Domestic Violence

Mike Willbur is uniquely qualified to write about domestic violence. After losing five grandchildren in a murder-suicide in 2011, he began a study into that tragedy in search of the unanswered question of why this happened and how our community was prepared to deal with the likes of family annihilation.  As a mental health professional, he embarked on a journey to find the reasons why that terrible deed happened and what could have been done to prevent it, and, more importantly, what was the criminal justice system doing as a measure to prevent and deter the family violence that permeates our society at the same level today as it was fifty years ago. After investigating the murders, he authored “More Than Domestic Violence, the insidious story,” which told an in-depth account of the incidents that led up to the tragedy that took five beautiful children from the world that early morning Easter in 2011.

In the more than ten years since that murderous event, Willbur turned his efforts toward the treatment and evaluation of not only the perpetrators but the victims of family violence. His findings astonished him profoundly; his efforts to bring what he learned to the public became a focal issue for him. This book explores the definitions of domestic violence, the possible reasons for the assaultive behaviors, and the warning signs that so many people do not see until it’s too late.

This book shows that domestic violence is a societal problem. The community response to it has been less than stellar in the last fifty years since none of the studies show what works in treating this behavioral malady. The percentage of marriages that end in divorce remains at the fifty percent range, and the rate of domestic violence remains constant at 8-10 percent. This book gives insight into what we should be doing in the efforts to change the trajectory of how we view and conduct ourselves as a family unit.