Domestic Violence

Although domestic violence includes sibling abuse and elder abuse, and child abuse the

focus 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 a

marital, common law, or a dating partner in an intimate relationship. Domestic violence is not

limited to physical beatings. It is any behaviour that is intended to subjugate and control another

human being through the use of humiliation, fear, and physical or verbal assaults. Domestic

violence is very important issue in today's society because it has such a profound negative affect

on the abused, mentally and physically, and more needs to be done to help the abused and

prevent it from happening further. Even though Domestic violence can be caused by either the

male or the female it is usually caused by the male due to their controlling nature and physical

advantage.

History and Causes

Since the dawn of time physical force has been used to keep subordinate groups in their place by

dominant 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 most

common victim. 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 husband was

allowed to freely partake in. During the middle ages it was mans right to beat his wife or kill her

for so much as giving her husband a dirty look. The first recorded advocates against domestic

violence were two author by names of Christian Pizan and Mary Wollstonecraft. Even though

the issue was being publicized, no action was ever taken until the 1840's when the American

women's movement brought up the issue while fighting for the right to vote. No state in the U.S

actually passed a law making wife beating illegal until 1883.

Finding the reasons or causes of domestic violence is a very difficult. There is never one reason

for domestic violence but it usually begins with a controlling nature and the need the need to

control one's spouse. It begins with verbal insults and degradation then over time escalates into

physical 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 that

cause 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 simply

different points of view.. None of these factors are not meant to be excuses, they are simply

factors that come up in domestic violence cases time and time again.

Types of Abuse/Psychology of domestic violence

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 have sex when

he/she does not want to. Forcing someone to engage in sexual acts that he/she does not like or

finds unpleasant, frightening, or violent. Because some one is married to or has been seeing their

partner for a long time does not require that their must have sexual intercourse with them. No

one type of abuse is worse than another and they all have very emotionally damaging effects

When it comes to domestic violence the most perplexing question is why ? Most people in

today's society agree that domestic violence is wrong and think that it should be stopped. We

know 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 not

go away. The first reason is the cycle of violence which can be very hard to break. First tension

builds due to stress. The abuser becomes critical, edgy and irritable. The abuser gradually

becomes more abusive and more severe incidents of abuse start to occur. Both parties can sense

the