A seven year-old boy frantically calls 911 as he witnesses his father physically abusing his mother. Tears overflow his eyes as the mother is beaten. The father demands his wife to never leave him, and although she agrees, he continuously beats her, showing dominance and control. The boy drops the phone and backs into a corner while his mother is on the ground and his father is coming at him with a closed fist. This is just one case of domestic violence that affects nearly 32 million Americans, which is over 10% of the United States population. What exactly is domestic violence? Also known as domestic, spousal and child abuse, domestic violence can take many forms, including physical, sexual, emotional, and economic. Regardless of what type of abuse it is, they can all have one common denominator: to obtain and maintain complete control over the victim.
Probably the most common type of domestic violence, physical abuse consists of pain, injury or any other type of physical suffering or bodily harm. The victims that are affected by physical abuse are not classified by any type of gender, age or race. Physical abuse can happen to anyone. Forms of physical abuse include punching, kicking, biting, strangling, whipping and intentional exposure to various dangers such as heat, cold, electricity, and toxins. Easier than other forms of domestic violence, physical abuse marks, or indicators, can be easily seen. Indicators can take forms as sprains, fractures, burns, blisters and bruises. Behavioral indicators include unexplained or preposterous explanations for injuries, explanations differ from one person to the next and, similar injuries continue to appear after seeking medical help.
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, i...
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...aceful behavior, fooling you into believing he has finally changed. He begins to fantasize about abusing you again and sets' up his plan in motion.
General warning signs of domestic violence are that the victim seems afraid of their partner, always agree with them, receive frequent calls , and talks about his temper and jealousy. If a person is the victim of domestic violence, always express concern, listen, offer help, ask and always support. One must never wait for her to come to you for it may be too late, judge or blame, pressure the victim, and give advice. Remember, abusers are very good at controlling and manipulating their victims. Abused and battered victims need help to get out, yet they are isolated from their family and friends. By picking up on the warning signs and offering support, you can help them escape an abusive situation and begin healing.
Domestic Violence is a widely recognized issue here in the United States. Though many people are familiar with domestic violence, there are still many facts that people do not understand. Abuse is not just physical, it is mental, emotional, verbal, sexual and financial. Many victims of physical abuse are also fall victim to these abuse tactics as well. An abusive partner often uses verbal, mental, emotional, and financial abuse to break their partner so to speak. It is through this type of abuse the victim often feels as though they are not adequately meeting their partner’s needs.
“Domestic violence, or intimate partner violence, is defined as a pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviors, including physical, sexual, and psychological attacks as well as economic coercion that adults or adolescents use against their intimate partners” (Peeks-Asa). When it comes to domestic violence many people don’t want to get involved, but if just one person took a stand maybe others would follow and potentially save a life, like the neighbors did in The Day It Happened by Rosario Morales. Domestic violence can happen to anyone at any time, there is no typical victim or perpetrator. The fact that there is no one specific group that domestic violence occurs in more than another, only makes it more difficult to get an accurate representation of just who is being affected by this crime. “Domestic violence and abuse does not discriminate” (Smith and Segal). Domestic violence can have specific victims such as a spouse or domestic partner, a child, or an elder. Domestic violence can affect men as well as women. Some types of domestic violence are physical, verbal or nonverbal, sexual, stalking or cyberstalking, economic or financial, and spiritual.
In this paper I will be telling you many different forms of domestic violence. I will include the physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, spiritual abuse, economic abuse, social abuse, and emotional abuse. I will also describe the "cycle of violence", teen dating violence, and why women stay with an abusive partner.
This article explains the fear that runs through abused women’s head. Signs within the victim to look for in an abusive relationship is feeling threatened, criticized, controlled, afraid, or shy from the spouse. Physical signs to look for is the abuser hitting, twisting words around, insulting, or purposely putting the victim in danger (Rafenstein
Domestic violence covers a large array of abuses. Some of the different types of abuse include Physical, Emotional, Verbal, Sexual and Economical. Women suffering abuse usually suffer from all the different types. Often one type of abuse will bleed or lead to another and most abuse cases never start out with something physical. Most of the time one form of abuse is being used to enforce another.
People do not fully understand domestic abuse as much as they should. It is not simple and the different forms of it needs to be explained more often. “Domestic violence is the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. It includes physical violence, sexual violence, psychological violence, and emotional abuse” (“What is Domestic Violence?”). These types of violence can range from mild to severe. Mild abuse includes pushing, grabbing, shoving, or slapping a woman. Severe abuse includes kicking, choking, beating or using a weapon on women.
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
Other people often overlook domestic abuse. People generally do not like to get themselves involved in other people’s problems, especially when they believe there might be problems at home. For one reason or the other, the person who is the witness to someone who is being abused by their spouse does not want to report the crime, or get involved at all, because they are afraid something violent will happen to them for trying to help. Inside the relationship, there are many signs of the abuse. The biggest sign is that you completely fear your partner. Domestic abuse does not start the day that you meet your partner. It can start a week, month, or even years after.
“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).
Domestic violence is defined as violent or aggressive behavior within a household. This involves the abuser and a victim who is most often the partner or a child. This type of violence can be physical, such as hitting or attacking and sexual abuse. It can also be mental or emotional which involves putdowns and blaming the victim. Domestic violence is not just a problem in Hawaii and the United States; it is a prevalent problem around the world. It is also a difficult problem to solve as these acts of violence occur in private and only the victim themselves can seek out help. However, many do not seek the help required. Whatever it may be, domestic violence is a prevalent problem in our society today and it comes in many different forms.
The popular press article I chose is titled How to Spot an Abuser Before It’s too late by Laura Riley. Laura Riley gives nines warning signs towards if a person is in a relationship with an abusive person. In her years of research she has found that most abusers do not use words to deal with problems. They tend to lash out by hitting someone or something. She explains this as infantile behavior. Another sign she gives is if a person is very possessive. This is how abusers obtain control of their partner by pushing them away from friends and family and normal everyday activities. Another sign is jealousy. Abusers tend to be very insecure so they get overly jealous when their partner talks to the opposite sex. She also has analyzed that if your partner reiterates that you’re the only one for them. The abuser has you on a very high pedestal, so once you disappoint them it gives them all the more reason for them to lash out on you. Another sign is if th...
Historically, domestic violence was viewed as only involving physical abuse. However, the more contemporary view of domestic violence has come to include not only physical types of abuse; but as well as emotional, sexual, physiological, and economic violence that may be committed
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...
“Pay attention to what they say and their body language. Many simple signs can be over looked.” Says Dr. CarolAnne Peterson, who teaches a class on domestic violence at the University of Southern California of Social Work. “It’s a pattern of abusive behaviour from one partner to another. It’s can be psychological, physical, or economical.”
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...