COMMENT: There's a sad fact about violence in this country: how safe you are is determined the second you are conceived.

At 18-years-old the last thing you want to think about is domestic abuse, because "surely it wouldn't happen to me". It did.

I was 18, I had just been stabbed multiple times by my ex-boyfriend. "Don't worry, we'll be together in heaven soon," he whispered as he tried to suffocate me.

In most cases the victim of intimate partner violence is a woman, but we must not forget that men are also abused in their homes.

Sometimes your home can feel like a prison. Mine did. It was a beautiful prison, but I was desperate to leave it.

The sister of a victim speaks out about helping her flee a violent relationship and the heartbreak when she returned.

It happens in the poorest of homes and the richest. Among the victims are our most educated people, and our most vulnerable.

It took her 10 years to leave him. Ten years of being hit, kicked, choked, strangled. But the night he almost killed her, that was the night she left.

Polly Gillespie reveals what it was like growing up next door to a violent man and what she wishes her family had done differently to deal with it.

Prime Minister John Key discusses how family violence rates in New Zealand are too high.

Superintendent Tusha Penny has worked on the front line for many years so she has seen it all —the wives beaten beyond recognition, the girlfriends strangled almost to death and the countless women lying dead in their own homes.

New Zealand has the worst rate of family violence in the developed world.

On average, police attend a family violence incident every five and a half minutes - that's 279 calls for help each day. Why is it so bad? No one knows for sure.

COMMENT: Men who hit women are bullies and control freaks and they're dangerous. If you choose violence, you need to own it and get help.

Let us not soften the language we use about a man who hits a woman. It has been called domestic violence or partner violence.

Five years ago Emily Longley was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. Her father Mark talks about the terrible toll of losing his daughter.

COMMENT: People talking about domestic violence victims often ask "Why doesn't she leave?" That is the wrong question to ask. It places responsibility for the situation on the victim, rather than the perpetrator.

A British MP suspended from the Labour Party for sending salacious text messages to a 17-year-old girl is under fire from one ex-wife.

COMMENT: When you're in charge of a country with one of the worst rates of sexual violence, you shouldn't be taking part in rape jokes, writes Kyle MacDonald.

MP Marama Davidson has revealed she was abused by a relative.

Kiwi singer Tina Cross has teamed up with a police choir for a powerful message against domestic violence.

A series of shocking images have been created to campaign against domestic abuse.

From rowdy motorcyles to silence wordless marches, crowds gathered around the country yesterday to call for an end to domestic violence.

Singer says she is ready to take back her life after spending years in a violent relationship.

Women's Refuge has received backlash after announcing it is set to profit from a charity boxing match.

13 years after the attack, Ms Butler was able to thank those who risked their own lives to save hers.

A man who smashed his son over the head with a broken metal pipe covered in ash and beat his wife and daughter has been put behind bars for four years.

Boys realise very early in life they simply do not hit girls and that it is part of what makes them masculine.

For many people, the violence of Chris Brown's attack on singer Rihanna left no room for shades of grey, or for forgiveness.