Domestic Violent Situations: Triggers and What It Means

WINSTON COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Law enforcement say they deal with domestic violence situations on a daily basis.

Winston County Sheriff Jason Pugh says sometimes, they may even deal with several in a single day.

Pugh says several things cause the numbers to be high and lead to situations escalating.

One counselor we spoke with on Wednesday, says it’s hard to prevent those situations from spilling over.

He believes in order to prevent these things, it has to start with early education.

“People still have that, not all of the time, but that little mindset of what you would see in like a Lifetime movie, you know, the abusive husband, the battered housewife, but the thing about domestic violence is that it takes a lot of different shapes. It’s not just that kind of scenario,” says Community Counseling Services Winston County Supervisor, Andrew Levine.

Levine says the definition of domestic violence refers to anybody who lives in the same household.

Regardless of who is involved in these cases, Winston County Sheriff Jason Pugh says it’s common to see tragic results.

“When that situation continues to build and continues to escalate over years and years and years, or months and months and months, and the parties keep getting back together, they keep reconciling, they keep going and then, that’s when it starts turning violent.”

The sheriff and Levine say repeated cycles and high emotions are two things that trigger people to get to that point.

“It’s not always just as simple as saying, ‘this is an impulse problem and they weren’t thinking.’ Often times, they were thinking, it just wasn’t in a healthy way. For instance, ‘I need to teach this person a lesson. Nobody is going to make me look foolish. Who does he think he is?’ So on and so forth.”

Pugh says Mississippi has great domestic violence laws in place, but a problem law enforcement often sees is people not using what’s available.

“Looking down the road and saying, ‘Well, this is my child’s father, or this is my child’s mother,’ or you know, ‘Well, we’ve been together for so many years, or what do we do about the house? Or where do I go from here?’ That sort of thing seems to be a hinder in the process.”

There are programs available to help victims of domestic violence.

Community Counseling Services also offers a 24-hour crisis hotline.