October was National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the timing could not have been more critical. From Ray Rice and Greg Hardy to Mark Fuller, we finally saw the increase in awareness that domestic violence victims need in order to make a real difference in this country. We’re not there yet, but October’s focus may have helped to thousands of lives in Tennessee and across the country.

Domestic violence by the numbers

The violence Policy Center issues a yearly report titled When Men Murder Women. The latest report ranked Tennessee 10th in the country where women are most likely to be murdered by men.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation offers these statistics for 2103:

  • 77,537 cases of domestic violence were reported
  • 55,475 of the victims were women
  • 86 people died
  • 1,530 reports included acts of sexual violence – 40 of those acts were incestuous; 27 of those 40 were performed on girls under the age of 18
  • 7,291 domestic violence cases involved children under the age of 18
  • 46,776 people were arrested for domestic violence

The numbers make you sick, don’t they? We hope they make you angry. They’ve certainly infuriated us. We work with men and women who are victims of domestic violence every day, and we see first-hand the horrific nature of these crimes. As women, it’s almost more than we can bear.

That’s why we encourage you to reach out and help the victims of domestic violence in Tennessee. This is the perfect time to stand alongside your mothers, your children, your siblings, your nieces, your nephews, your grandchildren, your friends and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. It is all of our responsibility to show the country that the people of Tennessee aren’t going to take it anymore. We urge you to donate your time or resources to women’s shelters, to volunteer at children’s crisis centers and to write your legislators and demand that they take more proactive and definitive steps to ending domestic violence once and for all.

Here are some places you can start:

If you or someone you love is a victim of domestic violence, please reach out for help. If you need the name of a counselor or a place to live, let us know: we’ll help get you to safety.