Intimate Partner And Sexual Violence

The data covering Intimate Partner Violence in the United States (U.S.) is staggering and given that not every case is reported even more so.

Domestic violence exists everywhere and affects all people regardless of socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, sex, ethnicity, or religion. Most times physical violence is accompanied by emotional abuse and controlling behaviors. The result of domestic violence includes physical injury, psychological issues, and death. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) occurs in 1 of 4 women in the United States and can be correlated with a loss of emotional, social, physical and mental health. Intimate Partner Violence is an issue that does not receive a lot of recognition and is overlooked majority of the time. There is a lot of information on women in intimate partner violence relationships that explains how it affects women physically, mentally, and socially.

Before taking this course on family violence, I had an idea what was Intimate Partner Violence. I have always believed that Intimate partner violence involves only married couples. I had also thought that violence between a married couple consider the only force of using physical abuse only. Fortunately after reading about partner violence, I have learned that there was more than just one type of abuses. For example, I never thought that sexual abuse could happen between a couple. In addition, I learned that intimate partner violence does not consider only married partners but also partners who have same sex genders, and are unmarried.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is defined as sexual, physical or psychological abuse by a current or past spouse or partner and is one of the largest public issues the Unites States faces today. It is estimated that roughly 15.5 million children live in a household effected by IPV in the United States (Gustafsson, Coffman, Cox 2014). Children who are effected by IPV are more likely to have behavioral issues along with their development being negatively impacted (O'Campo, Caughy, Nettles 2010). It is important to research IPV to see how it can be minimized as much as possible along with seeing how people are effected by IPV.

These include federal domestic violence laws and law enforcement measures. Common intervention strategies include batterer intervention programs, arrest, protection order, court intervention, and prosecution. Even though, increased warrantless arrests, firearm confiscation, prosecution, and financial aids to families with dependent children were associated with a decreased rate of domestic violence, research shows that some chronically aggressive intimate partners continue to abuse their partner regardless of the interventions. Furthermore, understanding demographic differences among victims and abusers including race and education level, can help to predict which intervention will work best for specific groups (National Institute of Justice, 2007). According to Bradford and el‘s opinion regarding the Criminal Justice System’s response to domestic violence, there is a need for service provider and policy makers to provide preventive interventions. The policies should provide crucial skills, attitudes, and knowledge that give partners a better chance of developing and sustaining a healthy mutual satisfying couple relationship” (Bradford & el, 2015). According to research documentation (women's health magazine, 2013), despite the above measures by the state government, the prevalence of the abuse persists. Furthermore, measures against physiological/ verbal

Domestic violence is an epidemic in our society with dramatic, negative effects on individuals, families and communities. Domestic violence is a crime that knows no economic, racial, ethnic, religious, age or gender limits. Women who are victims of domestic violence most likely are also victims of sexual assault and, stalking. A domestic violence victim may experience systematic rape in addition to physical and psychological abuse. According to Backman, (p.54) nearly one in every four women are beaten or raped by a partner during adulthood. Three women are killed by a current or former intimate partner each day in America, on average women are at an increased risk of harm shortly after separation from an abusive partner.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pattern of aggressive behavior and coercive behavior that can include physical injury, psychological abuse, sexual assault, progressive isolation, stalking, and intimidation which may take many forms. IPV is a common and significant public health problem that is life threatening and preventable. It affects millions of women regardless of race, ethnicity, age, education, socioeconomic class, or sexual orientation. One in three women in the United States has experienced some form of IPV in their lifetime. (1)

Abuse is any behavior that is used to control and subdue another person through the use and fear of physical, emotional, and sexual assaults. Intimate partner violence can come in many forms. I will discuss these further as well as treatment options and services that are available for individuals in these abusive relationships.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious, preventable public health problem that affects millions of Americans and is described as a type of harm caused by a current or former partner or spouse and may consists of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse; it does not discriminate, can occur among heterosexual or same-sex couples, and does not require sexual intimacy. The CDC administered a survey in 2010 called the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) to examine the frequency of intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual violence (SV), and stalking among women and men in the United States (administered annually to track

Every year, nearly 10 million men and women are abused by an intimate partner in the United States. Intimate partner violence or IPV is defined as any behavior within an intimate relationship that causes physical, psychological, or sexual harm to those in the relationship (Burgess, Regerhr, & Roberts, 2013). Acts of physical aggression include slapping, punching, kicking, beating, and biting. Twenty individuals are victims of physical violence every minute in the United States. Psychological maltreatment is the hardest form of abuse to detect, however it can cause long-term detrimental consequences such as PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Displays of psychological maltreatment include, but are not limited to verbal attacks, isolating the victim, verbal threats of harm, humiliation, controlling the victim, and stalking. Sexual harm is characterized as any forced sexual intercourse. Research suggests that 1 in every 5 women will be raped in her lifetime (Burgess, Regerhr, & Roberts, 2013).

“Intimate partner violence” (IPV) not only includes spousal abuse (as does “domestic violence”), but also extends to unmarried, cohabiting, and same-sex couples. Moreover, IPV, is also not restricted to physical abuse; threats of physical abuse, or sexual abuse, and emotional abuse are all considered different forms of intimate partner violence. Intimate partner violence is a major public health concern in the United States that often results in terrible consequences for victims, families, and communities at large. According to the CDC, “[i]n an average minute, about 24 people are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner”. Furthermore, The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that intimate partners

Intimate partner violence includes the physical, sexual, or psychological harm brought unto someone by a current or former partner. While both males and females can be targets of abusive relationships; women are more likely to report cases of intimate partner violence to the police. Based on reports, the rate of women targeted is significantly higher than the percentage of men. Intimate partner violence may occur in all countries, cultures, religions, and socioeconomic groups throughout the world. Underreporting is a huge issue in our society, which stems from aspects such as cultural views, the presence of children, a lack financial support/help, myths associated with intimate partner violence, patriarchy, and strain theory.

Nearly 1 in 10 women in the United States experience domestic violence within their homes; but the question is not how can we stop it, but why does it happen? Finding out the what causes spousal violence, will likely lead us to the answer of how to prevent it from happening. In using latent class analysis and logistic regression techniques we can find the distinct patterns of male or female domination. Studying two separate articles “Bringing Home the Bacon” and “Gender, Work and Inmate Violence”, I was able to integrate their findings to ask a new question.

According to data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), in 2003 to 2012, domestic violence accounted for almost a quarter of all violent crimes committed. According to the same survey conducted, only 55% of those domestic violence crimes were reported to the police. Based on a study that was conducted on past domestic violence crimes, there was a decline of domestic violence from 1994-2003 but in recent years, depending on the type of intimate partner violence, each either had a small increase or stayed the same (Truman, 2014).

What is domestic violence? The first thought that comes to mind is a man that hits a women, but domestic violence is so much more than that unfortunately. Domestic violence is a term that was created by the state legislature that is normally used to describe violence within an intimate relationship (Valiulis, 2014). Basically one of the partners in an intimate relationship ends up using one of more different types of forms of assault and intimidation to gain power and control over the other partner. The partner that want to take control of the other person in the relationship can use all the different forms of violence such as physical assault, psychological abuse, social abuse, financial abuse or sexual assault (B, 2016). “Examples of different types of domestic violence are name-calling or putdowns keeping a partner from contacting their family or friends, withholding money, stopping a partner from getting or keeping a job, actual or threatened physical harm, sexual assault, stalking, and, intimidation. Domestic violence does not discriminate on who will be affected next it could be a married or non-married couple. The couple could be a heterosexual relationship, gay relationship, or lesbian relationship and shill have the possibility of experiencing domestic violence from there partner. Domestic violence can happen within relationships that are currently living together, separated, or even in the dating part of the relationship” (Thawley, n.d.). An example of financial abuse can be see when he abusive partner impacts on credit card debt and credit rating then makes the other partner feel guilty about spending or using their money