There is simply never an acceptable reason for physical violence between partners. No matter how angry, frustrated or scared, striking the first blow is never justified. It is a rare relationship that can ever emotionally recover from an incident of domestic violence. While many people do stay in these relationships, unless a massive effort is made to clean up the damage done by the abuse, and it is never repeated, it is very unlikely to end well. It is important to understand just how diminishing violence is to both people involved to see why the cycle must be broken immediately.
Before you leave you must make a plan and we'll out line a few important things you will need to do before doing so.
Save any evidence of the physical or emotional abuse you have been experiencing. Evidence examples could be:
pictures of injuries you spouse or partner has inflicted on you.
Ripped or bloody clothing.
Items that the abuser damaged or broke during a violent episode.
Pictures that show your home destroyed or messed up after violence happened.
Police records.
Hospital records.
Put together a bag that you can easily grab incase you need to make a quick exit. Some items you could include are:
Clothes
Spare car keys ( always good to have incase the abuser hides your keys preventing you from leaving).
Driver's license or passport, birth certificates, social security cards.
Cash & Checkbooks. ( if the abuser controls the money try to conserve money save as much as possible.)
Important phone numbers to friends, family or a battered womens shelter.
Birth certificates, social security cards, school records and
Bank account information.
Eidence of abuse you've been collected
A few sentimental items.
Be sure to hide this bag with someone you trust -- preferability not with mutual friends or close family members.
Once you're gone and in a safe place you should being to look into getting a protective order. Protective orders are cost-free to anyone who is a victim of domestic or family violence, stalking or a sex offense. Because this is a civil proceeding, the Prosecutor's Office is not involved in the issuance of such orders. A person must go to Court, where youl fill out the paperwork to be review and ruled on by a judge.
For the judge to approve a protective order, the petitioner must allege that the respondent has attempted to cause, threatened to cause or is causing physical harm to the petitioner, or that the respondent is actually placing the petitioner in fear of physical harm.
Please keep in mind, a protective order is not enough to keep you safe.
