Women are abused daily and sometimes, it gets so severe that they feel the only way to get out is to kill their abusers. In the past abuse was barely acknowledged. It was always kept in the home and not taken as seriously as today. It was not until the 1970’s that people started to realize what was going on behind closed doors. The pain and torture that these women endure, it’s no wonder that they may resort to such extreme measures. When women do come fourth, many times horrible things end up happening. If bruises and wounds aren’t bad enough, sometimes they are ignored. Unfortunately, it’s not taken very serious much of the time. Unless, the situation is severe, and even then sometimes, it’s still not enough to get the attention they so desperately need.
When some women kill their abusers, the situation may seem out of sorts. Such as, when women attack their abuser when they are showering or shaving, and are vulnerable. But, this may be their best shot. Especially if the abuser is bigger, stronger, or has weapons. Which a lot of
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People don’t realize how impressionable children are, and how important their younger years are as well. Another story from “When Battered Women Kill” involves a women named Kim, who had been married twice to husbands that weren’t abusive. She divorced them both. But, then she found Bill who was abusive. She stayed with him until his death, by her hands. Both Bill and Kim grew up around abuse throughout their lives. This is why I believe that Kim was not happy, with the men who were not abusive. Since abusive relationships was all she saw, maybe she felt something was missing, when she was in a relationship that was not abusive. Maybe they even lacked excitement. But, I’m sure she didn’t expect what was to come, and how bad it would get. It’s doubtful that women realize, what they are getting into before it’s too
firearms and axes. Physical violence can result in murder and often leads to serious physical injury. The injuries are not always obvious as abusers often make sure the signs of their attacks are hidden under clothing. For many women there is a real and constant threat of death because of the seriousness of the abuse.
Battered women constitute one of the most marginalized groupings in the social order. Their relationship incidents occasionally put these individuals into disagreement with the law, particularly when they murder their violent partners. The Battered woman syndrome (BWS) was created by clinical psychologist (1970’s) with an intention of depicting the series of occurrences that physically abused women frequently experience in their relationships.
National data gives us an indication of the severity of this issue. When 1 in 5-woman report being victims of severe physical violence (NISVS, 2010), we must ask ourselves if enough is being done to prevent this from occurring. From a historical point, there has always almost been a distinction from men on woman violence. Based on the disparity of cases reported, male inflicted violence on females is much higher and prevalent. When the perpetrators of DV, and IPV are predominately males, we can no longer dismissed this issue as a cultural, or
While there is no official agreement that battered women’s action of killing their abusers should be justified, people need to understand that battered women are in different positions with relation to justice than defendants in general cases of homicide. Perhaps, victim advocates, the judge, attorneys, psychologists/psychiatrists, and social workers from women’s shelters should consider alternative approaches, such as creating a more comprehensive system to review and assess past cases where battered women have been convicted of killing their abusers from a legal, medical, and psychological perspective. Although it may not be practical to alter the law, it is possible to amend the legal system to support those battered women who deserve more freedom from their abuse with fair judgments.
An abused woman is always faced with a number of different choices from which she may consider, with regards to seeking help or ending the relationship with a variety of alternatives, the woman knows each decision involves a variety of risks. Time after time, the common question arises, “why doesn’t she just leave?” This question can be answered by analyzing the psychological effects domestic abuse has on women. Many women are unable to cope with the emotional and psychological stress of domestic abuse and resort to violence and extre...
Feminist Criminology, 7(2), 146-162. Kinder-Matthews, J. & Co., Ltd. (1994) The 'Standard' of the 'St Working with female sexual abusers. (pp. 57-67). The 'Secondary' of the Miccio & Fonseca, L.C. a.
Gender-based violence has been recognized as a large public health problem as well as a violation of human rights worldwide. One out of three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in another way at least once in her life (www.infoforhealth.org). The abuser is usually a member of the family, introducing the difficult problem in that the abuse usually happens behind closed doors, and is often viewed by cultural norms and legal systems as a family matter rather than a crime.
The injustice of abuse is all the more destructive when society punishes any victim out of ignorance and lack of knowledge. No one can fathom the torture that battered people have been through, and not to mention, have to suffer the effects of. Defenses of necessity, like self-defense, are based on the assumption that a person should not be punished for being in an impossible situation. Which is the exact opposite of what happened to Gaile Owens (citation #7). Gaile was a victim of domestic abuse from her husband. She hired someone to kill her husband because she could not bear to face him, or let her children know what kind of abuse he put her through. She was too afraid. However, the court would not accept that she was a victim of domestic violence, so she went to jail and was on and off death row for 20 years before they accepted the evidence of abuse. All Gaile wanted to do was protect the lives of her children and herself. Society can not be close-minded when it comes to situations like these. Situations compel actions. In violent relationships, the martyrs act the way they do, to defend themselves. The punishment they deserve is nothing, because have the not already suffered
According to the FBI, more than 75 percent of all murder victims are women, and more than 50 percent of the women are between the ages of 14 and 29 years old. A part of that statistic is Kitty Genovese,a murder victim who is the focus of an editorial, “The Dying Girl that No One Helped,” written by Loudon Wainwright. Kitty was a 28 year old woman who was brutally stabbed to death while on her way home from work. The woman, named Kitty Genovese, lived in a pleasant, welcoming, residential area, in New York. There was at least 38 witnesses that came forward, and they all heard her cries for help, but no one came to her aid. Wainwright effectively demonstrates how society has started turning a “blind-eye” toward problems that can endanger someone's
What is Love? Webster’s dictionary defines love as a strong, deep affection. Many of those who are or have been in love can definitely agree with that. My definition for love is all of earth’s surroundings that make one feel good or happy; to me, love is not just love towards another, but it is also love towards something beyond. Everyone knows that love is a beautiful thing to experience: it feels like all the happiness in the world is in your hands and you could never be happier. But what happens, coming from a woman’s perspective, when your husband uses that love as a weapon against you? What if he raised his hands against his woman, bruising his hands so that they started to swell up? Well, that is the case in many women’s lives around the world who are torn apart in a war between fighting for love and fighting for survival. Many people debate about whether or not love is blind; in these terrible acts of domestic strife, love is blind and blinding. Love becomes blind when people, especially in violent relationships, tend to avoid the truth.
Standards, behaviors, expectations, routines, and practices are another aspect that needs to be addressed when using the Social-Psychological theory. A method of controlling the women is when one does not perform as expected, their punishment is to watch another women be tortured for her mistakes. A practice use is threatening the person’s family, depriving the person of basic necessities, such as food, water, or sleep. Severe beatings are within a normal course of daily events for victims that do not comply with the enforced routine. The women are expected to meet the “johns” and comply with all requests without any fuss. Constant use of these practices wears the spirit out of the women and they become docile, while looking to numb the internal pain with drugs and alcohol.
Why do women choose to live in abusive and miserable relationships? Instead of taking actions and strive for happy life, women choose to stay silent. They have all the power to go against self-empowered men, but most of women renounce action. There are certain obstacle created by society and especially men that make it harder for women to stand up for themselves. The following articles explore and elucidate the idea of women’s silence and timidness to act. John Berger in his article “The Ways of Seeing” indicates women and men’s roles appearance in society and towards each other. The writer introduces the concept of surveyed and surveyor, where men play a role of an observant and women are an item that they observe. In the article “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action” Audre Lorde discusses the importance of speaking out in order to show your true self. Silence only increases anxiety and feeling of oppression. The inspiring story in the excerpt “The Church and Slavery” by Harriet Jacobs tells us about slaves fighting for there freedom and equality through gaining knowledge of reading and writing. A lot of risks were taken to overcome the control of white man and oppression, but in the end those risks brought the start to the better future. Very illustrating and encouraging poster “You Body is a Battleground” shows the conflict that goes within abused women The light side of the poster shows the masked life of abused women, who pretend to live a happy life for others. The dark side illustrates women true feelings and emotions. The colors black, white and red, which were chosen by the artist Barbara Kruger connects us more to the poster, and makes us, share the pain of abused women. In the article “Once classroo...
Tjaden, P., Thoennes, N. (2000b). Full report of the prevalence, incidence, and consequences of violence against women: Findings from the Violence Against Women Survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.
The word violence has many different meanings and has many ways of impacting people. It can beat someone down not just physically, but emotionally. Unfortunately, violence and abuse is not uncommon within families and intimate relationships. Webster 's Online Dictionary says that violence is "the use of physical force to harm someone, to damage e property, etc., great destructive force or energy" (Websters,2014) It includes abusive words, actions and criminal acts that seek to degrade, humiliate or harm a woman or child.. Often, the term violence is used to refer to specific, usually physical, acts, while the word abuse is used to refer to a pattern of behavior that a person uses to gain or maintain power and control over another. This essay
First of all the most important tool we have available against this type of crime are the authorities, which include the police department, hospital, and social workers. If they manage to work together as a team to make the whole process of protecting a victim more efficiently, it will encourage victims to actually phone for help. It is believed that over half of the abuses remain unreported due to the fear of the victims from their intimate partner who has committed the crime. If such crime is reported in a western country, the offender would be arrested by the police department until a clear picture is made of the happenings. In addition, the victim, which is usually the wife of the offender, would be brought to a safe place were she would receive medical attention and can talk to someone (a women), since the best method of digesting such tragedy is to share it with someone that can listen and give advice. Safe places are established in many modern countries such as Switzerland, but unfortunately this is not the norm in all parts of the country, since it is not law yet. Such safe houses are essential in aiding the sufferers, since t...