EXAMINER FORUM: Dangers of Non-Fatal Domestic Violence

Sarah J. Warren

Assistant Logan County Prosecutor, Felony Division

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It is our goal at the Logan County Prosecutor’s Office to work towards providing services for both the victim and the offender — to help them heal and to prevent the domestic violence cycle from continuing or escalating.  

In the last year, we saw approximately 50 felony domestic violence cases go through the Logan County Common Pleas Court, plus 105 cases that our partners in the Bellefontaine Municipal Court saw. In many cases, reports are taken and charges are filed but the victim decides not to be seen by the local emergency squad or hospital.

Recent studies show that this decision can be a mistake, and a fatal one, as a majority of victims have invisible injuries. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to find that an offender had placed hands around the victim’s neck and applied pressure. While some may call that “choking,” it is not the same as coughing on a hot dog. It is more accurately called “strangulation,” and it happens in a shocking 83 percent of domestic violence situations.

When pressure is placed upon a victim’s neck, the blood vessels, which transport needed oxygen to the brain and which transport blood back down from the brain afterwards, are impacted. Even a slight amount of pressure, such as that needed to open a pop can, can deprive the brain of oxygen. There can be immediate, noticeable affects from this oxygen deprivation including dizziness, loss of bladder or bowel control, or unconsciousness.

The only way to tell if one’s vessels are compromised are 1) when an autopsy is conducted after the fact, or 2) by going to the hospital and getting an MRI.  

Strangulation is not the only mechanism of injury in domestic violence cases that produces unseen but serious results. New studies have shown that in 81 percent of domestic violence assaults, a victim is shaken, punched in the head, or has their head slammed against a wall or a table, resulting in a head injury.

Again, this injury can be internal, much the same a football player who suffers head trauma as a result of one or more tackles. But our victims do not have the luxury of wearing a football helmet. They are taking the full force of the impact directly to the head…and to the brain.  

We urge every person who has been the victim of a strangulation or an assault to the head to go with the squad, to travel to the hospital, to tell their primary care physicians, in order to be assessed for these unseen, but highly dangerous, injuries.

There are significant services available in the county if you or someone you know is a victim or perpetrator of domestic violence. New Directions provides counseling services for victims. It also provides legal advocacy should a victim decide to seek a civil protection order.

Soteria House provides a 24-hour crisis line, and should a victim need a place to stay, it also can provide room and board for the victim and children.  

For immediate law enforcement assistance, the Logan County Sheriff’s Office and the local police departments are always available.

The Logan County Prosecutor’s Office and the Bellefontaine City Prosecutor’s Office provide Victim Advocates to share information and provide resources to those victims who are going through the court system, as well as information about Crime Victim Compensation to reimburse the victim for expenses and lost wages caused by the crime.

But when an abuser refuses to accept responsibility and seek assistance, the prosecutors in this community are dedicated to taking domestic violence cases to trial.

There is help, both for survivors and for abusers. Reach out to a friend. Reach out to local county services. We are here. And we care.

New Directions, (937) 593-5777; Soteria House, (877) 394-1046; Logan County Children’s Services, (937) 599-7290; Bellefontaine City Prosecutor’s Victim Advocate, (937) 599-1205; Logan County Prosecutor’s Victim Advocate, (937) 599-7272.

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