Domestic violence has been in the news a lot lately - but how common is it?
And is there a way to identify perpetrators before they strike?
Hey guys, Tara here for Dnews - and if you’ve been paying attention to the news lately,
then you’ve probably heard about this whole Ray Rice fiasco, which is sadly, just one
of the domestic violence cases currently surrounding the NFL.
What you may not be aware of, though - are the actual statistics regarding these kinds
of issues.
According to a new study from the University of Michigan, 1 in 5 men in the United States
reports having committed violence against their spouse or significant other.
Violence against women, specifically, accounts for almost 320,000 outpatient health visits
and 1,200 deaths every year.
That’s nearly $8.3 billion spent on medical and mental health services alone.
But the scariest statistic of all?
In this country, domestic violence is more common than diabetes.
This particular study included a nationally-representative survey sample of 530 men with an average age
of 42.
“Intimate partner violence” was defined as pushing, grabbing, shoving, throwing something,
slapping or hitting, kicking, biting, beating up, choking, burning or scalding, or threatening
a partner with a knife or gun.
So, pretty severe stuff.
What’s especially eye-opening about these findings, is that male aggression towards
a partner, is associated with certain warning signs - signs that often pop up during routine
health care visits.
Irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, substance abuse, and a history of either experiencing
or witnessing violence as a child - are all things that male aggressors experience more
frequently than others.
According to lead author Vijay Singh, the issue of domestic violence is one that “cuts
across all communities, regardless of race, income, or any other demographics."
Most of the efforts up until now, have focused on screening and improving outcomes for female
victims.
But very little work has been done to actually identify male perpetrators.
Which is why this study is so important.
It shows just how much of an opportunity we’re missing, to identify aggressive behavior in
the primary care setting, and potentially intervene.
Now - switching gears for a second, I wanna remind everyone out there watching this, that
I host another another show here on Discovery called TestTube.
It’s a lot like Dnews - but more focused on current events; however there is still
some science stuff in there, like this episode I hosted about why it’s so difficult to
actually eradicate disease.
You can find that, along with many other episodes, over at youtube.com/testtubenetwork.
And in the meantime, if you guys have any questions, comments, anything you wanna say
about this episode - let us know in the comments below.
Otherwise, thanks for watching!