In celebration of Domestic Violence Awareness Month ABPsi hosted a relationships and domestic violence seminar in the Juvenile Justice building on Oct. 22.
The purpose of the seminar was to discuss why relationships go wrong, and how to fix them once they go astray. The seminar served as an information center to the causes and effects of domestic violence.
Dr. Ronald Briggs, PVAMU’s director of counseling services and graduate, was speaker.
“Domestic violence is nothing more than family of origin issues,” said Briggs. “It is a cycle of violence that is passed down from generation to generation. People are a product of their environment, and they often treat people the way they are accustomed to being treated.”
Briggs also gave tips and suggestions on how to solve these issues. His first suggestion was therapy and his second was to raise the youth not to be violent so that they can instill the same thing into the generation that succeeds them.
Chase Henderson, a junior psychology major, believes friendship must first be established before a relationship can be considered a possibility. “In a relationship, communication is key,” said Henderson. “How can you communicate with someone who you barely even know?”
In 1998, a case study revealed that in females ages 16-35, homicide by a current or former intimate partner was the leading cause of death and only 17 percent of domestic violence cases are reported by the victim.