CONTENTS

About This Course

Table of Contents

1. Getting The Basics
2. Substance Abuse
3. Violence Against Women
4. Violent Men
5. Alcohol and Violence
6. Alcohol, Drugs and Sexual Assault (Date Rape)
7. Preventing Sexual Assault
8. After a Rape or Sexual Assault
9. Assistance - Women
10. Assistance - Men
11. Legal Options

Supplements
Resources
Glossary
Fact Sheets

It Won't Happen to Me:
Substance Abuse-Related Violence Against Women for Anyone Concerned About The Issues

Domestic Violence

No consistent legal definition of domestic violence is used in every State. Each State can decide to include some people (such as married couples) and not others (such as dating couples). But all States have some legal protection for victims of domestic violence.

The term "domestic violence" has begun to mean so many things that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prefer the term "intimate partner violence."¹ This term includes same-sex relationships (male or female) and male victims.

Intimate partner violence is defined as actual or threatened physical or sexual violence or psychological or emotional abuse by a:

• Spouse or ex-spouse
• Boyfriend, girlfriend, ex-boyfriend, or ex-girlfriend
• Date

Some States, such as Michigan, include younger dating relationships in their domestic violence laws. Others, such as Massachusetts, do not. Generally, dating violence has the same definition as intimate partner violence but refers to people who are unmarried. In other words, dating violence is part of intimate partner violence but usually refers to younger women.²

Differences between women's and men's rates of physical assault by an intimate partner become greater as the seriousness of the assault increases. For example, women are two to three times more likely than men to report that an intimate partner threw something at them that could hurt or pushed, grabbed, or shoved them. However, they are 7 to 14 times more likely to report that an intimate partner beat them up, choked or tried to drown them, or threatened them with a gun.³ There are domestic violence coalitions throughout the United States.