Domestic violence is a prevalent and disturbing issue all around the world. Several cases of this vice have been recorded in every corner of the world with some cases being even too cruel to process.
In the United States, domestic violence offenders are given very serious punishments. Take the state of South Carolina for instance, those who beat up their wives can get up to a month in jail if they are first offenders.
On its website, the South Carolina Department of Social Services states that “domestic violence occurs when one person, in an intimate partner relationship, uses abuse to gain or maintain power and control over the other partner. Abuse can be physical, sexual, emotional and financial. No matter what form it takes, abuse usually does not get better on its own and typically gets worse over time.”
Seven-part series by the Post and Courier investigates domestic violence in South Carolina, which has accounted for 300 women being killed by their partners in the last decade (about one every 12 days).
Though the rate is among the worst in the nation, state laws are more lenient on abusers, the newspaper found. This is because according to South Carolina laws, a dog is more valuable than a woman.
In fact, the maximum sentence for beating a dog is about five years longer than it is for beating a woman (that’s just 30 days in jail for a first offence). This means beating a dog would land you in jail for a longer time than beating your wife.
South Carolina is a southeastern U.S. state known for its shoreline of subtropical beaches and marshlike sea islands. Coastal Charleston is a historic city, defined by pastel-coloured houses, Old South plantations and Fort Sumter, where the Civil War’s opening shots were fired.
To the north is the Grand Strand, a roughly 60-mile stretch of beachfront known for golf courses and the vacation town Myrtle Beach.
