Domestic Violence Prevention Program

Domestic/intimate partner violence is a significant public health issue that is both complicated and complex. It intersects with many other societal concerns, such as gun violence, suicide, substance/alcohol use, teen dating violence, children exposed to violence, Adverse Childhood Experiences, homelessness/houselessness, unemployment/underemployment, mental health, immigration, health equity, strangulation, and sexual violence within intimate partner relationships. Community involvement is crucial to stop and end domestic/intimate partner violence in Hawaiʻi.

The Domestic Violence Prevention Program is a statewide program that supports efforts related to ending domestic/intimate partner violence in Hawaiʻi. The program plans and implements primary prevention activities; promotes healthy, safe, respectful relationships; participates in, collaborates with, and partners with government agencies, community-based organizations, task forces, and work groups that focus on domestic/intimate partner violence and intersecting issues; provides technical assistance in efforts that strengthen coordinated community responses; provides and supports trainings and workshops; supports activities that increase awareness of domestic/intimate partner violence and resources in traditional and digital media; facilitates fatality reviews and supports its recommendations; offers opportunities for systems improvement, professional development, and skills and capacity building; and collaborates with internal and external partners to prevent all forms of violence across the lifespan.

Statistics

Hawaiʻi

Dating violence, i.e., emotional, sexual, and physical, begins in middle school. The Hawaiʻi Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 23.2% of Hawaiʻi public middle school students in 2015, 2017, and 2019 reported being purposefully controlled or emotionally hurt by a dating partner in the past 12 months,[1] and 15.6% of Hawaiʻi public middle school students in 2013, 2015, and 2021 reported they were forced to do sexual things or were physically hurt by a dating partner in the past 12 months.[2]
The Hawaiʻi Youth Risk Behavior Survey, in 2015 and 2017, found that almost 1/3 of Hawaiʻi public high school students reported they had experienced being purposefully controlled or emotionally hurt by a dating partner in the past 12 months.[3]
The Hawaiʻi Behavioral Risk Factor Survey, an annual telephone health survey for adults, compared 2013 and 2021: (1) adults who answered yes to ever experiencing unwanted sex by a current or former intimate partner increased from 3.7% in 2013 to 6.4% in 2021;[4] and (b) adults who answered yes to ever experiencing physical abuse by a current or former intimate partner increased from 9.7% in 2013 to 12.7% in 2021.[5]

National

The 2021 National Violent Death Reporting System found that for female homicide victims, 51.0% of suspects were a current or former intimate partner.[6]
In incidents where intimate partner violence was a precipitating circumstance and victim-suspect relationship was known, the suspect was a current or former intimate partner in 93.5% of homicides among females.[7]
The National Network to End Domestic Violence states that emotional abuse is a very effective tactic used by abusive partners to obtain power and control, which cause the victim to feel responsible for the abuse, as well as can cause extreme damage to the victim’s self-esteem.[8]

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM).

Hawaiʻi Resources

National Resources

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Futures Without Violence

Love is Respect

National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence

National Domestic Violence Hotline

National Resource Center on Domestic Violence

Power and Control Wheel (original)

Social-Ecological Model framework

“Wheels” (based on the Power and Control Wheel framework)

International Resources

UN Women Facts and Figures Ending Violence Against Women

[1] Hawaiʻi State Department Health, Hawaiʻi Health Data Warehouse, Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Emotional abuse – by partner, past 12 months, middle schools, state-level, 2015, 2017, 2019. Updated June 18, 2024. Accessed August 18, 2024. https://hhdw.org/report/query/result/yrbs/Controlled/Controlled_MS_ST.html

[2] Hawaiʻi State Department Health, Hawaiʻi Health Data Warehouse, Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Sex/Phys abuse – by partner, past 12 months, middle schools, state-level, 2013, 2015, 2021. Updated June 18, 2024. Accessed August 18, 2024. https://hhdw.org/report/query/result/yrbs/SexPhysAbuseDate/SexPhysAbuseDate_MS_ST.html

[3] Hawaiʻi State Department of Health, Hawaiʻi Health Data Warehouse, Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Emotional abuse – by partner, past 12 months, high schools, state-level, 2015, 2017. Updated June 18, 2024. Accessed August 18, 2024. https://hhdw.org/report/query/result/yrbs/Controlled/Controlled_HS_ST.html

[4] Hawaiʻi State Department of Health, Hawaiʻi Health Data Warehouse, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, IPV – unwanted sex, ever, Age Adjusted by Year, 2013, 2021, Published May 23, 2024. Accessed August 15, 2024.

[5] Hawaiʻi State Department of Health, Hawaiʻi Health Data Warehouse, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, IPV – physical abuse, ever, Age Adjusted by Year, 2013, 2021, Published May 23, 2024. Accessed August 15, 2024.

[6] Nguyen BL, Lyons BH, Forsberg K, et al. Surveillance for Violent Deaths — National Violent Death Reporting System, 48 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, 2021. MMWR Surveill Summ 2024;73(No. SS-5):1–44. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss7305a1

[7] Ibid.

[8] https://nnedv.org/content/forms-of-abuse/

MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH BRANCH