Intimate Partner Violence And Sexual Abuse

The history of Intimate Partner Violence is a long one much longer than many are aware of. It used to be an accepted part of many cultures that as the head of the household the many could use whatever means necessary to keep his family in line. Still in some cultures intimate partner violence is accepted behavior. In a majority of the industrialized world engaging in intimate partner violence is not acceptable yet it is still widely occurring. The occurrence of this form of violence has evolved over the years and now both men and women may be victimized. It is important that individuals take the time to educate themselves about the topic and the resources available if they or someone they know ever be in a situation that may require such

Walter (1969) gave a comprehensive definition of violence as “destructive harm including not only physical assaults that damage the body, but also techniques of inflicting harm by mental or emotional means” (p. 24). However, in the context of intimate relationships, the definition of violence requires more aspects to be determined. The basic questions to be asked when defining domestic violence proposed by Hegarty, Sheehan, and Schonfeld (1999) in their article A Multidimensional Definition of Partner Abuse are 1) which relationships should be included as domestic? And 2) how should violence in domestic life be defined? To answer these questions, Hegarty et al. said that it is important to choose the appropriate definition that is most relevant to the purpose of the studies. Dutton (2006) defined domestic violence in his book Rethinking Domestic Violence as “any violence occurring between intimate partners (same sex or other sex, married or unmarried) and against children” (p. 3), but further said that he will only focus on intimate

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.

This section will discuss the topic intimate partner violence against women as discussed by other scholars and authors. Various books will be analyzed to understand the topic better. The section will also explain the main issues independently analyzing different literature and will also discuss the similarities and differences. The issue has emanated a lot of public concern as more young women continue to suffer in silence with the fear of speaking out against their partners. Some women, however, are courageous and have opted to speak about the issue in public without fear of being judged or criticized. Careful analysis of the different books will help to determine the different perspectives that different authors understand

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)

To begin with, Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) has been around for a very long time and it is still a present issue in the United States. There are many forms intimate partner violence such as, sexual, physical, emotional, and psychological. IPV occurs among all religious, socioeconomic, and cultural groups in the United States and other countries. As many people know intimate partner violence tends to come with consequences after the damage is done to the victim. Intimate partner violence does not just happen out of nowhere where the perpetrator thinks they have the right to be violent towards their spouse. The issue of IPV is connected to the cycle of violence in ways that it gives you an idea as to why the perpetrator thinks they have the right to hit the victim. In many cases not only do they think they have the right to due such thing but also feel like they have control over their spouse and have a mindset that they own them and will do anything just to keep them. Often the perpetrators feel guilty for being violent towards their loved ones that they come to a point of being apologetic and doing anything in their power to keep them. This author believes that intimate partner violence is a big issue and for many victims it is hard for them to escape the relationship. The victims go through so much in staying in the relationship that once they decide to definitely leave the relationship they end up suffering consequences and seeking available resources to

What is Intimate Partner Violence? If one has not lived through it, the meaning is unknown. When we hear the term, we tend to picture a woman covered in bruises. In reality, the damage is much worse. There is many long term effects that run deeper than the physical injuries (Giardino, 2010). Victims experience shame, isolation, detrimental physical and mental health consequences and financial stressor. This also causes dramatic effects on the families of the victims. This violence also affects the children who may be at an increased risk of physical abuse. Children who live through IPV suffer through the trauma of witnessing the violence and having feelings of fear, guilt, and shame.

Parents who perpetrate or suffer from intimate partner violence are more likely to be parents who mistreat their own children. The explanation that links these two together is dissociation, which allows parents who are abusers to remain distant from and minimize sympathy toward their victims. Additionally, there is a higher rate of dissociation disorders among intimate partner violence survivors and perpetrators. The objective of the study performed by Webermann, Brand, and Chasson in 2004 was to see how prevalent intimate partner violence is among those who commit childhood maltreatment. To gather this data, dissociative disorder clinicians reported on the rates of childhood maltreatment and intimate partner violence from 275 patients and assessed the associations between childhood maltreatment and partner violence. The results showed that there was a correlation between the two factors and that physical abuse was associated with physical spouse violence, while neglect was associated with emotional spouse violence (Webermann, Brand, & Chasson, 2014).

“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.

The purpose of this paper is to document the phenomenon of intimate partner violence (IPV) through empirical research. It includes sources of data and statistics from the official government agencies of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey of 2011, and the National Incident Based Reporting System. In addition, it addresses the social distribution of the phenomena across time and space by the national, state, and rural/urban locations as well as its distribution across social groups including sex, race and age.

Domestic violence by definition is a violent or aggressive way of being within the confines of the home; in most occasions it is typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse or partner. There are various cues that display an abuse relationship; domestic violence is just the definition of the type of abuse itself. Abusive individuals that are most likely to commit domestic violence actions are said to need to feel in charge of the relationship. They will make decisions for you and the family and want to be made aware of everything going on so to make a decision, abusers want to tell you what to do, and expect you to obey without questions. People that commit domestic violence aren’t necessarily bad people, they might have the belief that since they went through it as a child, it is but their right to want to instill the same type of order in their homes.

Domestic violence literatures often depict intimate violence in term of gender asymmetry in which the men are the batterers while women are the defenceless victims. However, since the 1970’s there has been a rise in controversial yet influential researches that shows men and women as having the equal potential to be victims or perpetrators. However true this might be, it is necessary to accentuate that men and women use violence differently. Michael Johnson was able to showcase this by differentiating between “situational couple violence” in which men and women are equally like to initiate violence when there is an escalation in argument. With “Intimate terrorism,” one partner uses violence to exert control over the relationship and in this situation; men are overwhelmingly the perpetrator and women as victims. Most often than not, women will use violence in a reactionary manner as a form of self-defence against an abusive partner while men will use it as a form of control to a achieve a desirable

Domestic violence occurs in all economic, ethnic, and social backgrounds of every society of the world. In Canada, 546, 000 men suffer from domestic violence; that equates to 6% of the male population (Family Violence). The number of women who are victimized through intimate violence total around 653, 000; that equates to 7% of the female population (Family Violence). The amount of abuse being directed towards men is essentially the same amount that is directed towards women. However, the family Violence has on the parent-child relationships referring to the father as the abuser or the perpetrator of domestic violence and the mother as the victim of domestic violence. Both men and women are abused; however, there is lack of research and lack of awareness that leading father’s being the victim and mother’s being the perpetrators. A study done by Denise Hines, a professor of psychology at Clark University, found that men who attempted to contact police, domestic violence agencies, and abuse hotlines were because “Police that focus on severe violence by men towards women” ( Hines and Douglas).