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Raising public awareness that rape and spouse abuse are crimes against the entire community was one of the goals of Thursday's public forum on domestic violence.
Approximately 40 people attended the forum, sponsored by the Domestic Violence Task Force. The focus of the conference was on education of the public and of victims, and on what can be done to stop the increase of these crimes.
Kathy Lilley, a victim's advocate from Fayette County, spoke to the forum from the perspective of a rape survivor.
The rapist's ultimate goal is humiliation, power and control, she said. "Rape defies logic and reason."
Because the rapist uses sex as his weapon, the victim often feels responsible and guilty, a reaction reinforced by societal attitudes.
"Society can no longer afford to plead ignorance," she said.
The second speaker, Pam Taylor, also a victim's advocate and a domestic violence training specialist from Fayette County, pointed out that control also is the purpose of domestic violence.
She defined domestic violence as "a learned pattern of behavior used by one person in a relationship to control the other person."
It can be physical, emotional or sexual abuse, she said, and can occur in married, dating, gay or even divorced couples.
Taylor furnished statistics that illustrated how widespread domestic violence is and how much it affects every area of society: One out of every four women is a victim in her lifetime; more than three million children witness acts of domestic violence every year; every 40 seconds an adult woman in the United States is raped; every 7.5 seconds a woman in the United States is battered.
Changes in how information on these crimes, especially from children, is accepted would help stop the increase, Taylor said.
Because it's a problem that affects the community as a whole, she said, "it's our duty, all of us, to be advocates."
