Domestic Violence Sociological Perspectives

Domestic violence: a taboo issue in our society, where the discussion is shut down by fear of instability or vulnerability. A crime, hidden from plain view, behind closed doors, that harms up to half a million innocent individuals every year. Someone is experiencing some form of domestic violence as we speak as for every 15 seconds there is a woman beaten around the world, and for every hour as many as 115 children are abused. Domestic violence, or intimate partner violence, is a violation of human rights. It involves violent, abusive or intimidating behaviour carried out by an adult against a partner or former partner to control and dominate that person.  Violence of any form should not be accepted in our modern society it nurtures fear and hatred, and it should not be locked away as an allowable social norm. We should be better than that.

The term sociological imagination was developed by American sociologist C. Wright Mills to explain the relevance of everyday issues on a social level. He examines “personal troubles and how they can be understood in terms of large-scale patterns that extend beyond individual experience that are part of society and history” (The Promise of Sociology, 5). In the reading, Mills went on to express how personal trouble is a public issue and that one must understand his or her own history before they can go on and understand how they themselves fit into society. A social issue, also known as a social problem, is an undesirable condition that influences many people in society to think it can be fixed. An issue evident in society that many people

There are three main theories that can associate themselves with the issue on domestic violence. These theories are of the following: conflict theory, structural functionalism, and symbolic interactionism. Out of these theories though, the one that seems the most logical dealing with domestic violence would be symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism best fits with this topic because it deals with the individual and their construction of identity that can be a part of a small group or even an organization. In this case of domestic violence, the small group would be their intimate partner or family and the construction of identity would clearly be the abusive person they are when around she or he. It examines the social world from the small-scale perspective of how people interact with one another on an everyday basis. Abusers have negative repetitive behaviors, which is why it fits this description and theory the

Another journal article focusing on differences in domestic violence in Canada and Quebec by Douglas A. Brownridge(2002) has an interesting result in relation to occurrence of domestic violence and socio-economic status and education. It compares results collected from Quebec and rest of Canada. It finds that women with higher education experienced lower violence in Quebec but women with higher education experienced higher violence in the rest of Canada. This might be because of the notion of liberal views held in Quebec by males, and therefore would feel less threatened by highly educated women. This could also be because of the man is financially dependent on the

Domestic violence is a devastating social problem. “Domestic violence is about one person getting and keeping power and control over another person in an intimate relationship. It is a pattern of behavior in which one intimate partner uses physical violence, coercion, threats, intimidation, isolation and emotional, sexual or economic abuse to control and change the behavior of the other partner (Despres,2009). Domestic violence is not just hitting or fighting or an occasional mean argument. It is a chronic abuse of power and a need for control. In every state there are laws that prohibit domestic violence but they vary from state to state. Domestic abuse is widespread and

The cause of domestic violence is not too difficult to understand. The reason why people beat their intimate partner is because, one partner feels like they need to be superior against the other. They feel insecure and powerless, so they turn into violent behavior. Big life changed like becoming really ill or women getting pregnant can increase the chance to be in a domestic violence situation. Another reason may be going into debt, being unemployed, or losing something significant to one partner. (Joyful Heart Foundation). When a victim tries to leave, it could make their situation worse. By failing to leave the victim might feel more abandoned and hopeless. If we don’t change our ways, the situation will get worse. Statistics from domestic abuse have increased in mostly every end each year. If we don’t stop it, it will just increase and increase until somebody decides to change it. In the 1990’s there would be thousands or hundred thousands of victims. Now, each minute about 20-24 people are victims of physical violence. Which account for 12 million cases in a stretch of a year in the United States only. Now the question is how are we going to solve this.

Domestic violence is a crime that occurs regularly within the United States. It claims millions of victims each year. There is not a specific cause to establish why domestic violence occurs. However, it has been documented that domestic violence is a product of physical, emotional, sexual, psychological, and any other forms of torture or torment that the particular abuser wishes to employ to gain control or power over their victims (Gosselin, 2005). Due to the complexity of this crime, many criminologists and socialologists have studied its causes and the effects in order to determine social policies and additional theories to better understand the causation of domestic violence. The social policies and theories that are developed from

Social interaction for the victims of domestic abuse becomes very difficult. It does not matter which of the many types they have experienced. They have been manipulated into losing their self-confidence, and could believe they do not have what it takes to function in public. There is a real fear of putting themselves out of their comfort zone. In many cases, the victim of abuse is embarrassed and worried what others will think of their appearance or that they may behave differently than expected.

On July 29th, 2006, Rafael Dangond and Lissette Ochoa were invited to a wedding party in an exclusive Country Club in the city of Barranquilla, Columbia. Dangond soon became outraged and aggressive after seeing Ochoa was dancing with a young male, who is one of her friends traveled from Venezuela to attend the wedding party. He fiercely attacked Ochoa once she exited the event and the violence constantly continued for over two hours. This extreme brutal act is a product of Dangond’s desires to control and dominate his wife because of his low self-esteem and extreme jealousy. As a result of Dangond’s abusive act, Ochoa suffered multiple physical traumas mainly on her head. Although Dangond’s performance seem to be a case of direct violence stemming from jealousy and frustration, it is also important to recognize the cultural and structural aspects involved in the conflict. The culture of domestic violence in Columbia, which are usually considered as being part of normal married life in the society and the vertically hierarchical relationships between husband and wife in a family must also be examined in order to fully determine the complexity of the conflict. Because of the vertical social structures, Dangond’s action is likely to continue between he and his wife. However, in order to decrease the prospect of future violence, laws regarding violence against women must be enforced and the abolition of the vertical familial patriarchal social system in

Domestic violence is an issue in almost every corner in the world. It is a public health and human rights issue. The accepted levels of violence have changed with history and varies between societies. Here in the United States, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, on average nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused. 1 in 3 women have been victims of physical violence from an intimate partner. The presence of a gun increases the risk of homicide by 500%. On average 3 women are killed each day by an intimate partner, Intimate partner violence is 15% of all violent crime. An analysis done by Every Town for Gun Safety found that 54% of mass shootings were related to domestic or family violence. This paper will be looking at the problem of domestic violence in the United States through the sociological conflict feminist theory.

Everyone is different with a unique set of values which shapes our beliefs and views that affect our personal behavior. Domestic violence can happen to anyone no matter the race, ethnicity, or social economic status. According to Babcock, Gree, and Robie (2004), domestic violence is a learned behavior and is defined by the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence (2014) “Is when two people get into an intimate relationship and one person uses a pattern of coercion and control against the other person during the relationship and/or after the relationship has terminated. It often includes physical sexual, emotional, or economic abuse.” When defining the parties involved in domestic violence disputes, a batterer and/or victim can be male or female. For the purpose of research results we will discuss the batterer being male and the victim as female. The process of understanding domestic violence includes understanding human behavior in the social environment and examining battering from a batterer’s perspective.

Domestic violence, also more known as Intimate Partner Violence, affects individuals in all social classes and racial/ethnic groups is a statement that has been said and taught over again for many years. Yes that statement above holds logic and truth, but there is also an inverse relationship to it. One of the most consistent findings from research is a strong inverse relationship between social class and intimate partner violence (Renzetti, 2009). In other words, as social class status goes up, cases of domestic violence goes down, and vice versa for lower social classes. Analyses of large, national surveys, for example, show that women living in households with the lowest annual incomes were five times more likely to have experienced

Not all people think about domestic violence but for a large amount of people it is an everyday hell. Most people have the privilege of going about their day carefree of who they will see at a time during that day, while others are fearful of seeing one or more people throughout their day. Domestic violence also know as partner abuse is a series of abusive patterns that are between two people, most commonly spouses. Emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse are all forms of domestic violence.Not only are adults exposed to this kind of violence but as well as kids and teenagers. According to author Alanna Vagianos “ 70, [is] the percentage of women worldwide who will experience physical and/or sexual abuse by an intimate partner during their lifetimes” (np). With this being said it is clean that domestic violence is well known and very common, it is not something that happens to just a handful of people. Based on many studies, it is clear that domestic violence’s impact upon a person is very negative, specifically damaging their self esteem and general mental health.

In America most cases of Domestic Violence are never actually reported, many times these cases go unheard and the victims suffer in silence. The worn out cries of a battered woman as she lays on the ground clutching herself and begging her significant other to just stop. The bruises and cuts that remain unreported due to the victim claiming they accidentally fell yet again. The abusers tend to make the victim almost entirely dependable on them. An abuser will do this to gain control and to create a weaker victim, “behaviors used by one person in a relationship to control the other” (Par. 1, Definition). Control. The abuser seeks control over their victims. When their control is threatened they act out in ways harmful to others. Domestic

A Theoretical Framework are theories that is formulated to explain, predict, and understand phenomena and, in many cases, to challenge and extend existing knowledge, within the limits of the critical bounding assumptions. The theoretical framework is the structure that can hold or support a theory of a research study. The theoretical framework introduces and describes the theory which explains why the research problem under study exists. There are three topics that will be discussed: (a) the background on domestic violence and the different reasons why women stay, (b) the criminal justice system and how the laws need to be