Domestic Violence Essay Research Paper Violence in

Domestic Violence Essay, Research Paper

Violence in an intimate relationship is often referred to as domestic violence. It is not only wife/husband abuse but also includes sibling, elder, and child abuse. My essay will discuss spouse abuse and why there are such high rates of it in our society.

Domestic violence has many names. Some include family violence, battering, wife beating, and domestic abuse. All these terms refer to the same thing, which is abuse by a marital, common law, or a dating partner in an intimate relationship. Domestic violence however is not limited to physical beatings. It is any behavior that is intended to subjugate and control another human being through the use of some sort of abuse which can include humiliation, fear, physical or verbal assaults, and financial abuse. Domestic violence is very important issue in today’s society because it has such a profound negative affect on the abused, mentally and physically. Even though reports of abuse have skyrocketed in the last twenty years, not enough is being done to protect the abused and prevent further abuse. Although the advent of programs such as victim s surveys can more accurately define the scope of the problem, we are still a long way from the defeat of this appalling facet of society.

The history of intimate violence is a long one. Since the time of an established society, the dominant people have used physical force to keep subordinate groups in their place. Males have typically always been physically larger than females and since most societies are patriarchal, it is really no surprise that women have almost always been the victims. In Roman times, a man was allowed to divorce, chastise, or even kill his wife for adultery, attending public games, or public drunkenness. All of which the man was allowed to freely partake in. During the Middle Ages it was mans right to beat or kill his wife for so little as giving her husband a dirty look. The first recorded advocate against domestic violence was a French woman named Mary Wollstonecraft. Wollstonecraft s famous paper A Vindication of the Rights of Women was published in 1792 and was a devastating critique of the ‘false system of education’ which she argues forced the middle-class women of her time to live within a stifling ideal of femininity. Even though she pushed for society to realize the injustice that occurred almost everyday, no action was taken until the 1840’s when the American women’s movement brought up the issue while fighting for the right to vote. No U.S. State actually passed a law making wife beating illegal until 1883 and even though a few laws were passed to make it illegal, none of them were strictly enforced. Even up until the 1970’s, wife beating was still fairly acceptable. The police would attend calls of domestic violence but would leave issues to be resolved by the family. This ease and lack of enforcement allowed for the continuation of the abuse and further harassment. The 1970’s became a period of protest and change for the women’s rights movement. By the 1980’s major changes started to take place. Police no longer ignored calls of domestic violence and more people were being convicted and punished for the crime of domestic assault and battery. The effects of domestic violence are still seen today in our culture. The Expression “rule of thumb” comes from English Common Law which states that a man could beat his wife with any reasonable instrument as long as it was no thicker that his thumb.

Finding the reasons and causes of domestic violence can be difficult. Usually, violent tendencies stem from witnessing violence or being acted upon violently as a child or from a chemical imbalance in the brain. It is quite arduous to pin point the one or two factors as to why one chooses to engage in domestic violence but it usually begins with a lack of self confidence and in the absence of being able to control their own life, they try to control someone else s. The violence can begin with verbal insults and degradation. It escalates into constant suspicion and controlling behavior and finally to physical violence. The abuser does not abuse once or twice but rather over a lifetime and they usually have a case history. There are many different stressors and factors that trigger these inherent abusers to begin the abuse. They often stem from monetary or drug problems but can also include unemployment, different religious backgrounds, low-income levels, lower education levels, and sometimes just a disagreement triggers a drubbing. None of these factors are meant to be excuses. Rather they are factors that come up in domestic violence cases time and time again.

When domestic violence occurs there is several different types of abuse that take place. The first is physical violence. Physical violence includes slapping, kicking, burning, punching, choking, locking a person out of the home, restraining, and other acts designed to injure, endanger, or cause physical pain. The second type is emotional abuse which consists of consistently doing or saying things to shame, insult, ridicule, embarrass, demean, belittle, or mentally hurt another person. The third type is sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is when someone is forced to partake in sexual activities against their will. This can include but is not limited to molestation, pornography, mutilation, and rape. Just because a couple is married or has been seeing each