Seven red silhouettes stand in a row. Positioned almost shoulder to shoulder in solidarity, the cutouts represent a casualty of domestic violence, a display put on by The Silent Witness Initiative to commemorate National Domestic Violence Month. The non-profit group attempts to bring awareness to college campuses regarding domestic violence.

“Universities typically have advocacy groups for sexual assault and domestic violence because they have dorms. Community colleges, often, do not have dorms and this kind of assault remains at home, unseen,” said Oralia Alcorta, a Certified Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Victim Advocate with the Initiative.

The Silent Witness Initiative began in 1990, promoting and educating communities about domestic violence. The Initiative started as one group but now has an international presence. It has projects in all fifty states and in twenty-three different countries.

Many of these victims are college students, though the actual age range of domestic violence victims is jarring.

The victims represented by the silhouettes were as young as three years-old and as old as thirty-three years-old. Name shields are placed over the heart of the silhouettes; the victims’ stories do not hold back in the details. Three year-old Jesse Adams was murdered by his father while his mother listened over the phone.

“The group most affected by domestic violence are children,” stated Alcorta. In 2012, 1,256 men and women reported domestic violence, according to the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report.

Unfortunately, the statistics collected by the FBI only account for reported instances of domestic violence. In his 2011 report, “Gender Differences in Self-Reports of Intimate Partner Violence: A Review,” Ko Ling Chan found that men tend to under-report their perpetration of domestic violence while women tend to under-report their victimization. In the United States, it is estimated that 4.8 million women suffer from domestic assault and rape; 2.9 million men are also victims of domestic abuse, according to the Center for Disease Control

“Nationwide, many domestic violence victims are unaware of the resources and help available to them. This is the first time we’ve had something like this at Rio Hondo,” stated Alcorta. The Initiative is holding a month long campaign on campus. The silhouettes will be on display in the Upper Quad the first week of October. The following week, Rio Hondo will present a film and a panel will be present to answer questions regarding domestic abuse October 13. The campus will host a Health and Resource Fair in the Lower Quad October 20. Wrapping up National Domestic Violence Month, Rio Hondo College will have a Health Relationships Workshop in the Student Union October 25.