Victimization can occur directly and indirectly to an individual. The book, Transcending is full of stories of people who have been directly and indirectly victimized. Janet Bakke’s story is an example of direct victimization. Janet was the target of abuse. As a child her biological father mentally and physically abused Janet.
Nowadays domestic violence can happen to anyone, regardless of race, sexual orientation, income, gender, or ethnicity. Currently 3 million victims of physical assaults in the USA are men (Domestic Violence: Statistics & Facts, 2015). One in four women will be exposed to domestic violence during her lifetime (Domestic Violence: Statistics & Facts, 2015). Women between 20 years old to 24 years old are more likely to experience domestic violence (Domestic Violence: Statistics & Facts, 2015). Around 4 million women experience rape and physical assaults by their partners (Domestic Violence: Statistics & Facts, 2015).
One out of three women in the U.S. will be abused. These women are most likely abused in a relationship with their significant other. The abuse can be verbal, physical, or mental. After building a life with someone for so long it’s quite often hard for these women to leave the abusive relationship. According to Psychology Today, women stay in abusive relationships because they are trapped in dependency, lack funds and need support systems.
It is estimated that 1 out of every three relationships has abusive behaviors, including harassing phone calls, texts or IMs isolation from friends or family, physical violence or sexual abuse, put downs and other forms of emotional abuse. The violence stems from a need for one person in the relationship to have power and control over the other person. This is the same dynamic in domestic violence relationships. The relationship starts in a whirlwind. Often the abusive partner comes on strongly and quickly giving the partner lots of attention.
Institutional violence goes beyond violence towards women, however, a majority of the institutionalized violence happens towards women. Media, sports culture and pornography all multi-billion dollar industries have the potential to lead individuals to commit violence acts towards women. The media with regards to advertisements and commercials, present women in an objectifying manner and sometimes contain words that may hint at sexual mindset. Athletes are taught to be tough, however that mindset does not always stay on the field. Some athletes that have the potential to continue professionally attract a lot of attention from fellow classmates and fans all around the country.
Spousal Abuse People often turn away from issues that do not affect them, but this only lets the issue grow further until there is nothing left to do but deal with it. This could be why domestic violence has been taking place for centuries now. One issue that comes with domestic violence is spousal abuse- a problem that only seems to be getting worse, with ten million victims being beaten by an intimate partner each year (“Domestic Violence”). Although spousal abuse seems to be an ongoing issue in the United States, efforts are being made at both national and local levels to suppress the violence.
Being a Native American woman who has observed domestic violence as a child and became a victim as a wife, later on, I feel that it has unfortunately given me a deeper perspective of what domestic violence victims endure. Make no mistake, while Domestic Violence has
The state of knowledge surrounding immigrant and domestic violence is plentiful and offers many narratives as to why women endure these toxic relationships, but do not explore ways to aid these women and create safer lives. “Latinas experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) often avoid formal resources due to fear, distrust, and cultural and language barriers, yet little research addresses culturally appropriate interventions for abused Latinas” (Bloom et al., 2009, p. 244). Families are mentioned as being support systems and important in the Latino community, but also enablers of remaining in relationships where domestic violence is present. There are still plenty of other reasons Mexican immigrant women endure these types of relationships and exploring other systems in their lives would be appropriate to continue
Based off of this notion, both domestic violence and honor based violence are considered to be “gendered” issues (Standish, 2014). Society never envisions a woman hitting a man, and it never causes nearly as much outcry as when the roles are reversed. While we never imagine those situations to exist, there is truth in that men can also be victimized. With both honor based, as well as domestic violence, there is a minority, which includes underreported male victimization, with less than 1% reporting assaults to the NCVS (Muller, Desmarais, & Hamel, 2009). Part of the reasoning behind its underreporting is there is this fear of not being believed by society, because of an established patriarchal mindset (Muller et al., 2009; Reddy, 2008).
Control Strategies Police Response The police response to Intimate Partner Violence has changed since the 1980s according to Gottesman, & Brown (1999). In the past, domestic violence was viewed as a household matter, rather than a serious criminal one. Previously, when a police officer was taking a domestic violence call, he would simply tell the couple to work it out, only using arrest in really extreme cases. Traditionally, domestic violence calls were not considered high priority calls.
The Good and the Bad Victims of domestic violence are not at fault for the abuse that is inflicted upon them. A lot of people ask why the victim stayed in the first place, but in some cases the answer is not always so simple. According to Why Do Abuse Victims Stay, “We often put ourselves in the place of the victims and imagine ourselves leaving at the first signs of abuse. But breaking free of abuse is not simply a matter of walking out the door. Leaving is a process.”
It affects men and women especially women, old and young, heterosexual couples and homosexual couples alike. It may start almost immediately, or only after several years of being in a relationship. Though both victims and perpetrators of abuse come from all backgrounds, the shock, pain, confusion, feelings of guilt and betrayal of trust experienced as a result of being subject to domestic violence is common to all. Many sufferers of domestic violence do not speak out about what is happening at home, but suffer in silence, often for years. They may try to deny it to themselves, not wanting to admit to the reality of the abuse; they may feel shame about the abuse, as though it were their fault.
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence defines domestic violence as, “the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior perpetrated by an intimate partner against another.”(NCADV 2015) Although there have been plenty of studies on domestic violence from a literary standpoint, domestic violence affects people in every community, despite of their age, race, religion, economic status, even their educational background. Domestic violence, which is often accompanied by emotional abuse and/or controlling behavior, is part of an organized pattern to have control and dominance over the victim. Consequences associated with domestic violence can vary from physical injury, psychological trauma,
Although witnessing domestic violence may be traumatic, each child reacts differently due to several factors, such as child’s age and gender, lifetime exposure -- frequency of abuse and severity, type of exposures and protective buffers that include female gender, intellectual ability, high socioeconomic status and social support. Nonetheless, the effects on children can be short-term, long-term, or both, and can manifest on an emotional, physical, social and behavioral levels and differs by age and developmental stage. “Witnessing domestic violence is the single best predictor of juvenile delinquency and adult criminality. It is also the number one reason children run away.” – Domestic Violence
Universally, domestic violence is referred to abusive behavior that is used by the intimate partner to control or power over the other intimate power. This can be in the forms of psychological, sexual, economic or emotional threats or actions that will influence your partner (Kindschi,2013).Domestic violence studies provides that psychopathology, which happens when in violent environment in child development can make the argument of domestic violence progress of being a generational legacy (Kindschi,2013).I chose to write about the Feminist Theory to explain why people commit domestic violence. It believes that the root causes of domestic violence is the outcome of living in a society that condones aggressive behavior by men, while women
