Whereas this resolution may be cited as the Original National Domestic Violence Awareness Month Resolution of 2025;

Whereas, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the definition of domestic violence is the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, or other abusive behaviors as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another;

Whereas a society that tolerates the hurt, pain, suffering, distress, anguish, trauma, and grief of domestic violence perpetuates the injury and grief of domestic violence;

Whereas a just society embraces the moral imperative to eliminate, not mitigate, domestic violence;

Whereas intimate partner violence affects people of all ages as well as all racial, ethnic, gender, economic, and religious backgrounds;

Whereas an average of 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States, amounting to more than 12,000,000 women and men over the course of a single year;

Whereas, in 2024, the National Domestic Violence Hotline answered more than 430,000 calls, chats, and texts about services;

Whereas, of the reported abuse types, 94 percent of those who contacted the National Domestic Violence Hotline disclosed emotional abuse, 67 percent stated they experienced physical abuse, 39 percent described economic or financial abuse, 13 percent revealed digital abuse, and 17 percent detailed sexual abuse;

Whereas 76 percent of those who contacted the National Domestic Violence Hotline identified as victims or survivors, while 11 percent identified as friends, family members, or other helpers, and 13 percent identified as other, such as those working with survivors or even those causing the harm;

Whereas women are disproportionately the victims of domestic violence, as approximately 1 in 2 women will experience intimate partner violence or stalking during their lifetimes, compared to 2 in 5 men;

Whereas survivors of domestic violence are strong, courageous, and resilient;

Whereas women ages 18 to 34 experience the highest rates, per capita, of intimate partner violence;

Whereas approximately 1 in 5 women and 1 in 7 men who were victims of contact sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner first experienced these or other forms of violence before age 18;

Whereas nearly 1 in 3 college women say they have been in an abusive dating relationship;

Whereas about 44 percent of Native American women and 14 percent of Native American men will be raped in their lifetimes, and more than half experience intimate partner violence in their lifetimes;

Whereas African-American women experience intimate partner violence at a rate 9.9 percent higher than that of White women and are 3 times more likely to die, but African-American women are less likely than White women to use social services or battered women’s programs or to go to the hospital because of domestic violence;

Whereas, in research conducted by the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence, 27.2 percent of Asian women reported experiencing intimate physical or sexual violence (or both) during their lifetimes;

Whereas, according to the National Intimate and Sexual Violence Survey, 42.1 percent of Hispanic women are victimized by intimate partner violence, defined by contact sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking, in their lifetimes;

Whereas victims of domestic violence report hesitation calling law enforcement and accessing victims services due to uncertainty arising from fear of prosecution for unrelated activities, including immigration status;

Whereas the average cost of intimate partner violence over a victim’s lifetime for medical and mental health care services is $103,767 for women and $23,414 for men;

Whereas, of women who die by homicide, 36 percent are killed by an intimate partner or former intimate partner, which is 6 times higher than the number of men killed by an intimate partner or former partner;

Whereas women victims are more vulnerable to contracting HIV or other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) due to forced intercourse or prolonged exposure to stress;

Whereas multiple nationwide studies suggest that there is a relationship between intimate partner violence, depression, and suicidal behavior;

Whereas 25 to 50 percent of domestic violence victims report that they have lost a job due, at least in part, to domestic violence;

Whereas some domestic violence victims who have protection orders or other indications that they are victims are evicted from or denied access to housing;

Whereas 57 percent of homeless women cite domestic violence as the reason for their homelessness, and 80 percent of homeless mothers experience this type of abuse at some point in their lifetimes;

Whereas a review of 12 United States studies, most of which included data from multiple cities, shows that domestic violence incidents increased 8.1 percent after jurisdictions imposed pandemic-related lockdown orders;

Whereas 10.7 percent of women and 2.1 percent of men report having been stalked by an intimate partner;

Whereas 81 percent of women who are stalked by a current or former male partner are also physically abused by that partner;

Whereas, of total domestic violence homicides, about 75 percent of the victims are killed as they attempted to leave the relationship or after the relationship had ended;

Whereas 99 percent of relationships with domestic violence include financial abuse, causing the survivors to stay or return to the abusive relationship;

Whereas more than 8,000,000 days of paid work each year are lost due to domestic violence issues, and the financial cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $12,000,000,000 per year;

Whereas 96 percent of employed domestic violence victims experience problems at work due to abuse;

Whereas between 10 to 20 percent of children are exposed to physical intimate partner violence each year, and 5.7 percent are exposed to psychological intimate partner violence each year;

Whereas children exposed to domestic violence are more likely to attempt suicide, abuse drugs and alcohol, run away from home, and become victims of human trafficking;

Whereas, familial trafficking, the exploitation of children or relatives by parents, caregivers, or intimate partners, often occurs in households where domestic violence is present, creating multi-generational cycles of abuse;

Whereas 1 large study found that men exposed to physical abuse, sexual abuse, and adult domestic violence as children were almost 4 times more likely than other men to have perpetrated domestic violence as adults;

Whereas adults who report multiple types of childhood maltreatment are at greater risk of engaging in abusive or neglectful parenting;

Whereas 1 in 10 high school students has experienced violence, either physical or sexual, from a dating partner in the past year;

Whereas half of the youth who have been victims of both dating violence and rape attempt suicide, compared to 12.5 percent of nonabused girls and 5.4 percent of nonabused boys;

Whereas there is a need for primary schools, secondary schools, and postsecondary schools to educate students about the issues of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking;

Whereas a recently released multistate study shows that the Nation’s domestic violence shelters are addressing victims’ urgent and long-term needs and are helping victims protect themselves and their children;

Whereas a 2024 survey by the National Network to End Domestic Violence reported that more than 79,000 domestic violence victims were served by domestic violence shelters and programs around the Nation in a single day;

Whereas an additional 14,095 requests for services went unmet that day due to lack of resources, and 60 percent of these requests were for housing needs;

Whereas transgender individuals are 2.2 times more at risk of physical intimate partner violence and 2.5 times more at risk of sexual intimate partner violence than cisgender individuals;

Whereas a 2018 analysis on the killings of women in 47 major United States cities during the previous decade found that nearly half (46 percent) of them died as a result of intimate partner violence;

Whereas 61.1 percent of bisexual women, 43.8 percent of lesbian women, 37.3 percent of bisexual men, and 26 percent of homosexual men experience intimate partner violence during their lifetimes;

Whereas domestic violence advocates provide lifesaving, essential services;

Whereas there is a need to increase, not reduce, funding for programs aimed at intervening in and preventing domestic violence in the United States; and

Whereas October is an appropriate month for the observance of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Now, therefore, be it