Should Women Abuse Be A Worldwide Public Health Problem? Essay

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

Throughout history, women have continuously found themselves as the subjects of oppression. Although the treatment of women has drastically changed over time, women are still exposed to much of the violence that exists today. Per the National Organization for Women, “young women, low-income women and some minorities are disproportionately victims of domestic violence and rape” (National Organization for Women, 2016). Women-centered violence is highly prevalent and reoccurring all over the world, even in our local communities. Individuals may be hesitant to consider just how much violence against women affects their communities.

The article constructs domestic violence as an issue of gender, race and socioeconomic status. Women are identified as the “majority” of victims (Taylor 2014). Consequently, the article conceptually represents domestic violence as events of intimate terrorism where one partner violently terrorizes the other partner to gain complete control over the relationship, which is entirely perpetrated by men (Johnson 2012). With that said, Johnson (2012) points out that majority of domestic violence is situational couple violence, where both the man and the

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.

Within the first section, Stanko addresses four violent crimes that are exerted by men– incest, rape, wife battering and sexual harassment. Stanko draws comparisons between victimised women in Great Britain and in the United States. Additionally, she refers to women of different ages, different financial standings and different ethnicities concluding that “no woman is immune from men’s intimidating, threatening or violent behaviour” (p.1). However, she makes the distinction that the violence women encounter may differentiate based on factors such as ethnicity, class, religion or age. However, Stanko outlines that sexual intrusions are a commonality and are a feature of every woman’s life “the sexually harassing comments, the slap on the face, the grab on the street” (p.1) are familiar acts. This is reflected in the work of Rhode (2014) who as a contemporary criminologist makes an extensive explanation of how male violence is still a common occurrence as stated; “the

Cindy L. Seaman, Linda J. Rubin, and Sally D. Stabb, all affiliated with Texas Woman’s University, composed the article: Women Domestic Violence Offenders: Lessons of Violence and Survival 2007. In result of the growing problem of women that are more frequently being arrested for assaulting their partners, the need for exploration and research to investigate this phenomenon, along with women’s motivations for current violence, was necessary. The author’s purpose and intent of the article was to highlight current intervention methods of domestic abuse and causation of why women choose to assault. By exploring this epidemic, perhaps treatment intervention methods could be discovered and implemented. In the introduction Seaman, Rubin, and Stabb brought necessary insight to the controversy over family conflict studies opposed to crime studies. The inconsistency with both reports is crucial when looking at women in relation to domestic abuse. This is because data conflicts. Family studies show an increase in both men and women abusers; claiming women abuse just as frequent as men. However, in crime studies and police statistics, reports indicate a much lower assault rate for women. Therefore, the authors chose a qualitative study, in hopes to discover why such data conflicts and to shed light on, perhaps, two different concepts altogether. The idea that couple-conflict is different from the idea of patriarchal terrorism, committed by

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.

Our culture refuses to hold women equally accountable as men for their participation in Domestic Violence. Women’s behavior whether perpetrator or victim, is understood and passed off as socialization or poor economic status. On the other hand men are held fully accountable for all of their behavior. “Despite the tough guy stereotype all boys are encouraged to embody and the abuse many bear as a normal

Domestic violence used to be considered a private family matter and was not considered a societal problem until feminists in the 70's started pushing the matter. Beginning in the 1970’s, social policy toward female victims of domestic assaults focused on improving legal response and

In relation to this, domestic violence is a major issue. It is a controversial subject at hand in today’s society and many people are affected, whether it is public or privately known. This type of family violence is complex and many people ask why it is so violent and why it is considered violent. To respond to these questions, an article was released on countries that outlaw domestic violence. This article stated that “in recent years, sexual harassment has been publicly acknowledged as harmful to women, and countries are taking the first steps by adopting legislation prohibiting it” (www.unicef.org). Because of many speculations and confusion, domestic violence is categorized into specific offences: marital rape is a criminal offence and sexual harassment laws. “[The] laws that criminalize gender-based violence are positive steps but they offer not guarantees. Worldwide, even where laws are in place, prosecution of perpetrators is rare, and successful prosecutions uncommon” (www.unicef.org). Although these laws are passed and enforced in many countries around the world, violence still occurs and women are still being violated and abused, whether it is publically or privately, in a family relationship.

According to statistics found by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Every nine seconds a woman is abused by her husband or intimate partner. At least 1 in every 4 women and 1 in every 9 men have been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in their lifetime. Most often the abuser is one of their own family. Domestic violence is a problem that somehow affects every one of us in this room at some time and is actually the leading cause of injury to women -- more than car accidents, muggings and rapes combined.

Domestic Violence is a human tragedy, and has been a part of life for many individuals. It is not subjective to a particular group, race, or culture. Historically, the feminist movement preserved the theory that domestic violence is a growing matter because of the continuous power differential between the male gender and the female gender. Remarkably, this approach on domestic disputes unveiled the inner workings of barriers men, women, and children would face when in a domestic violence situation. The feminist theory emphasizes on studying “the gendered nature of all relationships…which aims at understanding how gender is related to social inequalities and oppression” (Marsigila & Kulis, 2015, p. 148). Disastrously, an ignorant notion that once dominated our culture was the belief that emotional agony was less painful than physical brutality. However,

These acts provide the social context, in which a broader system of domination has been established, affecting women nationally and globally(McCue, 2008; Lockhart, Danis, 2010; Crenshaw 1994). On the other hand, the remaining 15 percent of the cases mentioned above, includes heterosexual intimate relationships, in which women are abusers and men their victims, as well as gay relationships (McCue, 2008). The numbers presented above illustrate the great debate in research on domestic, and more specifically intimate partner, violence. The debate is about gender and domestic abuse, as many researchers blames public opinion for taking into account only the one side of the domestic violence equation(Johnson, 2008; Cook, 2009).

“Every year in the United States there are over 3 million incidents of domestic violence. That means that every nine seconds a women is beaten by her domestic partner” (Findeley). There are many women that stay silent when being abuse by their partners. The consequences of staying quiet when obtaining abuse can be dangerous and can also lead to death. Many women do not recognize the importance of the fact that there is in speaking out if they are being abuse by their partner. No woman should take domestic abuse by their partners. Every woman deserves a healthy relationship; A healthy relationship involves trust, respect, and consideration for the other person. Domestic abuse has gotten worse during the past years and is still rising up. One can see that domestic abuse can occur everywhere. Domestic abuse is considered a crime and woman should not keep silent when being abuse.

Violence against women is common across culture, religion, class and ethnicity. Ironically, the most prevalent form of violence against women worldwide is intimate partner violence or violence caused by a person the woman has known her intimate relationship (Sarkar, 2010). It’s also striking to acknowledge that as many as 38% of murders of women (femicide) are caused by the women’s intimate partner in any corner of the world (Scharff Peterson & Schroeder, 2017).