Food, Home and Style

Domestic Violence and Money

This isn’t the happiest of news, nor all that new, but we thought it important to participate in the coverage of a report by cosmetics maker Mary Kay that shows an uptick in domestic violence related to financial woes.

From the study, in which 600 shelters were polled:

• Seventy-three percent of shelter representatives attribute the rise in abuse to “financial issues.”
• “Stress” and “job loss” (61 percent and 49 percent, respectively) also proved to be leading contributing factors in the reported increase in domestic violence cases involving women.

The number of shelters reporting an increase in women seeking help as a result of domestic violence since September 2008:

• The region with the largest reported increase was the South (78 percent); followed by
• The Midwest region, which reported a 74 percent increase;
• The Northeast takes the No. 3 place with a 72 percent reported increase; and
• The West rounds out the regional list with a 71 percent reported increase in women seeking help as a result of domestic violence.

The survey also inquired about the cause(s) for the increase in domestic violence cases across regions:

• Seventy-five percent of shelters in the West report “financial issues.”
• Approximately 66 percent of respondents in the Midwest note “stress.” More than half of respondents (53 percent) in the South report “job loss.”
• The “loss of a home or vehicle” was reported more often in the Midwest than other regions, with 44 percent; the Northeast had the lowest with 35 percent.
• Reasons more commonly associated with domestic violence, such as “substance abuse” and “relationship challenges,” also contributed to the increase in domestic violence shelter assistance in each region, according to the survey.

Tags: abuse, domestic violence, home, relationships, Spending and Saving, stress