Thanks Leslie.

Ziggy,
You are right. When I spoke to Mary Silva at Midcoast Family Services recently, she told me leaving is one of the most dangerous times for a victim of abuse. She tells people to create a plan and squirel away necessities - Iike IDs and money - before leaving. She recomends keepking things outside of the home. The best time to leave is when the batterer is not around, she said.
Victims in the region can call Midcoast Family Services' Hotline at 1-800-870-0368 or 361-573-4357. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE.

Wow, that was hard to watch.  If it can happen to a celebriy, it can hapen to anyone.  I'm very blessed to be married to someone who loves me and respects me very much.  My husband is very kind and has never said an ugly word to me, nor I to him.  But I have seen the violence among teenagers myself, you just need to venture out to the mall, they have no shame and will do it right there in public.  Sad...

I grew up with my high school boyfriend, dated him throughout my teen years until I left him for good. He became physically and mentally abusive to me during high school period of our lives. Very abusive relationship. I'm lucky to be alive. This was a good 30 years ago. There are so many scenarios. While making the choice to get out of that relationship is easy....the "getting out" is very dangerous for the escapee. I think it's something like 65% of women of who are murdered in our country are killed due to domestic violence. I'm not sure if it takes into account female teens. There are those, like myself, who move forward from this situation. I use to talk to my daughters about this issue, i.e. red flags, self-worth, etc. around the pre-teen time of their lives. This among other important  topics. Forwarned is for-armed.

This behavior seems to have escalated in the past decade or so, and I really think it is related to music and mores that just degrade women to the point of being non-entities. It's not just women who accept abuse as the norm, but these same women allow their children to be abused. Drugs in any form play a part in it, I am sure, but it can't be that simple. I know of women who endured and escaped from abusive situations and their husbands were sober, but nuts. Children of abuse tend to become abusers in some form or fashion. There are always exceptions to the case, and these survivors do their level best just to stay sane. None of this is new.
Women have always been the victims of choice, and I wonder if the cycles have just caught up with the populations. Maybe, it is purely mathematical that we see much more of this. I still can't accept it, but consider this scenerio. Two parents, one an abuser and one a victim, have 3  children. One sibling does whatever is necessary to break the cycle and succeeds. This victim raises 2 children without abuse as a norm. The unabused part of the cycle now have 4 children between them. 2 of the 3 original siblings have 2 children each, and now 4 children get exposed to the possibility of abuse in some form or fashion.  One of this generation of 4 breaks the cycle, but 3 continue the cycle of abuse as a norm. Just three generations have already stastically increased the number of abusers to equal the nonabusive. This is with a start of 3 children and end of 2 children each. Totals now include 6 nonabusive parents and 6 abusive parents. I wonder what this scenerio would do with 4 or 5 or 6 children of abusive parents. I believe we are seeing the results of an exponential explosion of abuse, and it is truly sad to me.