Eduardo Cruz
Professor Church
English 104-10
16 April, 2015

“Silenced Cry” It was a hot summer afternoon in the suburbs, tension between my families was building up. We received the call from the hospital, telling us that my aunt was being admitted to the emergency room with severe damage to her body and face. The police were contacted, and after a rigorous investigation and therapy, my aunt for the first time in 5 years decided to press charges. It was the last time she was going to endure physical and psychological abuse. Our family tried not to retaliate towards the abuser, especially my grandpa who almost killed the guy after hearing the terrible news. Why would men feel entitled to hit the women that they “love”? In the book “Angry White Men”, the author describes men such as this which had led me to believe that more needs to be done in promoting awareness of domestic violence. Domestic violence is, a pattern of behavior used by someone to establish power and control over another person in a relationship through violence, fear, and intimidation. There are many different ways this violence can be carried out, including emotional, psychological, sexual, physical, and even economic. Domestic violence is a much larger problem than most people think. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control, one in four women will be a victim of domestic violence in her lifetime. From 1994 to 2010, the overall rate of intimate partner violence in the United States declined by 64%, from 9.8 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older to 3.6 per 1,000. Half of these women are abused by current or previous significant others. The other half are from others, such as family members, friends, or possibly even strangers. Although it is nowhere nearly as common, men can be victimized in these cases, as well. Data from the Bureau of Justice states that women make up 78% of the abused persons in these incidents Statistics such as these are phenomenal. Domestic abuse appears not only with violence, but it is very prevalent in psychological abuse. Domestic violence is widespread through the United States, mostly due to fear caused by the abuser. The problem is recognized in the United States and much is being done to correct this problem. The statistics of woman and domestic violence are very high, and many of the abusers started at a really young age, let’s take for example a sixteen year old guy described in “Angry White Men”. This young man describes the psychological and physical abuse that he puts his girlfriend through, just because he feels humiliated. Currently, domestic violence is widespread, and not all cases are reported. Some woman adjust to life with domestic violence. Shame seems to play a large part in why most cases are not reported. Woman have been convinced by the abuser that the violence is all their fault. Also, many woman have lost their self-esteem and believe all of the humiliating words that have they heard from the abuser. Another reason that woman stay in an abusive relationship is that they are afraid to leave. Many batterers threaten the victims of bodily harm, and they will degrade them in public. Batterers also threaten to take their children from them, stating that they have proof of the victim being an unfit parent. Woman are afraid that the abuser will also