Domestic abuse is a big issue around the world. But sometimes females as well as males think that gender violence is a normal thing in a relationship. However, the UNFPA states that “worldwide, one in three women has been beaten, coerced into unwanted sexual relations, or abused-often by a family member or acquaintance.’(Domestic Violence). Nobody should be treated this way.
What is domestic abuse? Domestic abuse is when a spouse is considered abusive if he/she: throws something at a partner, pushes, grabs or shoves; slaps, kicks bites or hits the partner with a fist. Also, hits or tires to hit the partner with an object, beats up the partner, threatens the partner with a knife or a gun; or even uses a knife or fires a gun at the partner. “Violence against men and mostly women has long been shrouded in a culture of silence.”(Domestic Violence). These kinds of problems shouldn’t be unheard of.
There are many reasons as to why a spouse stays in an abusive relationship.
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One of the main reason is the financial stability. In many relationships the man or women of the household makes the money and the wife/husband stays home. Making him/her depend on the other spouse. Or they make him/her work while he/she’s home doing nothing and when the paycheck comes in and he/she takes the money. The spouse manipulates and controls the other spouse. “Domestic abuse affects man and also women and is defined as behavior one person uses to gain or maintain power over an intimate partner.”(Pittsburgh Tribune-Review). Although men can be abused; in most cases it’s the women who is being victimized. There has been many cases on women killing their spouse because of abuse.
Research shows “75% of women who had committed homicide claimed they were force to have sexual intercourse with their husband, compared to 59% in the group of women who had not killed their husband. Some 39% of the former group had been raped more than twenty times, compared to 13% of the latter group.”(Domestic Violence). Many women say their husbands threaten to kill them if they dared to leave them. The women that have killed say that if they didn’t kill their spouse they would have killed them. Men that were killed by their spouse had used guns to threaten them and most of them had died with their own weapon. In a study “83% of the men killed by their spouse had often threatened to kill their spouse, compared to 59% of the men whose spouse did not kill them.”(Domestic Violence). Many of the women who were being threatened by their spouse were trying to leave the relationship or when to men would get mad at them for no
reason. “In legal cases involving the battered women who killed their abuser, they often admitted to the murder and reveal a history of domestic abuse.”(Domestic abuse). The charges that the women would get would be; usually “first or second degree murder which is malicious intent either with or without premeditation. (Domestic Abuse). “The outcome of these trials depend on three main issues: self-defense, equal force, and immediate versus imminent danger. Expert witnesses are crucial in an abused women’s trial to explain how these issues are different for cases involved battered women than for other homicide cases.”(Domestic Abuse). It’s very hard to make the people believe you because it is hard to have proof of domestic abuse. You have to try hardest to get all the evidence of domestic abuse in order to win your case.
Domestic abuse is quite a peculiar concoction to swallow. At first, it tastes like a sweet ambrosia but as it settles the pleasant dream quickly spoils into a putrid rot, leaving the victim confused and longing for what once was. Love- it is the factor that makes these cases so perplexing. The threats, the isolation, the insults, and the pain comes from what strikes as an unlikely source; an abuser whom one is close to or loves. To define, domestic abuse is intentional intimidation, physical assault, sexual assault, or any other abusive behavior by one intimate partner to another to display power or control. Its components include physical, sexual, and psychological violence as well as emotional abuse. As an outsider looking at a case of domestic
Every year about 4000 women die in the U.S. because of the domestic violence. Every year this number gets higher and higher. Even though we live in the 21st century people can’t find the way to improve the situation. But before searching for the solution, people should understand what domestic violence is. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, domestic violence is: “any abuse—including physical, emotional, sexual, or financial—between intimate partners, often living in the same household” (Encyclopedia Britannica). Most of the people believe that domestic
“Domestic violence is an emotional, physical, psychological, or sexual abuse perpetrated against a person by a person's spouse, former spouse, partner, former partner or by the other parent of a minor child” (McCue 2). While it is these things, the violence is also considered a pattern of demeanor used to establish power and control over another person with whom an intimate relationship is or has been shared through fear and intimidation (“Domestic Violence Sourcebook” 9). It has many names, including spouse abuse, domestic abuse, domestic assault, battering, partner abuse, marital strife, marital dispute, wife-beating, marital discord, woman abuse, dysfunctional relationship, intimate fighting, mate beating, and so on (2). Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Accommodations, believes that domestic violence is “terrorism in the home” (2). This type of abuse involves threats, harm, injury, harassment, control, terrorism, or damage to living beings/property (2). It isn't only in relationships with spouses, it also occurs within family, elderly, and children (9).
There are many different types of domestic violence. Physical abuse is the most obvious form, but this is not to say that outsiders always recognize it. Generally, physical violence causes bodily harm, using a variety of methods. Slapping, pushing, throwing, hitting, punching, and strangling are only a few methods. An object or weapon may or may not be used. There is not always physical evidence of physical abuse such as bruising, bleeding, scratches, bumps, etc., therefore, absence of physical marks does not necessarily mean physical abuse had not occurred. Physical abuse sometimes escalates to murder (Morris and Biehl 7, Haley 14-17).
Domestic violence is a behavioral trait used to establish power and control over a person; the abuser uses fear and intimidation through threats or the use of violence. Other terms for domestic violence include intimate partner violence, battering, relationship abuse, spousal abuse, or family violence. One in four women will experience some type of domestic violence in her lifetime and 4,744,000 women a year are victims to this physical violence (Erez, 2002). Out of all these physical attacks towards women only 25% are reported! When a women is physically harmed by an intimate partner they are known to think it is out of love
I’ve tried to encourage my friend who went through domestic violence; it was a one time offense that she sadly had to face. I still have the scenario engraved in my memory. Mid-afternoon my best friend comes to my house tears rolling down her face; I immediately grab her and begin to comfort her asking her what’s going on I could feel her body trembling against mine and the fear in her voice when she spoke. The last thing I ever expected her to say was that her boyfriend hit her. As soon as she told me that rage immediately took over and I could only see red my first thought was that we had to call the police but she thought differently. It was a horrific event that she sadly had to face at a young age with someone she believed that loved her
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is historically referred to as domestic violence. It describes a pattern of coercive and assaultive behavior that may include psychological abuse, progressive isolation, sexual assault, physical injury, stalking, intimidation, deprivation, and reproductive coercion among partners (The Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF), 1999). IPV leads to lifelong consequences such as lasting physical impairment, emotional trauma, chronic health problems, and even death. It is an issue effecting individuals in every community, regardless of age, economic status, race, religion, nationality or educational background. Eighty-five percent of domestic violence victims are women (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2003). More than one in three women in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime (The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2012). Thirty to sixty percent of perpetrators tend to also abuse children in the household (Edelson, 1999). Witnessing violence between parents or caretakers is considered the strongest risk factor of transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next (Break the Cycle, 2006).
Domestic violence includes sexual abuse and intentional or unintentional use of physical force such as slapping, hitting and causing other injuries to your partner, children, friends, etc. A psychologist and law school professor, Mary Ann Dutton, who is an expert in domestic violence, described it as "a pattern of behavior in which one intimate partner uses physical violence, coercion, threats, intimidation, isolation and emotional, sexual or economic abuse to control and change the behavior of the other partner." Taken from an article on www.womenslaw.org, by Valerie Dearness. These are actions considered domestic violence. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE is a pattern of abusive behavior which keeps one partner in a position of power over the other partner through the use of fear, intimidation and control.
Domestic violence is any abusive, violent, coercive, forceful, or threatening act inflicted by one member of a family or household on another. The court Vaughn summarize domestic abuse as, abuse by a family member inflicted on those who are weaker and less able to defend themselves -- almost invariably a child or a woman -- is a violation of the most basic human right, the most basic condition of civilized society: the right to live in physical security, free from the fear that brute force will determine the conditions of one 's daily life. This violence can be in the form of physical, verbal, emotional, or sexual abuse. Custody of Vaughn, 422 Mass. 590 (1996).
Domestic violence is not just fighting, hitting or an occasional argument. It’s a chronic abuse of power. The abuser of domestic violence, controls and tortures the victim of threats, intimidation, and physical violence. Domestic violence is one of the leading causes of violence in America. The abusers are not only men, women can be abusers as well. Women make up the vast majority of domestic violence. According to the American Bar Association (ABA), 90-95% of domestic violence victims are females and 70% of intimidating homicides are females. Domestic violence is a serious crime and everyone needs to be aware of its effects. This essay presents and explains the evidence supporting the major risk factors for intimate partner homicides.
The statistics available on violence against women are startling. Domestic violence is the major cause of death and disability for European women ages 16 to 44 and accounts for more deaths and injuries than automobile accidents and cancer. The Russian government estimates that over 14,000 women were killed by family members in 1999, but there is still no legislation that specifically addresses domestic violence. In South Africa, more women are shot in the home by relatives than are shot on the streets or by intruders (web.amnesty.org).
Therefore, domestic violence is a form of oppression and control usually perpetrated against women and/or children and is defined by the social work dictionary as abuse of children, older people, spouses, and others in the home usually by another member of the family or other residents. The social problem in which one's property health or life are endangered or on as a result of the intentional behavior of another family member (Barker, 2003).
Domestic violence is a devastating social problem that impacts every sector of our population. Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner(USDOJ,2012). Domestic violence can be physical, economic, emotional, sexual, or psychological. Physical domestic violence is an attempt to impose physical injury such as grabbing, slapping, hitting, biting, etc. Physical violence can also be withholding necessary resources to sustain health such as medication, food, sleep, or forcing alcohol or other drug use. Economic abuse is an attempt to make the victim financially dependent. Such as sustaining control over financial resources including the victims earned income, forbidding employment, on the job harassment, or withholding information about family expenses. Emotional abuse can be the attempt to undermine the victims self worth. This could be belittling the victim, name calling, insults, criticism, manipulating, etc. Sexual abuse is any sexual contact without consent. For example, marital rape, attacks on sexual parts of the body, forced sex, forced prostitution. Sexual abuse can also be an attempt to undermine the victims sexuality by treating them in a derogatory manner, criticizing sexual performance, or withholding sex. Psychological abuse is the attempt to implant fear. This could involve intimidation, threats of physical harm, harassment, mind games, and stalking. Psychological abuse can also be an attempt to isolate victim from friends and family member. Abusers can go so far as withholding access to a telephone, transportation, constant check ups, forced imprisonment, and undermining personal relationships. Dome...
There are many forms of domestic violence but the more prevalent types that I will discuss are physical abuse, verbal abused, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, social abuse and economical abuse. Every nine seconds, a husband physically abuses his wife in the U.S. (Schwartz & Scott, 2003). Physical abuse is any action that is taken against another person that inflicts pain and harm in order to control or intimidate whether in public or private. Pushing, slapping, punching, biting, kicking are just so...
Domestic violence is skyrocketing in our society. In the U.S., as many as 1.5 million women and 850,000 men were physically assaulted by their intimate partner last year, and numerous children abused by their parents. These sad criminal acts will continue to grow in our society, unless our community takes action to stop these crimes.