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A Global Overview Domestic violence is one of the most pressing social issues, not just in the United States but also across the globe. Also referred to as intimate partner violence (IPV), according to the U.S. Department of Justice, domestic violence includes felony or misdemeanor crimes of violence committed by a current or former spouse or intimate partner of the vic- tim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse or intimate part- ner, by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdic- tion receiving grant monies, or by any other person against an adult or youth victim who is protected from that per- son’s acts under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction (USDOJ, 2018) Th e National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) defi nes it as “the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a sys- tematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one in- timate partner against another. It includes physical violence, FMH Background and History 1 Argentinians protest gender violence in Buenos Aries on June 3, 2019. (Carol Smiljan/NurPhoto via Getty Images) 3