# How should I handle this incident of domestic violence?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-handle-this-incident-of-domestic-violence/815747>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 9, 2018, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-handle-this-incident-of-domestic-violence/815747 "2018-06-09T09:48:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-handle-this-incident-of-domestic-violence/815747/41 "2018-06-12T03:26:07Z")

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Also, I can’t figure out what exactly the OP means by “one of my neighbors sounding distressed”. Does he mean that he knows it was this particular female neighbor, or that it could have been either of them?

And yup, put me down on the side of “violence against men is no more acceptable or ignorable than violence against women”. But if all you heard was the sound of one slap and you have no actual knowledge of who threw it or where it landed, then I don’t think there’s any reasonable action you can take here other than perhaps to be more vigilant about this possibly abusive situation in future.

(And given how little actual knowledge you’ve turned out to have about this incident, your thread title is unjustifiably clickbaity IMHO.)

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-handle-this-incident-of-domestic-violence/815747/42 "2018-06-12T03:36:01Z")

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> [@Patx2](#):
>
> My bad on this, I went back and reread the OP and it appears there really wasn’t a disturbance going on. I think if the OP had reason to believe someone was being harmed then by all means the police should be called, but it sounds like his involvement was after the fact, not while the fighting/arguing was going on so I don’t know that there’s much the cops could or would do.

Sure, it’s difficult to read his OP, it doesn’t quite fit together well. And if the noise kept up he’d be entitled to call the police even if there was no indication of violence.

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**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-handle-this-incident-of-domestic-violence/815747/43 "2018-06-12T21:04:51Z")

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I agree that the OP made a mightly leap to a questionable conclusion.

I once had an apartment with a very thin wall and a young couple on the other side. They had very loud fights and very loud sex, with one often leading directly to the other. Sometimes it sounded pretty violent, but it would have been insane to guess when “domestic violence” might have been happening, if ever.

Btw, when I saw them outside they just seemed like two sweet kids.

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