What Is Domestic Violence?

Topic: Domestic violence

What is domestic violence?

Domestic violence include sex abuse and intentionally or unintentionally use of physical force such as slapping, hitting and causing other injuries to your partner, children, friends, etc. A psychologist and law school professor, Mary Ann Dutton, who is an expert in domestic violence described it as "a pattern of behavior in which one intimate partner uses physical violence, coercion, threats, intimidation, isolation and emotional, sexual or economic abuse to control and change the behavior of the other partner." (Taken from an article in www.womenslaw.org, by Valerie Despres)

These are actions considered as domestic violence:

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE is a pattern of abusive behavior which keeps one partner in a position of power over the other partner through the use of fear, intimidation and control.

PHYSICAL ABUSE: Grabbing, pinching, shoving, slapping, hitting, hair pulling, biting, etc. Denying medical care or forcing alcohol and/or drug use.

SEXUAL ABUSE: Coercing or attempting to coerce any sexual contact without consent, e.g., marital rape, forcing sex after physical beating, attacks on sexual parts of the body or treating another in a sexually demeaning manner.

ECONOMIC ABUSE: Making or attempting to make a person financially dependent, e.g., maintaining total control over financial resources, withholding access to money, forbidding attendance at school or employment.

EMOTIONAL ABUSE: Undermining a person's sense of self-worth, e.g., constant criticism, belittling one's abilities, name calling, damaging a partner's relationship with the children.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE: Causing fear by intimidation, threatening physical harm to self, partner or children, destruction of pets and property, mind games or forcing isolation from friends, family, school and/or work. (Source from womenslaw.org)

What are the causes of domestic violence?

There are many factors that lead people to use violence. They use violence when they are stressed, angry, feeling hatred, drink too much alcohol, use drug. Children are more likely to grow up as violent men if they are influenced by their parents, brothers, sisters and friends, all of whom use violence.

Culture plays an important role in domestic violence. For example in Asian culture or Asian American, parents usually hit their children when the children make mistakes or do not obey the parents’ orders.

Men are much more likely to use violence than women. In the USA, women are the victims of violence at rate of 5 times more than men. “About 95% of victims of domestic violence are women. Over 50% of all women will experience physical violence in an intimate relationship, and for 24-30% of those women, the battering will be regular and on-going.” (Taken from Valerie Despres’s article)

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