Power And Control: Domestic Violence In America

As for Michele Paddon, creator of the Women’s program currently delivered by Changing Ways, she describes in her book abuse as the use of "[...] words, actions or behaviours – on purpose and repeatedly – with the intention of gaining control over that person" (Paddon, 2015). She also establishes three different dimensions of domestic violence, based on the work of Michael P. Johnson: common couple violence (CCV), intimate terrorism and violent resistance (VR).

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

Domestic violence, alternatively referred to as Intimate Partner Violence, is defined by the Department of Justice as “a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner.” While domestic violence is commonly thought of as only physical or sexual abuse, domestic violence can also be emotional, economic, or psychological. Domestic violence has remained constant in society throughout history, even though over time society’s response to the issue has changed. While domestic violence affects everyone regardless of race, gender, age, etc. it is estimated that approximately 90% of all victims are women. For the purpose of this paper, I will be focusing on

The Congress of the United States in 1994, as part of the Crime Bill, passed law allowing the federal government to take part in the battle against domestic violence. This new law, named The violence against Woman Act (VAWA), To fight this violent crime problem, VAWA made federal domestic violence crimes to be act against by the Department of Justice. Reliable with this federal inventiveness, the Crime Bill also modified the Gun Control Act to embrace domestic violence-related crimes. Congress reiterated its commitment to fight domestic violence crimes by the performing in the fall of 1996 of extra federal domestic violence crimes in both VAWA and the Gun Control Act. The federal government has largely lacked authority over several domestic violence crimes. However domestic violence remains primarily a matter of state and local jurisdiction (Lindhorst, Casey, & Meyers, 2010).

This began to change in the 1980s, as women’s groups were organized locally and internationally to demand attention to the physical, psychological, and economic abuse of women (p.369-370). Domestic violence is a serious social issue that happens to many women in our world today. This type of abuse is not declining but continually rising on a daily basis. There have been issues in the past with the way these cases were being handled. Today, there has been some improvement concerning the laws that have been enforced in order to protect women from this type of abuse. There has been extensive research done on this issue in the past concerning domestic violence. Over the last ten years there have been a number of surveys on domestic violence that have been published from around the world.

Before reading the first two parts of "Til Death Do Us Part" I knew that domestic violence was a growing issue in the United states, but it was a surprise to find out that the state that we live in for more than fifteen has been place in the top ten nationally in the rate of women murder by men (Pardue, Smith, Hawes, & Hauff, 2014). The first part gave the statics on how many victims were turned away in 2012-2013 from shelters around South Carolina which was a total of 380. The reason why this was done because there was no rom they said (Pardue et al., 2014). Since this information was taken there should have a increase in the number of shelters in South Carolina, but there is only 18 domestic violence shelters. There is about 36,000 incidents of domestic abuse in our state. That number is shocking, many people wouldn 't have thought that there were that many incident. The national statistics on domestic violence given by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence states:

It has been recorded that approximately “2,000,000 injuries, and 1,300 deaths are caused each year as a result of domestic violence” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This harm to and loss of life is due to the negligence of all Americans, in regards to the monitoring and managing of domestic violence in the United States. In order to combat the blatant disregard for domestic violence victims, Americans must support, aid, and assist those who fall victim to this crime, as well as educate those who are oblivious to the matter at hand. These actions will be essential in the eradication of domestic violence, as well as the preservation of the health and overall safety of all American people.

Taking a look into America’s work industry, society’s values reflect the meaning of domestic violence. In order to gain an understanding of how societies function, many professionals have observed various factors that contribute to the way societies work and the specific explanations of social problems, such as domestic violence. Domestic violence and emotional abuse are behaviors used by one person to control the other. Victims can be of any age, sex, race, culture, and religion. Although both men and women can be abused, most victims are women. Domestic violence against women has become a social issue discussed by many Americans and it has become unacceptable, this paper will focus on the causes, effects, and solutions to domestic violence against women in the United States, and provide examples of how it has been changing through the years of 1995 to present.

Domestic violence is a single act or a pattern of cruel acts in any relationship that a partner uses to get or keep power and control over another partner. The violence can be sexual, physical, economic, emotional, or psychological actions or threats of actions that impacts another person. Any actions that manipulate, intimidate, isolate, humiliate, terrorize, frighten, threaten, coerce, hurt, blame, wound, or injure someone can be domestic violence (The United States Department of Justice).

Since the 1970’s domestic violence against women has been a huge issue in the United States. In fact, battered women flocked to safe havens within local shelters that were created to protect them and their off spring. (Stark,E. 2012). It was determined that domestic abuse had dangerously heighten during the 80’s, and special attention was essential to addressing the spike in cases. With law enforcers being on the front line, it was determined that they needed the training to spot and assess domestic cases. Unfortunately, many cases were not simply cut and dry cases. It appears that the offenders mastered tactics which masked abuse against their partners. Physical abuse that was once an obvious and domineering sign was now replaced with a new type of abuse. This abuse crippled the victim by mentally incapacitating their victims. Such tactics are known as Coercive Control. According to Stark, this type of control uses psychological and emotional tactics in order to control the victim into doing what they wanted. (Stark, E. 2012). In fact, 40- 89% of women are under coercive control in many domestic cases. Some scare tactics used attempt to isolate, degrade, exploit, and control the victim. In comparison, Stark discussed in his article “Rethinking Custody Evaluation in Cases

On Wednesday, June 10, 2015, at 4pm I visited a Jersey Battered Women ‘s Services (JBWS) located in Morris plains New Jersey that deals with violence issues. I interviewed Miss Lid, one of the agency personnel. She told me that her name is “Miss Lid for the purpose of the interview and to assure privacy “. Immediately she gave me an overview of the agency and insisted on how proud she is in helping this population because domestic violence represents a major problem in the United States as well as many other parts of the word. She described to me that the mission of JBWS is to prevent domestic violence, protects the victims, counsel them about the dynamics of domestic violence and provide information on potential

“Domestic violence is a type of abuse by one or both partners in marriage, friends, family, dating or cohabitation” (Aziz & Mahmoud, 2010). There are many forms of abuse from verbal and emotional to physical that often escalates over time in intensity for the victim. Data from the criminal justice system, hospital patient medical records and mental health records, police reports, surveys and social services reports of thousands of women revealed that many are injured and killed as a result of violence from someone close to them. “The US Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) defines domestic violence as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner regardless of race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender” (Robertson & Murachver, 2009). Researchers and the criminal justice system have not been able to agree on a clear definition to domestic violence which can range from physical injury, stalking, verbal abuse and humiliation, denial of shelter and access to money, and intimidation through aggressive behaviors. The definition of domestic violence may vary but the results from physical injury, mental and emotional trauma, and sometimes even death can last a life time.

Domestic Violence (DV) is a critical social issue that negatively impacts not only our own culture in America but as well as all other cultures around the world. Domestic Violence is a global issue reaching across national boundaries as well as socio-economic, cultural, racial and class distinctions (Kaur & Garg 2008). Domestic Violence is a serious problem that can be seen around every society from families of both developed and underdeveloped countries and of different backgrounds. Although there are various cases of domestic violence against men, children and the elderly; women account for the majority percentage of victims of Domestic Violence. This violence can take the form of physical assault, psychological abuse, financial abuse or sexual assault (Kaur & Garg 2008). Domestic Violence is a trend that is on the rise and will continue to plague our society if nothing is done on time to address this social issue.

“Only approximately one-quarter of all physical assaults, one-fifth of all rapes, and one-half of all stalkings perpetuated against females by intimate partners are reported to the police” (Tjaden). How does this happen? Anyone who sees this statistic is firstly appalled, and secondly unable to comprehend how such blatant abuse occurs without reprimand. And furthermore, someone who has studied sexuality would look at this statistic and wonder about how many men or transgender people are affected by physical assaults, rapes, and stalkings. But regardless of your response to this statistic, there is one thing that we all can agree on: domestic violence must stop now. And for us to move

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