What is Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a pattern of controlling behavior by one person who has or has had a personal, intimate, or family relationship with another person. This may be a spouse, an ex-spouse, a live-in partner or someone with whom you have had a child. Domestic violence knows no bounds – victims and perpetrators come from anyone and anywhere.

Symptoms of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence may include:

• Choking
• Forcing or pressuring you to have unwanted sex
  • Rape is often a form of violence used in intimate relationships
• Holding you down
• Kicking
• Making threats to you
• Pushing
• Slapping
• Other types of unwanted touching

If any of these things have happened to you, you may have feelings of helplessness, fear, shame, and anger. You may blame yourself for the things that are happening and feel responsible for what happens to your abuser. There may be other problems in your home such as lack of money and worry for children or other family that make it hard to leave an abusive relationship. 

Monroe County Cases

In Monroe County in 2017, there were 407 cases of domestic violence reported to police, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement:

• 332 simple assault cases
• 64 aggravated assault cases
• 8 threats/intimidation cases
• 2 rape cases (rape can be charged as domestic violence in some cases)
• 1 aggravated stalking case