Domestic Violence Essay Research Paper Although domestic

Domestic Violence Essay, Research Paper

Although domestic violence includes sibling abuse and elder abuse, and child abuse thefocus of my essay is on spouse abuse. Domestic violence has many names; family violence,battering, wife beating, and domestic abuse. All these terms refer to the same thing, abuse by amarital, common law, or a dating partner in an intimate relationship. Domestic violence is notlimited to physical beatings. It is any behaviour that is intended to subjugate and control anotherhuman being through the use of humiliation, fear, and physical or verbal assaults. Domesticviolence is very important issue in today’s society because it has such a profound negative affecton the abused, mentally and physically, and more needs to be done to help the abused andprevent it from happening further. Even though Domestic violence can be caused by either themale or the female it is usually caused by the male due to their controlling nature and physicaladvantage.History and CausesSince the dawn of time physical force has been used to keep subordinate groups in their place bydominant people in society. Men have always been physically larger than women and since most societies are male dominated, too no surprise the woman has almost always been the mostcommon victim. In Roman times, a man was allowed to divorce, chastise, or even kill his wifefor adultery, attending public games, or public drunkenness. All of which the husband wasallowed to freely partake in. During the middle ages it was mans right to beat his wife or kill herfor so much as giving her husband a dirty look. The first recorded advocates against domesticviolence were two author by names of Christian Pizan and Mary Wollstonecraft. Even thoughthe issue was being publicized, no action was ever taken until the 1840’s when the Americanwomen’s movement brought up the issue while fighting for the right to vote. No state in the U.Sactually passed a law making wife beating illegal until 1883. Although laws were passed tomake it illegal, none were strictly enforced. Even up until the 1970’s, wife beating was still fairlyacceptable. The police most often would attend calls of domestic violence but would leavethings to be resolved by the family. This ease and lack of enforcement allowed for thecontinuation of the abuse. The 70’s became a period of protest and change for the women’srights movement. By the 1980’s major changes started to take place. Police no longer ignoredcalls of domestic violence and more people were being convicted and punished for crimes ofdomestic violence. The acceptance of domestic violence is still seen today. It’s acceptance isreflected in popular culture through the expression “rule of thumb” which comes from and oldEnglish rule that a man could beat his wife with any reasonable instrument as long as it was nothicker that his thumb. Even in today’s society domestic violence is still very common and moreneeds to be done to stop it.Finding the reasons or causes of domestic violence is a very difficult. There is never one reasonfor domestic violence but it usually begins with a controlling nature and the need the need tocontrol one’s spouse. It begins with verbal insults and degradation then over time escalates intophysical violence. The abuser has usually been involved in domestic violence case’s before.More than likely during child hood. There is usually many different stressors and factors thatcause these inherent or learned abusers to begin the abuse; unemployment, drugs and alcohol,different religious back rounds, low income levels, and lower education levels and simplydifferent points of view.. None of these factors are not meant to be excuses, they are simplyfactors that come up in domestic violence cases time and time again.Types of Abuse/Psychology of domestic violenceWhen domestic violence occurs there is several different types of abuse that take place. The firstis 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, orcause physical pain. The second type is emotional abuse which consists of consistently doing orsaying things to shame , insult, ridicule, embarrass, demean, belittle, or mentally hurt anotherperson. The third type is sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is when someone is forced to have sex whenhe/she does not want to. Forcing someone to engage in sexual acts that he/she does not like orfinds unpleasant, frightening, or violent. Because some one is married to or has been seeing theirpartner for a long time does not require that their must have sexual intercourse with them. Noone type of abuse is worse than another and they all have very emotionally damaging effectsWhen it comes to domestic violence the most perplexing question is why . Most people intoday’s society agree that domestic violence is wrong and think that it should be stopped. Weknow that it is dangerous and emotionally destructive for children to grow up in a violent home.We know that it is very emotionally destructive to the abused. Most societies have condemned it,we praise the efforts to help the abused and stop the violence but we still wonder why it does notgo away. The first reason is the cycle of violence which can be very hard to break. First tensionbuilds due to stress. The abuser becomes critical, edgy and irritable. The abuser graduallybecomes more abusive and more severe incidents of abuse s