The tragic death of Michelle Woolley at the hands of a man whom she had had a previous relationship has shocked Killingworth to its core. What compounds the shock and disbelief that we all feel is to learn that this man had posted bail twice after violating a restraining order.
At a time like this as we mourn the loss of Michelle Woolley and reach out to her family it is important to take a close look at the insidious role that domestic violence plays in our tiny little town.
According to the New Haven Register the last homicide that took place in Killingworth in 1983 was a domestic violence incident in which 18 year old Renee Livernoche was killed. This past fall there was a shooting that occurred in another domestic violence incident involving a former boyfriend. Killingworth Elementary School was locked down in another incidence of a spouse who threatened to come to his wife’s workplace to do her harm.
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence states that there where 20,102 reported cases of domestic violence in Connecticut in 2005. Tragically children where present in 49 percent of these incidents. Twenty five women where killed due to domestic violence including seven murder suicides in Connecticut for that year.
For teenagers the statistics are equally dismal. According to the Bureau of Justice Special Report on Intimate Partner Violence dated May 2000, about one in three high school students have been or will be involved in an abusive relationship. Forty percent of teenage girl’s ages 14 to 17 say they know someone their age that has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend. In 1995, 7 percent of all murder victims were young women who were killed by their boyfriends.
Astonishingly, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that homicide is, get this, the leading cause of death for women in the workplace
Anyone who has ever known a woman involved in a domestic violence situation knows how frustrating this crime can be. Victims of domestic violence tend to isolate themselves because of a sense of embarrassment and shame and tend not to involve others or seek help. When victims do seek help they are often so traumatized from years of psychological and physical abuse that they often fail to press charges. Other times abused women feel with some justification that the system fails to adequately protect them and again refuse to press charges out of fear of retaliation.
In Connecticut, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, there are only eighteen domestic violence shelters that in 2005 that served over 53,000 domestic violence victims. According to the NCAD 540 women where turned away in 2005 due to a lack of facilities. The NCAD also pointed at that domestic violence programs are woefully under funded providing minimal training to staff and only around $30 per day for shelter and support services.
Domestic Violence is not just a problem between the perpetrator and the victim; it is a community problem. If you know someone who is being verbally or physically abused GET INVOLVED. Even if you do not know them very well talk to the victim about it and if you witness any abuse call 911 even if the victim protests.
Please use the resources below to talk to your daughters, mothers, sisters, nieces and friends about domestic violence. Most importantly please talk to your sons. Let’s all get involved to end domestic violence in Killingworth.
The Domestic Violence Handbook
www.usda.gov/da/shmd/aware.htm
The Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence
www.ctcadv.org
Dating Violence
www.acadv.org/dating.html
Tim Withington