Women in Abusive Relationships

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Women in Abusive Relationships

I chose this particular topic because I have a friend that was in an abusive relationship. I

didn’t really understand why she stayed with him for so long. I first started suspecting

that she was being abused was when I was on the phone with her and heard him

screaming at her in the background. She yelled back and played it off like nothing was

wrong. She said usually he was a good guy, but merely had a bad day. I kept asking her

why she stayed with him and she always replied that she loved him. Fortunately, they

aren’t together anymore. She finally got tired of all the abuse and called my uncle who is

a police officer. He came over, made him pack all of his stuff, and informed him that if

he ever came back there would be more trouble than he could handle. Oddly enough, she

still says that she misses him. I can only imagine how much more complicated it would

be for a woman with children. In the literature, I expect to find that there are many more

women being abused than people really realize. I also expect to find that most women

stay because they are financially dependent, or they don’t want their children to grow up

without a father. Also, I’m assuming most women are scared for their lives if they

attempt to leave. To research my predictions I chose to read articles from Analyzing

Social Problems, The Journal of Marriage and Family, and The Journal of Interpersonal

Violence.

When people refer to the word violence, they usually don’t think of domestic violence.

However, domestic violence is a very serious form of abuse. According to the article

“Severity of Violence Against Women by Intimate Partners and Associate Abuse of

Alcohol and/or Illicit Drugs by the Perpetrator, a current or former intimate partner

physically and/or sexually assaults eight out of every 1,000 women” (Wilson 2000:996).

The National Crime Victimization Survey reveals that more than 1.8 million incidents of

violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend occur in America

each year, and about 85% of these victims are women (Greenfield et al. 1998). While

people have heard that most assaults occur to women by their mates each year, few know

that men are also assaulted at home. Many of these assaults go unreported. The

relationship of alcohol to intimate partner violence remains significant in studies. Men’s

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