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How child abuse effects mental health
How child abuse effects mental health
How child abuse effects mental health
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In abusive relationships, women are at a much higher risk of being the victim then men (Mata-Pariente, Plazoala-Castano, & Ruiz-Perez 2006). A large number of women leave and return to their abusive relationships numerous times before they come to a realization of the victimization and break away (Cavanaugh, Gelles, & Loseke 2014). During the time of abuse, women may suffer psychological or physical consequences to their health. Many studies have shown that a majority of women who have been abused showed signs of anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression (Estrellado & Loh 2014). Although remaining in abusive relationships can affect the victims in a negative way, many women choose to stay because of several reasons. According to Mata-Pariente, …show more content…
These six reasons why women stay in abusive relationships can be explained using the three theoretical perspectives - the psychological perspective, the sociological perspective, and the feminist perspective. The psychological perspective accounts for two of the six reasons. The psychological perspective has previously been used to explain why some women stay in unhealthy relationships. Out of the three perspectives, the psychological perspective focuses more on creating an explanation for the behavior of the abuser. According to Cavanaugh, Gelles, & Loseke (2014), the psychological perspective is is created around the idea that the batterers are behaving in abusive ways due to a psychological problem. A very common disorder that many abusers develop are personality disorders. They are usually developed at a young age due to exposure to violence and neglect in the home. The personality disorders that they develop …show more content…
Similar to the sociological perspective, the feminist perspective also justify their reasoning through social factors that these women have to face (Cavanaugh, Gelles, & Loseke 2014). What distinguishes the feminist perspective apart from the sociological perspective is that the feminist framework only focuses on social constructs that are attributed to gender inequality or the gendered nature of society. In society, men are usually seen as superior to women. This may explain why women choose to stay because of the fear of retaliation. The masculine traits that men possess are usually used to justify their abusive nature (O’Neal and Beckman ____ ). The feminist theory emphasises that there is a link between masculinity and violence. Some of these masculine traits include aggression, domination, confidence, and independence (Eckstein 2011). Contradictory to the behaviors men are expected to possess, women are expected to be submissive, empathetic, vulnerable, and patient. Because of these gendered stereotypes that exist, women may be more willing to put up with the men’s abusive nature. They may be scared to retaliate because there could be more severe consequences. The last reason why women may stay in their abusive relationships is due to the fear of losing their child (Mata-Pariente, Plazoala-Castano, & Ruiz-Perez 2006). Women are seen as
Although domestic violence is a significant societal problem, which continues to receive public and private sector attention, intervention and treatment programs have proven inconsistent in their success. Statistics by various organization show that many offenders continue to abuse their victims. Approximately 32% of battered women are victimized again, 47% of men who abuse their wives do so at least three times per year (MCFBW). There are many varying fact...
Almost as if they were to be trained as an animal. Second, socioeconomic status was a key factor in abusive relationships. Lower income women are proven to be more frequently victims of domestic violence than wealthier women. Situations where the male partner is underemployed or unemployed, he’s not seeking employment, or they are residing in a poor neighborhood all can have an impact of on abusive relationships. Third, some batterers were abused themselves. Here, batterers were abused during their upbringing whether it be physical, verbal, or sexually abused. They may have also witnessed domestic violence as a part of their childhood. From here, being abusive was embedded in their mind. They were confused about a healthy relationship. Using violence as a means of power and control was the way of life. Boys who witness domestic violence are more likely to batter as an adult. Fourth, race was another factor when being abusive. Black women seem to be more disrespectful towards men and talk out of line resulting in abuse. Black women also worry about the repercussions of reporting domestic violence. A lot of abusive relationships go
According to Albert Roberts’ Handbook of Domestic Violence Intervention Strategies, “Theorist who advocate this approach believe that abusive situations may be the result of the interaction among personal, situational, social, political, and cultural factors (Roberts, 35). There have been three consistent risk factors for someone to become an abuser. These three include, growing up without a consistent father figure, witnessing domestic violence when they were children, and having been physically or sexually abused (Roberts, 35). An example for the micro system includes drug or alcohol use. An example of a macro system risk factors could include the way society gives a sense of male entitlement or ownership over a woman (Roberts,
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...
Domestic violence has been plaguing our society for years. There are many abusive relationships, and the only question to ask is: why? The main answer is control. The controlling characteristic that males attribute to their masculinity is the cause to these abusive relationships. When males don’t have control they feel their masculinity is threatened and they need to do something about it. This doesn’t occur in just their relationships, but rather every facet of life. Men are constantly in a struggle for power and control whether it is at work, home, during sports, or in a relationship, this remains true. So the only way for them to get this power is for them to be “men”; tough, strong, masculine, ones that demand and take power. Where is this thirst for control coming from? Is it the natural structure of a man or is it a social construct? The answer is that it’s the social construction of a patriarchy that results in this thirst for control due to fear. The fear is being emasculated, whether it is by gayness, or femininity. Men use the fear created from domestic violence to gain control, but yet women do have some control in a relationship it is this vague boundary of how much control that leads to domestic violence.
In the past century, America has made great leaps in terms of equality. With the efforts made by the civil rights and suffrage movements, all people gained the right to vote. We are even moving forward with marriage equality, and currently fifteen states recognize same-sex marriage. But regardless of all of our progressive institutional movements forward, we continue to socially oppress women. Men’s violence against women has grown to be an internationally recognized epidemic, and will continue to grow unless measures be made to stop it. Domestic violence continues to be prevalent in the lives of many families, and is the primary cause of homelessness in half of cases for women in children. Many women have been forced to alter their behaviors out of fear of being sexually or physically assaulted. One out of every three women is sexually or physically abused in their lifetimes. The first thing that comes to mind is, there are a lot of people abusing women out there. Many people with opposing ideas may claim that men can be victims of violence perpetrated by women, but in instances not used for self-defense, it is rarely part of a systematic pattern of power and control through force or threat of force. In fact, 99% of rape is perpetrated by men, but when confronting men about the issue of violence against women, it is often combated with denial. Jackson Katz writes in his book, The Macho Paradox, “We take comfort in the idea of the aforementioned child-rapist murderer as a horrible aberration. A monster. We’re nothing like him.”(Katz 30). The sad truth is that most women who are raped are raped by men they know, or even men they love. Many men have a hard time believing that saying that most violence is perpetuated by men does not...
Stark (2006) would suggest that thirty years of research has failed to produce a consensus as to what constitutes a case of domestic violence considering that 90% of women who report the abuse have no physical injuries. Methods of coercive control do not meet the criminological viewpoint rather, control extends to financial, emotional, and psychological aspects of subjugating the partner thus no physical violence occurs. If only violent means are reported, then the reported number of victims would perhaps change thus creating a more gender symmetrical pattern. Until operational definitions are defined throughout the disciplines with consistency then there will continue to be discrepancies and opposing views. However, integrative theories of feminist views are being explored which investigate the intersection of not only male dominance as a form of oppression but the use of race, class, national origin, age, sexual orientation, and disability and their impact on intimate partner violence as stated by McPhail and colleagues
The effects of abuse may be detrimental to a woman’s reproductive health, as well as to other aspects of her physical health and psychological state. Along with increasing injury, physical abuse can cause an array of other problems such as increased risk of unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, adverse pregnancy complications, chronic pain, physical disability, depression, and drug and alcohol use. Health care providers often miss opportunities to detect if a woman has been abused by either being unaware, indifferent, or judgmental.
As can been seen when looking at the issue of intimate partner violence, both historically and more recent, much of intimate partner violence is gendered, meaning that men are normally the perpetrators of violence (Hattery and Smith 2017). For this reason, the feminist theory is one of the few middle range theories used to examine intimate partner violence (Hattery and Smith 2017). The assumption of the feminist theory is that patriarchy undergirds everything in human society and allows for the abuse and oppression of women through inequality of power and privilege (Hattery and Smith 2017). Patriarchy shapes individual power within the household, playing on culturally gendered norms and expectations, and institutional power, such as the criminal justice system; the main structures of society (Hattery and Smith 2017). For this reason, this theory focuses on the structural nature of the issue rather than the individual nature of intimate partner violence (Hattery and Smith 2017). Distribution of power allows male partners to abuse their partners and “get away” with it if the injury is not physically visible, or life threatening, it is not considered criminal. Most times the perpetrator of violence does is not prosecuted, whether it be underreporting or lack of follow-through by either the victim or the court system (Hattery and Smith 2017). Feminist theory proposes dismantling patriarchy, or at least the reform the way that intimate partner violence is handled by the court system through accountability (Hattery and Smith 2017). The largest flaw in the feminist theory is that it is said to not address “exceptions to the rule” which are cases where the female partner is the perpetrator; and fails to address violence seen in the LBGTQ community (Hattery and Smith 2017). The assertion that the feminist theory does not adequately explain violence in the LBGTQ community is short sighted. As with any heterosexual relationship, a homosexual relationship,
Abuse takes on various forms ranging from physical, mental, emotional, and neglect. Abuse is not limited to one particular group culture, but happens to people from all walks of life. Women are often the victims of abuse especially when dealing with spousal or intimate partner valance. Each year, increasingly more women have been reported to be victims of some form of spousal or intimate partner violence. Generally in a relationships abuse being to happen, the abuse begins to forms or a combination of the two. Physical violence or abuse is the first form in which actual violence takes place in the mental abuse. In this form of abuse actual violence does not occur, but the abuser is the demander or belittles the victim, causing the victim to feel worthless; other abusers combine the two forms. The emotional or mental abuse is by far the worst. According to Reed and Enright (2006) “Spousal psychological abuse represents a painful betrayal of trust leading to serious negative psychological outcomes for the abused partner,” (R. The main purpose of spousal or intimate partner abuse, contrary to popular belief, is to inflict emotional pain, not physical pain. There are several categories of spousal psychological abuse; criticizing ridiculing, jealous control, purposeful ignoring, threats of abandonment, threats of harm, and damage to personal property spousal abuse produces a more negative emotional affect when compare to physical abuse. The negative physiological affects produce depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and post traumatic stress disorder.
Women will continue to suffer from domestic violence unless there is some sort of intervention to help them. When dealing with this population, it is essential to create a safe environment where the woman can talk freely about the abuse without any retaliation from the abuser. When someone comes into a therapeutic session, everyone deserves to be treated with respect and care. This in turn will create a sense of hope that a different type of life can be possible. Also, knowing that there is a support system can help the woman begin the process of change. Despite this, the process of leaving the abusive partner is slow (Warshaw, n.d.)
But we don 't really know why men choose to be violent towards women. A study of the mothers of child abuse victims shows that battering is the most common context for child abuse, that the battering male is the typical child abuser. Feminist theory in domestic violence emphasizes gender and power inequality in opposite-sex relationships. Feminist theory also has to do with gender equalities and how men still believe that they are the superior sex.
Pain can be within a person or the physical appearance of one. In the beginning, women will try and change whatever that bothers their significant other, like their appearance or actions. But will then realize the changes they made will not change the abusers harmful actions or disputes. With low self-esteem, women will start to not maintain themselves as they were before. Street and Arias say, “Seventy-two percent of one same of physically abused women reported that the psychological abuse that they had experienced had a more severe impact on them than the physical abuse that they had experienced”
Abuse has become so common that some people do not realize they are being abused. It is important that this topic is studied because there are many gaps of knowledge to what all an abusive relationship can entail. The goal is to help someone somewhere get out of an abusive relationship before its too late. Whether its emotional or physical abuse, neither is healthy for a person to maintain in. So seeking relationship advice from outside sources, such as popular press articles may be a usual for tool for people who are looking for insight as long as they know to check up on the research involved in the article. This paper will compare and contrast the findings from the article I have chosen to the scholarly research that has been conducted on abusive relationships.
Why do women put up with abuse? This question is often the first question people ask, but it is misdirected. Why doesn't she leave? This focuses on the woman’s behavior and not the batterers behavior. Instead we should ask why do men batter? This question is also misinformed. Many women leave every day. Leaving doesn't always mean protection from future violence. Leaving is a multi-staged process.(Sussman) On average a woman leaves and returns six times before she leaves permanently. There are many factors that often help to keep a woman with her batterer.