Domestic Violence Case in Columbia

     In the summer of 2006, Lissette Ochoa from Barranquilla, Colombia went to a party with her husband, friends, and family at a local country club. Lissette expected to have a great time with the guests. She expected dancing, singing, and having a great time. Little did she know, it would be a night that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
     Lissette left her husband at the party for a few brief moments to go along and dance with some of her friends. Of course, she didn't think it was going to be a problem, considering they were her friends and all. Her husband didn't seem to think so. He went to the bathroom and didn't come back out to the party for at least an hour. When he emerged from the bathroom, his eyes were entirely too red and it was clear that he had been intoxicated with alcohol and/or drugs.
     When Lissette was done dancing with her friends, she went back to her seat with her husband but before she could sit down, he demanded that the two of them should leave now. He appeared to be angry and jealous, according to other guests.
     On the entire two hour drive home, her husband, Rafael Dangond, endlessly beat her and degraded her both physically and verbally. This began at two in the morning and didn't cease until four in the morning on the same day. Once they reached home, she was continuously battered but managed to lock herself in the bathroom and call her father.
     After threatening Lissette, her father, and his own life, Rafael was finally placed under arrest the following morning after Lissette was taken to the hospital by her father.He claimed that his daughter appeared to have stepped straight out from the famous horror movie, The Exorcist. Her eyes were swollen with tired, purple and blue rings around them and her top lip almost touched her nose. In the very end, Lissette suffered from some major head injuries but was cured from them. Unfortunately, the memories Lissette accumulated from her abusive husband would never be cured and she would have to endure them forever.

"Lissette Ochoa Domestic Violence Case." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.

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Statistics

     Domestic violence is something that happens all too often in this society. Adults and children are physically beaten or emotionally tortured regardless of their gender. If they aren’t experiencing it, they could possibly be witnessing it which takes just as much of a toll on the person. According to the Domestic Violence Statistics website, up to ten million children witness domestic violence annually and the men who witness the violence from their family members are twice as likely to abuse their family members in the future.

         

     Women are more likely to endure some type of domestic violence in their lifetime whether it be from their husband, boyfriend, father, brother, cousin, or even a co-worker. Nearly 1.3 million women were physically assaulted somehow by their partner annually and have reported the incident. In 2000, 1,247 women were killed by their partner.Out of all women who were killed by firearms, more than two-thirds of them were shot by their significant other. As for sexual assault, more than 78% of the victims are women (regardless of who committed the crime-- male or female). In a women's lifetime, there is a chance that she will be coerced into sexual acts against her will. 34% of women admitted to that.

          More on sexual assault against women:

• 13% of adult women had been victims of completed rape during their lifetime
• 22% of rape victims were assaulted by someone they had never seen before or did not know well.
• 9% of victims were raped by husbands or ex-husbands.
• 11% were raped by fathers or stepfathers.
• 10% were raped by boyfriends or ex-boyfriends.
• 16% were raped by other relatives.
• 29% were raped by other non-relatives, such as friends and neighbors.

     Many believe that only women are the victims of the awful abuse, but that is not the case. 835,000 men are sexually assaulted by their intimate partner annually. In the District Of Columbia, 7.6% of their male population has been sexually or physically assaulted in their lifetime, but those are just the ones who have reported something. There is a countless amount of people who, even in the United States, don't think to report it because they are either embarrassed by it or they don't think it was bad enough to be reported. Continuing on with the idea of men being assaulted, over 440 men were murdered by their partner in the year 2000. 

 "Domestic Violence Statistics." Domestic Violence Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.