SALT LAKE CITY —
Take some forced family togetherness, the stress of the holidays, a little alcohol in some cases and you've got a recipe that can sometimes end up in family violence.Police say they deal with family fights every Thanksgiving.
"It becomes an emotional time for all, and it's a stressful time in certain ways," Ogden Police Lt. Scott Conley said.
Ogden police said that on Thanksgiving, they get a lot of calls about child custody disputes between bitter parents.
"We become the mediator over some disagreement or disorderly conduct of using the child against one another," Conley told Fox 13 News.
A recent study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and UC San Diego documented police calls about partner violence, taking note of particular holidays. They found a 22-percent increase on Thanksgiving; a 17-percent increase on Christmas; a 32-percent spike on New Year's Eve; and a 28-percent hike on the Fourth of July, among other holidays.
The study, paid for by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's major finding was an 8-percent increase in partner violence as a result of an upset loss in an NFL football game. The study's results didn't surprise Sheila Richins, the director of the Safe Harbor Domestic Violence Shelter in Davis County.
"It's like, get angry and kick the dog but the dog isn't here, so we'll kick our wife instead," she told Fox 13 News.
Police and victim advocates have noticed a marked increase in people calling crisis hotlines as the economy plummeted.
"Our calls have gone up, yes, in the last several months," Richins said. "We kind of attribute that to the lack of financial support that maybe families are getting and the stress that puts them under."
Richins noted that beginning the first week of December, she sees a lot of women and children come into the shelter, before dropping off before Christmas.
"I think that's because even though women are in domestic violence situations and things are terrible, they're not willing to jeopardize their children's ability to have a good Christmas so they stay," she said.
The shelter's beds begin filling up again in January, Richins said.
If you are in an abusive situation and need help, you are urged to call the state's domestic violence help line at 1-800-897-LINK (5465) or click on any of the links next to this story.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete