The Women’s Alliance Center at California State University is staging a “Take Back the Night” on Oct. 19 in honor of national domestic violence awareness month.
The event, including a march, testimonials, and activities, will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

 
Karen Moseley, women’s studies professor at Fresno City College, said that domestic violence is a problem, not just in Fresno County but also at the state and national level.
“Part of it is, domestic violence is really not taken that seriously,” she said. “Today in 2016, it is taken considerably more seriously than it was 10 years ago.”

 
Moseley said that domestic violence needs to be addressed more to help fight it.
“As long as the issue of domestic violence is not addressed as well as it should be in our judicial system and politically, people still think they can get away with it,” she said.
The Fresno Police Department has a team dealing with domestic violence. According to information on the city of Fresno’s website, the “Fresno Police Department is dedicated to helping domestic violence victims.”

 
The department also established a Family Justice Center to pool agencies’ resources together in one location with one common goal — to help domestic violence victims. The center has six detectives and one supervisor.

 
Domestic violence is not just limited to physical violence. It is also psychological and emotional abuse.
“It is not just the battering part. Your body can heal,” Moseley said. “It is the destruction of trust, not in just your partner but in everybody else.”

 
Moseley explained that the motive for committing domestic violence is control through manipulation, “a lot about control. . . [and about] making another individual do, say, become something that they are not.”

 
Moseley said there are beliefs that people who were battered will become batterers.
“Anybody can be a batterer, absolutely anybody,” Moseley said. “There is no pre-described personality that can be a batterer.”