Intimate Partner Violence

1173 Words3 Pages

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is historically referred to as domestic violence. It describes a pattern of coercive and assaultive behavior that may include psychological abuse, progressive isolation, sexual assault, physical injury, stalking, intimidation, deprivation, and reproductive coercion among partners (The Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF), 1999). IPV leads to lifelong consequences such as lasting physical impairment, emotional trauma, chronic health problems, and even death. It is an issue effecting individuals in every community, regardless of age, economic status, race, religion, nationality or educational background. Eighty-five percent of domestic violence victims are women (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2003). More than one in three women in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime (The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2012). Thirty to sixty percent of perpetrators tend to also abuse children in the household (Edelson, 1999). Witnessing violence between parents or caretakers is considered the strongest risk factor of transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next (Break the Cycle, 2006). State legislatures are increasingly passing statues that encourage participants of the Criminal Justice System to attack the issue of domestic violence more aggressively. Some states still fail to realize that IPV involving a woman that is pregnant should be considered a felony because it affects the well being of the unborn child. IPV tends to be under-reported simply because the victims fear being deported, “outed,” they believe they are at fault, they feel they have nowhere to go, abuser will change, etc. Parents... ... middle of paper ... ...st all undergo treatment. Works Cited Akers, R. (1966). A Differential Association- Reinforcement Theory of Criminal Behavior American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2012). Intimate partner violence. Committee Opinion No. 518;119:412–7. Break the Cycle. 2006. Startling Statistics. From http://www.breakthecycle.org/html%20files/I_4a_startstatis.htm. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2003). Criminal Victimization. 2007. Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Justice. Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief (2003). Intimate Partner Violence, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Edelson, J.L. (1999). The Overlap between Child Maltreatment and Woman Battering: Violence against Women. 5,134-154 Family Violence Prevention Fund. (1999). Preventing Domestic Violence: Clinical Guidelines on Routine Screening, San Francisco, CA.

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