Violence against women comes in many shapes, sizes, and situations so there is no easy way to explain or prevent the overall phenomenon known as violence against women.  Not all violence against women takes the form of sexual violence, although sexual violence is one of the most prevalent forms of violence against women that exist in modern society.  Those women who have been unfortunate enough to experience what it is like to be a victim of violence against women know that sexual violence is just one aspect of the overall epidemic of violence against women that we see in society today.

Women who have been unfortunate enough to experience what it is like to be a victim of violence against women certainly suffer during the violent episode that they undergo if they are the victim of a single attack.  Usually, women who have been unfortunate enough to experience what it is like to be a victim of violence against women receive at least some level of sympathy from those who hear about the tragedy that has occurred in their lives when they became victimized.  However, this sympathy rarely helps the women who have been unfortunate enough to experience what it is like to be a victim of violence against women.  All too often, after an episode of violence in which they were attacked, women who have been unfortunate enough to experience what it is like to be a victim of violence against women will attempt to cope with the experience by punishing themselves or believing that they themselves are in some way responsible for what happened to them.  This is almost never the case as women who have been unfortunate enough to experience what it is like to be a victim of violence against women are almost universally completely innocent of blame, especially in regards to sexual violence.  However, the period of recovery that follows an episode of violence can be so difficult and confusing that many women who have been unfortunate enough to experience what it is like to be a victim of violence against women turn against themselves and transform their feelings into guilt.

If you are one of many women who have been unfortunate enough to experience what it is like to be a victim of violence against women, it is important for you to know that what happened to you is not in any way your fault, nor is it something that you could have prevented by any given action.  Although women who have been unfortunate enough to experience what it is like to be a victim of violence against women often blame themselves, episodes of violence against women are not brought on by the actions of the women who are victimized.  Instead, they are brought on by a combination of psychological and social factors that are much larger than any given action of a woman or a man. 

Our society does not know how to deal with the problem of violence against women, so every time one of the women who have been unfortunate enough to experience what it is like to be a victim of violence against women blames herself it is actually the rest of us who are to blame.  Once we as a culture learn to nurture these victims with the support that they need for a healthy recovery from their trauma, the women who have been unfortunate enough to experience what it is like to be a victim of violence against women will no longer have to blame themselves for our mistakes.