Holiday Violence: Not Just for Celebs

Elin Nordegren kicked off this year's holiday season on the wrong foot, reportedly chasing Tiger Woods with a golf club in the wee hours after Thanksgiving. Charlie Sheen piled on, allegedly assaulting his wife on Christmas, writes Mary Elizabeth Williams in Salon, and it's worth noting that the holidays can be a very un-merry time when it comes to domestic violence. Let's not forget that Sheen also once allegedly threatened to kill then-wife Denise Richards—five days after Christmas.

In articles about violence in less-famous circles all this month, experts have been reminding us that holiday stress often pushes people over the edge. “One thing is clear,” Williams writes. “The pressure cooker period between Thanksgiving and New Year's is particularly, sometimes tragically, fraught for men and women who are already vulnerable—those with a history of violence and substance abuse, for example.”
(More holiday stories.)