Krystal Brown’s sister was murdered eight years ago by a man who once vowed to love and protect her. ‘ ‘[Domestic violence is] becoming a bigger problem than ever,’ Brown, a Texas Christian University 2008 graduate, said. ‘I didn’t want anyone else to go through that.’ Brown began working for Jane Doe Inc., a Massachusetts association working against sexual assault and domestic violence, in high school. She accompanied her younger sister, a Boston University Chi Upsilon Sigma National Latin Sorority sister, to the sorority-hosted Domestic Violence Workshop Wednesday in the College of Arts and Sciences. ‘ Education and prevention specialist Amanda Wolfe of Casa Myrna Vazquez, a Boston organization that works to combat domestic violence, spoke to the attendees about the many forms abuse can take. ‘ ‘Abuse is a pattern of power and control that one person uses over another,’ Wolfe said. ‘It doesn’t have any boundaries.’ About 25 percent of women worldwide have experienced abuse, and one in five high school students in the United States will also experience it by the time they graduate, Wolfe said. ‘ ‘The relationships you have in college will affect how you view relationships in the future,’ she said. College is also generally the first time students are away from home and without family support, making it easier for them to ‘romanticize the abuse,’ Wolfe said. Domestic abuse is not just limited to women. It can occur in heterosexual and same-sex relationships. In addition to physical, verbal, sexual and emotional abuse, abusers can hurt their victims financially or by using their culture and identity against them, Wolfe said. An example of cultural or identity abuse is threatening to report an illegal immigrant to authorities. Domestic abuse is dangerous because of its cyclical nature, Wolfe said. As the relationship continues, the victim is more likely to accept the behavior as rational. ‘Abuse is never the victim’s fault,’ she said. ‘They don’t want the relationship to end; they just want the abuse to end.” ‘ Through September 2008, 30 Massachusetts residents have died because of domestic violence, and 55 residents died in 2007. Chi Upsilon Sigma President Vanessa Guerrero said she is planning on organizing this workshop once a semester to ‘educate the BU community.’ ‘In the BU community, a lot of people think of domestic violence as just physical abuse,’ she said. ‘Think about how you treat people, think about how you might hurt someone with your words. It doesn’t have to be just physical.” ‘ CAS junior Cynthia Cortes said she was surprised by how common domestic abuse is.’ She said she was surprised because she sees traits of abuse in a few of her friends’ relationships. ‘It really is scary that it’s happening at such a high rate,’ Cortes, who is a member of the sorority’s interest group, said. ‘It’s not really the act of hitting someone. It’s a lot more than that.’