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Domestic Violence Exhibit Visits VCU Oct. 10-14

The VCU Silent Witness Exhibit, open October 10-14, is a joint initiative to raise awareness of the issue of domestic violence and encourage action to create change.
The VCU Silent Witness Exhibit, open October 10-14, is a joint initiative to raise awareness of the issue of domestic violence and encourage action to create change.

To help educate students and community members about the scourge of domestic violence—a crime that accounted for at least a third of domestic female homicides in 2014—one Wilder School faculty member is organizing an exhibit to make it real. 

Amy Cook, Ph.D., an assistant professor of criminal justice, has partnered with VCU Libraries, Students Advocating Violence Education and Support (SAVES) and students from her “CRJS 355: Criminological Theory” class to host a "Silent Witness Exhibit" at Virginia Commonwealth University from October 10-14.

“Silent Witness” is a memorial that honors the lives of Virginians who were killed as a result of domestic violence. The installation, which will feature five  life-size wooden silhouettes of Virginians—men, women and children—each painted red and bearing a golden shield with the details of the victim’s story, will be on view in the first floor of the James Branch Cabell Library.  Visitors will have the opportunity to interact with student volunteers who will be on hand to answer questions about intimate partner violence in the Richmond community and beyond.

Materials for the installation will be provided by the Virginia Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance. The VCU Silent Witness Exhibit is part of a national initiative to eliminate domestic violence murders in the United States by the year 2020.