The Women Facing Domestic Violence

Domestic abuse in the United States is a large-scale and complex social and health problem. The home is the most violent setting in America today (Lay, 1994). Sadly enough, the majority of people who are murdered are not likely killed by a stranger during a hold-up or similar crime but are killed by someone they know. Not surprisingly, the Center for Disease Control and prevention has identified interpersonal violence as a major public health problem (Velson-Friedrich, 1994). Current estimates suggest that three to four million women are the victims of physical abuse by their intimate partners (Harris & Cook, 1994). According to the FBI, some form of domestic violence occurs in half of the homes in the United States at least once a

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

Even though the pay gap hurts women, domestic violence is another harmful part of women’s lives. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), is a nonprofit organization that focuses on domestic violence in the home, society-wide violence, and factors that perpetuate violence against women and children. This organization found that, “1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have been victims of [some form of] physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime” and “Women between the ages of 18-24 are most commonly abused by an intimate partner (NCADV).” This means 33% of women have been a victim of physical violence, which is more than the men. This statistic also shows that women, starting as a senior in high school, and all

Domestic violence exists everywhere and affects all people regardless of socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, sex, ethnicity, or religion. Most times physical violence is accompanied by emotional abuse and controlling behaviors. The result of domestic violence includes physical injury, psychological issues, and death. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) occurs in 1 of 4 women in the United States and can be correlated with a loss of emotional, social, physical and mental health. Intimate Partner Violence is an issue that does not receive a lot of recognition and is overlooked majority of the time. There is a lot of information on women in intimate partner violence relationships that explains how it affects women physically, mentally, and socially.

When you look at domestic violence as a whole anyone can be affected by it. Men, women, and children. Those of different cultural groups, socioeconomic classes, and religious backgrounds. Everyone. In 2016 it was estimated that there were approximately “960,000” incidents of domestic violence in the United States (“Domestic Violence”). Of these cases “85%” of the victims were female, and “15%” of the cases involved males. (“Domestic Violence”). From these cases we see a wide variety of situations that these statistics encompass, which include: “physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse,

Domestic violence became a realization and a serious concern in the mid 1970’s for many Americans. “This realization is due to the women advocating on behalf of the battered women movement”

As the dominant discourse would suggest, female victims of domestic violence face not only the debilitating psychological and physical traumas of abuse

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.

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

Within these domestic violence occurrences between couples, women have been the instigators of 71 (Rhymes 2014) percent of nonreciprocal domestic violence acts. With such high statistics of male domestic violence, men seem almost completely ignored by the lack of abuse shelters and violence advertisement in the media compared to the amount of attention is brought towards women regarding this issue. In modern society, we often accept the idea portrayed by media that “males are naturally abusive and that females are natural targets of male abuse” (Allen and Kivel 73) as violence has become a normal occurrence in every day life, but we seldom challenge the idea that men are the only ones to be violent towards their partners. Additionally, such generalization is also an extremely heterosexual view, excluding male to male relationships in the equation. By talking to many students at my university campus about this issue, I found that most people seemed to be misinformed and undereducated about what even constitutes as domestic violence. Since the first step of action towards any issue is awareness and knowledge, it is important that society has a

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.

Theorising Violence The ongoing feminist paradigm notion believes violence is a male supported enterprise which denotes power over a woman who cannot defend herself against violent behaviour (Dutton and Nicholls, 2005). This notion believes women to be violent but mostly do so while defending themselves against violent behaviour of their partners or family member (ibid). Feminist theorists including Crenshaw, Jeffreys, Pence and Paymar, emphasise that domestic and non-domestic violence denotes a high intersectionality of power and gender inequality. Crenshaw (1991) termed violence against women as a routinely shaped concept that destabilises their lives and was just recently recognised to be a social injustice by men.

Every year in the United States, One in four women are victims of the domestic violence; however, this is only based on what has been reported to the department of justice (Stahly 2008). While men are also victims of domestic violence, women are more often the victims. Moreover, 90% of domestic violence is male initiated. In severe cases domestic violence ends with victims being murdered. More specifically, domestic violence resulted in 2,340 deaths in the United States in 2007, and 70% of those killed were females (CDC 2012). Many people think that victims have the option of leaving and many people blame victims for putting up with the abuse; what many people don 't know is, victims of domestic violence have many reasons preventing them from leaving their abusers, these reasons include, isolation, having children bounding them with the abuser and lack of financial support. "It 's never pretty when you leave an abusive and controlling relationship. The warden always protests when a prison gets shut down," says Dr. Steve Maraboli (qtd from web). Whether a victim stays or leaves their abuser, the outcomes of both situations are not always as easy as many people predict. In some situations, the outcomes of leaving may be very dangerous for both the victim and her children.

“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.

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