“Law & Order” star Mariska Hargitay is leading a campaign fighting domestic violence called No More, using her fame to bring attention to an epidemic that’s often a centerpiece of her popular detective show.
Hargitay plays the determined sex crimes detective Olivia Benson on TV, but she carries the concern about domestic violence and sexual assault into her real life. As a leader in the
No More campaign, Hargitay directs public service announcements and brings media attention to the issue.
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The Joyful Heart Foundation, established by Hargitay, is sponsoring the public service announcements, which put forth a blue symbol that the campaign hopes will become a symbol in the fight against domestic violence.
“This is an epidemic that is afflicting our society and I believe that it is an epidemic we can change,” the
actress said in an interview with Katie Couric. “For the first time in history, the domestic violence and the sexual assault movements, the two communities, are coming together with this symbol. It’s to this movement what the pink ribbon was to breast cancer, what the red ribbon did for HIV/AIDS; it got people together, under one umbrella, talking about it.”
Hargitay, along with her husband Peter Herrman, talked to Couric about the impact of domestic violence and how staying silent allows the violence to thrive.
“In fabulous research that Avon did, I think it’s 65 percent of Americans don’t have the conversation with their children. So you’re sending off boys and girls off to college, off to high school, wherever they go and nobody’s having a conversation with them about how to conduct themselves,” Hargitay said on the show. “A man telling a son how to be a man, how to respect a woman.”
“Perpetrators depend on silence,” Herrman added.
Other stars are joining the No More campaign, including Couric, Andre Braugher, Courteney Cox, and Debra Messing.
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Related stories:
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One-Third of Women Suffer Domestic Violence: WHO Report