Domestic Abuse

I was reading the Times this morning (yes, the Times) and I was completely shocked at the statistics attached to something I read so felt the need to share.

The piece was about increasing domestic violence towards men in the UK and told the harrowing story of a 40something year old man who had been abused by his girlfriend for several years before a police officer attending a noise complaint uncovered the truth.  She left the guy needing re-constructive face surgery and a skin graft among other things which is incredible!

Anyway the article was summarised with a list of facts including a statistic stating that 1 in 6 men would experience domestic violence in their lifetime and 1 in 4 women.  What an awful reality if those figures are right.  I would have imagined those figures to be high if we were including verbal abuse, but to know that the numbers relate to physical contact only is mind boggling.  

I guess domestic abuse and violence is one of those things that people always say 'the first time would be the only time, I'd be outta there' but in reality, like many situations, you never know how you would react until you are living in that moment. (others that spring to mind are:  child standing in road with car approaching, unplanned pregnancy, cheating)

As a girl who hasn't settled down and is still very much in the dating world it scares me to think 1 in 4 of the guys I may date fall into the 'will raise his hand to you' category.  I mean, I like to think I'm a good judge of character; I generally tend to date guys who my friends and family approve of, are gentle in nature, have good family relationships, and I tend to respect even after we break up.  I also don't date drug or alcohol abusers so I assume I am in a minimal risk bracket but still... I hope I am never in a situation where I need to find out how I would react.

Failing that, I am sure my 'just in case someone tries to break into my flat' baseball bat will come in handy.

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Eminem Ft. Dido - Stan

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