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

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.

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.

Spousal abuse of men is underestimated in today 's society. Men are perceived as ‘tough and strong ' and able to protect themselves. When a male contacts the authorities, they are not taken seriously or ridiculed for not being able to ‘handle’ their intimate partner whereas more emphasis is placed on spousal abuse of women due to the perception of them as vulnerable in society. Men often dominate woman with brutal force. Female

There is no question that intimate partner violence (IPV) directed against women is a fundamental issue. However, it is clear that a paradigm has been developed within the IPV literature which generally holds that it is gender-based; that perpetrators are "exclusively or disproportionately male" (Dutton., 2006) and that females are the sole victims. Whilst the original function of this paradigm was to generate social change "in a direction that righted an imbalance against women" (Dutton & Nicholls., 2005), the present result is a misinformation regarding the reality of IPV. It holds that male-perpetrated violence towards women “arises from patriarchal values which motivate men to seek to control women’s behaviour, using violence if necessary” (Bates, Graham-Kevan & Archer., 2013). It will be further explored in this essay how this claim, for the most part, has been rejected. In fact, a ‘gender neutral view’ of IPV has gradually emerged, beginning with the work of Strauss and colleagues around 30 years ago. Results from the 1985 National Family Violence Surveys (Straus & Gelles., 1986) in the USA showed that 12.1% of husbands were victims of their wife’s violence, prompting interest in this novel field. Thus Steinmetz (1977/78) proposed the existence of the ‘battered husband syndrome’; findings in her paper showed that the rates of violence between both sexes in an intimate relationship were “very similar”, with at one stage it being shown that the violence of wives

Societies who failed to acknowledge marital violence to be a violation of women’s human rights, blamed women who are beaten or abused by their intimate partner (Francine Pickup, 2007). Thus making them to feel guilty as they were responsible for choosing the wrong partner (HRSC, 2014). As such they choose to remain silent about their abuse and do not look for legal remedies because they believed it is their fault for being abused (HRSC, 2014). Women may accept to be victimized by men’s violence because they have continuously witnessed their mother, and other female relatives assuming this role. Many women also concealed their abused because they feared stigmatization, rejection and social exile by their families and communities until their

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

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,

Physical, Psychological and Sexual abuse has been presented in multiple settings as harmful and dangerous. When these things happen, unfortunately the victim is largely blamed and asked questions based on if they meant for what happened to them, as a direct action to inflict pain towards themselves. As is true, multiple cases of the described forms of abuse are reported almost half of the cases are dropped due to the withdraw from victims. Withdrawal due to fear and issues of life or death; they no longer wish to press charges. From my sources in the “Psychiatric Times”; they explained that gender violence is fostered by the socialization of men”. Meaning that is stemmed from

Domestic violence has been a main issue throughout history and all over the world; it can evidentially affect children, the elderly, women, and even men. Although abuse can affect many individuals, a significant portion of domestic abuse cases are against women. Globally, women are constantly facing physical, social and mental abuse by men and/or their significant others. In past years, the issue of domestic violence has gained the attention of researchers. In fact, studies have shown that it is a global issue negatively impacting the social and health status of individuals, particularly women. A survey of domestic abuse in Canada signifies that 29% of married women have been abused by their partners at least once (Nwosu, 2006). Many argue

Research has continuously shown that men are the primary perpetrators of violence and women being the victims which has led to increased awareness of the effects of Domestic violence on women. However, what researchers have failed to acknowledge is that women too can be perpetrators of violence and abuse against their partners and children (World Health Organisation, 2012).

Radford and Heister (2006:7) define domestic violence as the coercive control of an adult by an intimate partner, involving physical, sexual, emotional, psychological or financial abuse. Domestic violence against women is a global problem without geographic, religious, social, economic, cultural or national boundaries (Women’s Aid, 2005). According to Chitashvili et al (2010) violence against women is seen as a social problem with detrimental effects on the health and well-being of the victim and the people around. Women who are victims of domestic violence are deprived of their right to participate in societal life and are held prisoners under special conditions put by the immediate social setting such as family, social norms and values shared by the majority (Karanja, 2003). According to Harne and Radford (2008) domestic violence before the 20th century was an acceptable social order in male dominant cultures, approved and justified in their customs and traditions but today feminists movements are fighting for the rights of women and have managed to bring the issue of domestic violence into the public domain. .

Gender-based discrimination and social norms are the most common causes of violence against women. Theoretically, these societal norms that have been in grated to us since childhood lead us to believe that the male gender has the right to do whatever they want while at the same time restrict the female gender from doing the same or condemn or punish them if they fail to obey such stigmas. So far, efforts have only focused on responses and services for survivors; given the devastating effect violence has on women. Preventing the violence from happening in the first place by addressing its root and structural causes is the best way to end violence against women and girls.

According to recent statistics, nearly 5.3 million incidents of intimate partner violence occur a month (Lecture notes). The rising statistics and personal stories of battered women stuck in abusive relationships is disquieting. The documentary brings to light the prevalence and effects of domestic violence that occurs behind closed doors. Intimate partner violence is defined as, “threatened or actual use of physical or sexual force and or psychological and emotional abuse against an intimate partner” (Lecture notes). Research has found that females between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rates of intimate partner violence (Lecture notes). The documentary demonstrates numerous devastating cases in which women are severely beaten,