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Vol. 67, No. 1 2016
Northeast Florida Medicine
DCMS online
. org
CME
Domestic Violence/Intimate Partner Violence:
Screening, Detection and Intervention
Introduction
News feeds and newspapers seem to be filled with
tragic stories of children and women who have lost their
lives because of an abusive partner who then turns the
gun on themselves. According to a 2015 article by The
Florida Times-Union, 18 deaths were related to domestic
violence in Jacksonville in 2014. Eight of those cases in-
volved adults killed by a spouse, girlfriend or boyfriend.
2
The media draws our attention to the issue of domestic
violence/intimate partner violence (IPV), but it is not
a recent societal phenomenon. Early English common
law permitted men to beat their wives using the “rule
of thumb,” which restricted the size of the stick used
for “discipline” to one no bigger than the width of his
thumb.
3
In the U.S., assault did not become a legally
recognized reason for divorce until the late 1800’s, and
as late as the 1980’s many states carried an exception to
the rape statute that exempted from prosecution a man
who raped his legally married spouse. Today, every state
holds a partner legally liable for marital rape. IPV has
been identified and studied as a social problem with se-
rious consequences to individual health and well-being.
Healthcare providers should be aware of the issues of
domestic violence, including elder abuse, and the risk
Abstract:
Domestic Violence/intimate partner abuse is prevalent
throughout the United States, as well as the rest of the world.
More than one in three women and one in four men report having
experienced some form of rape, physical violence, or stalking by a
partner in their lifetime.
1
It is therefore important for healthcare
providers to be aware of the prevalence of domestic violence and
become familiar with appropriate screening and referral tools in
order to identify victims and provide resources.
of abuse to the children in the homes where domestic
violence occurs.
Definition of Domestic Violence
or Intimate Partner Violence
The Florida statutes (741.28-741.31) define domestic
violence as any assault, aggravated assault, battery, ag-
gravated battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, stalking,
aggravated stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment,
or any criminal offense resulting in physical injury or
death of one “family or household member” by another
who is or was residing in the same single dwelling unit.
A family or household member includes spouses, former
spouses, persons related by blood or marriage, persons
who are presently residing together as if a family, or who
have a child in common regardless of whether they have
been married or have resided together at any time. A
functional definition of IPV is the victimization of an
individual when the perpetrator of the abuse has some
special relationship with the individual, either familial,
intimate or romantic.
Epidemiology:
Intimate partner violence is disturbingly prevalent
throughout the United States and the world. More than
one in three women (35.6 percent) and one in four men
(28.5 percent) report having been the victim of rape,
physical violence or stalking by a partner.
1
Although
both men and women can experience IPV, women are
far more likely to experience severe sexual and physical
violence from a partner or to be killed by one.
4
According
to the World Health Organization’s report on Violence by
Intimate Partners, between 10 and 69 percent of women
were physically assaulted by an intimate male partner at
some point in their lives.
5
Most assaults are minor and
include pushing, grabbing, slapping, and hitting; how-
ever, intimate partner violence can lead to death, which
accounted for 1,192 deaths in the U.S. in 2010.
6
Sixty-four
By Kaitlin R. McCurdy, MD, Ozdemir Kanar, MD, Brittany Lyons, DO,
Jeffrey Winder, DO, Linda R. Edwards, MD
Department of Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville
Address correspondence to:
Linda R. Edwards
655 W. 8
th
Street
Jacksonville, FL 32209
904-244-3530