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The Patterns And Trends Of Domestic Abuse

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Introduction The following report will analyse the patterns and trends of domestic abuse across 2011/12, 2012/13, and 2013/14 and two main explanations for its occurrence within society. The addressed explanations are; feminism, which can arguably be theoretically underpinned by conflict theory and Social Learning Theory - devised by Bandura’s in 1977 as cited by Ray (2011) – underpinned by psychological positivism (Burke, 2011).

What is Domestic Abuse?
The term domestic abuse has a range of definitions; for example, the official government definition is “any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse [psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional] between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality” (Home Office, 2012). This was later updated to include anybody over 16 years of age and coercive and controlling behaviour (Home Office and Browne, 2012; Home Office and May, 2014).
This encompasses all types of abuse, not just physical violence alongside abuse in same-gender relationships. However, this definition includes and family members, not just intimate partners.
This differs from the Oxford Dictionaries (2016) ‘domestic violence’ definition, describing this as “Violent or aggressive behaviour within the home, typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse or partner” which critically focusses on physical aspects, overlooking psychological or sexual aspects.
Henceforth this report will use

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