You can’t even turn on the news these days without hearing some awful story about a football player or a musician – or even a politician – who has been beating his wife or kids. And while stories like this make us sick to our stomachs, they have had one positive effect: they’re raising awareness throughout the country about domestic violence and the prevailing, systematic destruction it’s had on families across all borders of age, race and wealth.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and its timing is pretty fortuitous: since there’s an entire population of people who can’t even look at Roger Goodell and his players without immediately flashing to that video of Ray Rice punching out his fiancée, and yet football is on about four days a week, this seems like the perfect month to make the world aware that we’re not going to stand for it anymore.

Why Tennessee in particular has some ‘splaining to do

We love our home state as much as anyone, but when it comes to domestic violence we’re far behind the times. The Violence Policy Center just put out its most recent stats in their yearly publication When Men Murder Women. Tennessee is #6 on the list of most likely places for a man to murder a woman. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigations’ numbers regarding domestic violence don’t get better, either. In 2013:

  • There were 77,537 reported cases of domestic violence in Tennessee
  • The reported number of female victims was 55,475
  • 46, 776 arrests were made
  • The total reported number of children under the age of 18 who were victims of domestic violence was 7,291
  • 1,530 cases involved some element of sexual violence or assault
  • 86 victims died as a result of a domestic violence dispute

What you can do to help victims

Victims of domestic violence need advocates – voices who will shout for them when they can’t do it themselves. You can volunteer your time, your money or your knowledge to help adults and children who need to get to safety. There are a number of local and national organizations you can join right here in Knoxville:

  • The Family Justice Center
  • Haven House
  • Kent C. Withers Family Crisis Center

WABC created this list of additional centers for surrounding areas, too.

Let’s work together to put an end to domestic violence once and for all. And if you or someone you know needs help, we encourage you to reach out for help. We can help, too; just give us a call.