It's awe-inspiring to me the Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., with a staff of about 80 and a daily circulation of 85,000, won the most prestigious of the Pulitzer Prizes for journalism awarded on Monday, a Gold Medal for Public Service reportage. It's so difficult in these days of diminishing newsprint budgets to find money for investigative reporting. The seven-part series focuses on the high number of deaths resulting from domestic abuse in the state of South Carolina.
The series begins with this chilling reminder: "In South Carolina, more than 300 women were shot, stabbed, strangled, beaten, bludgeoned or burned to death over the past decade by men, dying at a rate of one every 12 days while the state does little to stem the carnage from domestic abuse. [See permalink to series at bottom of this post.] [Image credit: Post and Courier]
"More than three times as many women have died here at the hands of current or former lovers than the number of Palmetto State soldiers killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.
"It’s a staggering toll that for more than 15 years has placed South Carolina among the top 10 states nationally in the rate of women killed by men. The state topped the list on three occasions, including this past year, when it posted a murder rate for women that was more than double the national rate.
"Awash in guns, saddled with ineffective laws and lacking enough shelters for the battered, South Carolina is a state where the deck is stacked against women trapped in the cycle of abuse, a Post and Courier investigation has found."
You may access the 7-part series at this permalink:
http://www.postandcourier.com/tilldeath/title.html
There are many agencies available to help women and their families to escape and/or to prevent family violence. See, for example:
Domestic violence resources ·
New Visions: Alliance to End Violence in Asian/Asian American Communities Tel. 734-615-2106 Email [email protected]
Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence
Tel. 415-954-9988, ext. 315 Email: [email protected]
Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project
Michigan Battered Women's Clemency Project
Email: [email protected]
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
Intimate Partner Violence Fact Sheet
National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
"Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women"
A collection of news articles concerning domestic violence and sexual violence is found here on the website of the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence
If you need crisis help:
Michigan Asian Indian Family Services
24-hour line: 888-664-8624
Help Against Violent Encounters Now (HAVEN)
24-hour line: 248-334-1274
Domestic Violence Project/SAFE House
24-hour line: 734-995-5444
Detroit Police Department Rape Counseling Center and Domestic Violence
24-hour lines: 313-833-1660 or 313-833-9813
To contact Jeanne Hannah with your questions or to view her Family Law website, click here.
