as sacred, discouraging those who know about domestic violence from intervening.
Preventing domestic violence from happening is a long-term process that requires change at many levels and in many institutions within our communities.
Can a community prevent domestic violence?
Communities already use methods to prevent violence and injury: Gun laws. Speed limits. Workplace safety regulations. Similarly, communities can use methods to reduce the likelihood that someone will become a victim or a perpetrator of domestic abuse.
It’s a long-term process. Risk factors that contribute to becoming a victim or perpetrator come from living in the world as an individual, as a person in relationships, as a member of a community and as part of society ⎯ so we have many entry points for our prevention efforts.
