Domestic Violence
Culture of Domestic Violence
Domestic violence, also known as relational abuse, spousal abuse, courtship violence, or battering, is the single largest cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44 in the U.S., more than muggings, car accidents, and rapes combined. Domestic violence is a pattern of violent and coercive behaviors whereby one attempts to control the thoughts, beliefs, or behaviors of an intimate partner, or to punish the partner for resisting one’s control. Taking control over another person is gained through fear and intimidation. Domestic violence is one form of intimate partner violence (IPV). “Intimate partner violence refers to actual or threatened violent crimes committed against individuals by their current or former spouses, cohabiting partners, boyfriends, or girlfriends” (Mooney, Knox, Schacht p. 150). Domestic violence can be organized into several categories but the most common are physical abuse and emotional/psychological/verbal abuse.
Physical abuse occurs when one threatens, hits, kicks, chokes, scratches, pushes, shoves, pulls hair, slaps, punches, throws something, or uses a weapon against another. Other examples may include refusing to help someone who is injured or sick, restraining another or preventing them from leaving, abandoning someone in a dangerous place, and/or intentionally locking someone out of his or her home repeatedly. “Battering also interferes with women’s employment. Some abusers prohibit their partners from working” (Mooney, Knox, Schacht p. 151). Physical abuse is easier to detect than verbal abuse. The victim may have a black-eye, scratches, bruises, and/or broken bones. Another type of abuse is emotional/psychological/verbal abuse. More women experience emotional abuse than physical violence. Emotional abuse, similar to physical abuse, is used to control, demean, harm or punish a woman. Unlike physical abuse, there are no visible bruises. Many battered women evaluate emotional...
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