In November, the United Nations (U.N.) released a report that led to shocking headlines: home is the most dangerous place for women. According to the U.N., around 87,000 women were killed around the world in 2017. Approximately 50,000 of those women — or 58% — were killed by intimate partners or family members. This translates to 6 women being killed every hour by people they know. With numbers like these, it is little wonder that the U.N. has concluded that home is the l

This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report that generated shocking headlines: more than half of all female homicide victims are killed by an intimate partner. The report revealed that 55.3% of all female homicide victims are killed by a current or former intimate partner. The vast majority — 98% — of the killers in these cases are men. The numbers contained in this report are sobering, giving us a clearer and more detailed look at

Domestic violence can take many forms, from emotional to physical abuse, reproductive coercion and more. With such a wide variety of behaviors classified as domestic violence, it can be easy to misunderstand what this type of abuse really is. We often see different types of violence mislabeled as domestic violence. For example, if a couple has a fight that turns physical, it may be called domestic violence, when it is really situational violence. Understanding the differen

One aspect of abusive relationships that can be hard to grasp is the difference between situational violence and domestic violence. To be clear, Blackburn Center believes that all relationships should be free from abuse, and that no form of violence is acceptable. However, there is a difference between domestic violence and situational violence — and understanding the difference is critical. The distinguishing feature of domestic violence is that it forms a pattern of abuse

This originally was published in the Harrisburg Patriot-News on September 9, 2015. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a tragedy that shocks the conscience and rattles a community's sense of security and serenity. Shortly before noon on Labor Day, just outside a popular Mount Gretna ice cream parlor, Patrick Derr, 47, of Richland, fatally shot h