The Rough Road of Domestic Violence

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Millions of women and children have died or have been severely injured because of domestic violence. Domestic violence is illegal and includes assault, rape, battery, and murder committed by someone to whom the victim is close to. This could be a relative, parent, child, spouse, or dating partner. Although both men and women can be abused, 85% victims are women. There are many causes of modern domestic violence, but most fall into four categories: sexual abuse, financial abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse. The impacts of domestic violence are yet to be understood. The history of domestic violence has changed the way its many different types are perceived, leaving long lasting scars on everyone it affects.

The comprehensive condemnation of domestic violence is a comparatively new phenomenon. Historically, most human societies have regarded some forms of violence in family relations as permissible and others as deviant. The history of domestic violence began in colonial times when abuse against women, children and slaves was considered normal behavior. Common Anglo- American law gave the male head of household authority to act as both disciplinarian and protector of all those who were dependent on him and “granted full legal status only to its male head” (Curry). He could beat his wife as a way of disciplining her if she did something he did not approve of and women had no political rights to help them against it.

Prospects started improving after the colonial times, when, in 1848, a conference was held in Seneca Falls, New York that was devoted to women’s rights. It was appropriately named The Seneca Falls Convention and was the first of its kind. This convention created “a declaration that in part criticized the law fo...

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... restore the lives successfully.

Works Cited

Birmingham, Rachel. "Domestic Violence—behaviors and Causes." Encyclopedia of

Contemporary American Social Issues. Ed. Michael Shally-Jensen. Vol. 3: Family and Society. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. 900-908. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Browne, Angela. When Battered Women Kill. New York: Free, 1987. Print. 16 Feb. 2012

Curry, Lynne. "Domestic Violence." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd

ed. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 72-75. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 20 Feb. 2012.

Ewing, Charles Patrick. Battered Women Who Kill: Psychological Self-Defense as Legal

Justification. Lexington, Mass. ; Toronto: Lexington, 1987. Print. 17 Feb. 2012.

NNEDV. "About Domestic Violence." National Network to End Domestic Violence. Web. 16

Feb. 2012.

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