It is the leading cause of death and injury for women aged under 45, and a recent survey showed three-quarters of Australians believed domestic violence is as much or more of a threat than terrorism.

Police deal with 650 domestic violence events in Australia every single day, or 240,000 a year.

Domestic violence doesn’t discriminate and is far more common than most of us would like to believe.

The stories in today’s Mercury prove that.

Wombarra woman Kristy has spoken out about the unimaginable horror she experienced at the hands of her partner.

Despite the 360-degree surveillance at the home Kristy shares with her parents, she doesn’t feel safe, especially as her partner is due to be released from jail next month.

Her account shows just how complex domestic violence cases can be, especially when children are involved, and just how hard it is for victims to “just leave”, as they’re often told to do.

In the past couple of years, high profile cases – like that of Australian of the Year Rosie Batty, whose son Luke was murdered by his father – have forced domestic violence onto the national agenda. Many politicians have made lots of good noises, and many more victims have spoken up – which is their way of hitting back against the problem.

But stories like Kristy’s are why White Ribbon Day – to be held this Thursday – remains more relevant than ever. Because, despite many good efforts to address our “national disgrace” family violence still happens far too often.

You only need to turn up at court on any given day to know how much it happens here in the Illawarra. “DV” cases are par for the course for so many of our lawyers, police and magistrates, who can only do so much try to make sure offenders to stay away from their victims.

This week, Kristy is among a number of women sharing their experiences of domestic violence in the two-part ABC series Hitting Home, on this Tuesday and Wednesday.

It’s bound to be hard to watch, but its something we should all do if we want to start trying to tackle this problem.