Private Violence explores a simple but deeply disturbing fact of American life: the most dangerous place for a woman in America is her own home.
Private Violence
Synopsis
Private Violence explores a simple but deeply disturbing fact of American life: the most dangerous place for a woman in America is her own home. Every day in the US, at least four women are murdered by abusive (and often, ex) partners. Through the eyes of two survivors—Deanna Walters, a mother who seeks justice for the crimes committed against her at the hands of her estranged husband, and Kit Gruelle, an advocate who seeks justice for all women—we bear witness to the complex realities of intimate partner violence. Private Violence begins to shape powerful, new questions that hold the potential to change our society: "Why does he abuse?" "Why do we turn away?" "How do we begin to build a future without domestic violence?"
Domestic violence affects as many as one in three women globally, and women and girls experience physical and sexual violence, emotional abuse, stalking, and other forms of harassment and victimization at the hands of their most intimate partners. Human Rights Watch has documented the failure of the state to protect women and girls from this violence from its first report on Brazil in 1993 to its most recent work on Hungary in 2013. Our reports document the many forms of violence that women experience and advocate for measures, such as protection orders and shelters, which will protect and allow them to live free of violence.