Although leaving may pose additional hazards, at least in the short run, the research data demonstrates that ultimately a battered woman can best achieve safety and freedom apart form the batterer. Leaving will require strategic planning and legal intervention to avert separation violence and to safeguard victims and their children. Work on your PLAN . It only happens every few months. The long term effects of domestic violence have not begun to be fully documented.
Victims suffer physical and mental problems as a result of domestic violence.
Battering is the single major cause of injury to women, more significant that auto accidents, rapes, or muggings. In fact, the emotional and psychological abuse inflicted by batterers may be more costly to treat in the short-run than physical injury. Many of the physical injuries sustained by women seem to cause medical difficulties as women grow older. Arthritis, hypertension and heart disease have been identified by battered women as directly caused by aggravated by domestic violence early in their adult lives. Battered women lose their jobs because of absenteeism due to illness as a result of the violence.