Domestic Violence And Physical Abuse

Domestic Violence Imagine a 120 pound woman who is confined to a 4 x6 box with a 300 pound athlete who is receiving multiple blows to the cranium. This is just one of the few stories that reached national headlines when NFL star, Ray Rice, physically assaulted his soon to be wife. Unfortunately, this is all too common and often goes unnoticed and even hidden by the victim. This is domestic violence and physical violence is just one of the many types that affect not only women but all ethnic backgrounds, genders, and ages. Domestic violence can also occur in a range of relationships including heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender relationships, and also within extended families. In addition to physical violence, other common

Physical violence is any form of force, intentional or unintentional, against another person that is likely to cause either injury, harm, or death. Biting, stabbing, kicking, punching, choking, or forcing the victim to use drugs are just a few of the forms of physical abuse. It is a shocking physical abuse statistic that approximately two million injuries occur each year from physical abuse, for which only a third will seek medical help (HealthyPlace, 2015). Physical abuse may have short or long-term effects on victims. Physical scars, bruises, gunshot wounds, fractures, and other internal injuries often heal, but victims often relive the memories of the assault in their

People dealing with sexual violence often feel insecure about themselves, leaving them thinking “why would anyone want me”. Pandora’s Project defined sexual abuse as any sort of non-consensual sexual contact (PandorasProject2009). Sexual violence includes but is not limited to unwanted kissing or touching, rough or violent sexual activity, refusing to use condoms, and/or keeping someone from protecting themselves from sexually transmitted infections, just to name a few. Although sexual violence can happen to anyone, most victims of sexual violence are of female gender. Rainn (2009) indicated that a sexual assault occurs approximately every 2 minutes. There is an average of 293,000 instances (victims age 12 or older) of sexual assault each year and an average of 1 in every 3 American women will face sexual violence in their lifetime. Sexual abuse can have many effects on the victims. It can leave him/her feeling stigmatized or even responsible for the manipulation. According to the National Network, “Financial abuse is a common tactic used by abusers to gain power and control of a relationship. The forms of financial may be subtle or overt but in general, include tactics to limit the partner’s access to assets or conceal information and accessibility to the family’s finances” (NationalNetwork2015). Financial abuse is one of the most powerful forms of keeping a victim trapped in a relationship. Financial abuse