Essay about The Anatomy of Abuse

Anyone can be a victim, any age, sex, race, culture, religion, education, employment, marital status or sexual orientation. Women however, are more likely to become victims than men. As for the perpetrator of abuse, they have no typical manifestation. In public the abuser may appear loving and friendly towards their partner and or family. They commonly have low self-esteem, and don't like to take responsibility for their actions. So they may try to hide the abuse by inflicting injuries that will not require medical attention. Abuse may be physical, emotional, sexual, and psychological. Abusive persons are usually people who like to be in control of other people. Here this form of control is usually a behavior, which is learnt as a means to getting what they want.

Signs of abuse include, but are not limited to, controlling nature, resistant to chance, dismissive, and manipulative behavior. Melinda Smith and Jeanne Segal state that the most telling sign of abuse in the relationship is fearing the other partner (Smith and Segal, 2006). If a woman is afraid of her partner then she may be in an abusive relationship. Men that are abusing women will tear her down and make her feel like she is worth nothing and that she does not deserve any better than an abusive man. An abuser will take away control from her and make her feel worthless. Segal and Smith also state that “abusive behavior and violence is a deliberate choice made by the abuser in order to control you” (Smith and Segal, 2006). An abuser wants to make their victim afraid and they will do certain things to make sure that the victim does not leave. It is also noted that just because there are not any physical signs of abuse, such

There are many factors to consider that may contribute someone being abused, it may be there medical condition prevents them from being aware of the abuse and lack mental capacity, such as a mental illness and forms of dementia which prevent them of having any control and being isolated.

A victim’s mind does not enter into an abusive relationship the same as it, hopefully escapes. Most people are familiar with the honeymoon stage of a new relationship, the excitement, infatuation and methodical self-disclosure that most, if not all people experience and engage in. The gradualism of an abusive relationship is one critical piece of a frightening puzzle.

There are many different types of abuse and individual cases of abuse usually involve a different combination of these different types.

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.

The abuse is usually frequent enough that the victim internalizes it. This leaves the victim feeling fearful, insignificant, untrusting, emotionally needy, and unlovable. Survivors of this form of abuse have a hard time understanding why they feel so bad (Munro, K. 2001.).

There are significant signs of psychological trauma due to any kind of abuse. Children experience feelings of low self esteem and depression. Many exhibit behavioral problems including aggression towards other children. Other emotional problems include hostility, fear, humiliation and the inability to express feelings. The social impacts of physical abuse include inability to form relationships, poor social skills, poor cognitive language skills, distrust of others, over-compliance with authority figures, and tendency to solve interpersonal problems with aggression. (2008, p. 1). Verbal and physical abuse has a cumulative impact on children’s socialization. Abused children are caught in damaged relationships and are not socialized in positive, supportive way (Craig & Dunn, Ex.: 2010, p. 196). They learn defiance, manipulation and other problem behaviors that are used to escape any maltreatment. In turn they will learn to exploit, degrade and terrorize.

So what makes an abuser? The goal of the abuser is power and control over their partner. Domestic violence can affect all, but more often it is the male inflicting the harm due to their physical advantage and also their societal taught dominating role. The abuser tends to conform to the stereotypical view of the man and women. The man goes out to make the money and support the family, while women stays home to cook, clean, and look after the kids. In knowing this, it is easy to understand why leaving an abusive relationship can be so difficult for the individual being abused, as leaving involves many needed changes and few solutions to the problems.

about it. There are two articles which show how abuse by men can be sometimes overlooked if

The abusers are often known to have very low self-esteem and not take any responsibility for their behaviors; in most scenarios the abusers blame the victims for causing the violence. Abusers

Some men have feelings of lack of control and inadequacy, which causes them to lose self-esteem. They don't want to attempt anything because they feel they are going to fail. The pain and humiliation of being abused by a woman, together with the lack of response to their predicament within the public eye, causes them to continue to be abused and hide their situation (Flor, 1999).

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,

To start off, an abuser tends to frighten their victims and isolate them from all friends, family and loved ones. The reason behind isolating their victims

Abuse can have many different meanings, there is one in particular that takes control in many Americans relationship, “physical maltreatment” (Abuse). Sadly there is an increasing amount of young adults going through an abusive relationship or were in one. Many of the people that become abusers consider violence as a normal behavior because they have witnessed it on a daily basis. They than begin to mistreat everyone that comes in his or her way. An abuser is frequently interested in controlling their victims. An abuser’s behavior is usually manipulating, in order to make their victims