Every minute, an average of 20 people in the United States are physically abused by an intimate partner.
One in four women and one in nine men experience abuse ranging from intimidation to battery to sexual assault.
In New Hampshire, more than half of all women have experienced physical or sexual violence, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Intimate partner violence disproportionately affects women who are more often served by the state’s 13 crisis centers, where confidential advocates help victims safety plan, find emergency shelter and access other support services 24/7.
As Domestic Violence Awareness Month kicked off this week, dozens of men strapped on high heels Wednesday afternoon and walked down Concord’s Main Street to mark the fifth annual Walk A Mile In Her Shoes campaign to raise money for the Crisis Center of Central New Hampshire, which serves the Capital Region.
Crisis Center executive director Paula Kelly-Wall said they had 400 participants this year and raised about $40,000, with a goal of $60,000. Last year, they raised about $50,000.
The event is the Center’s largest fundraiser, Kelly-Wall said, and has grown in years. “It’s really about making sure the community knows about us,” she said.
The Concord-based crisis center provides support services and shelter for victims of abuse in Merrimack County, with approximately 25 percent of those individuals coming from Concord. In 2017, the center served 1,184 people, answered 4,950 hotline calls and provided 2,991 bed nights in the emergency shelter.
That same year, Concord police handled more than 660 domestic violence-related calls, according to dispatch records. However, officers project the number is closer to 800; an additional 100 to 150 calls are likely logged under a different category, as it was unclear at the outset that they involved a domestic dispute. The department has handled an average of 686 domestic violence-related calls annually since 2013.
Statewide, the majority of murder-suicides and homicides are the result of intimate partner violence. Between 2009 and 2015, 98 homicides occurred in the state and of those, 58 percent were a result of domestic violence, according to a 2014-15 report from the New Hampshire Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee. That percentage has fluctuated from a low of 46 percent in 2012 to a high of 75 percent in 2010.