What is violence?Â
According to Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) U.S. Department of Justices "Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner. Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, psychological, or technological actions or threats of actions or other patterns of coercive behavior that influence another person within an intimate partner relationship. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone."
Domestic violence is one of the increasing public health concerns that affect all people. However, the most vulnerable population of this health concern is women and children. The prevalence domestic violence in the world is estimated by the World Health Organization as follows:-
Complete intimate partner violence range of 20% in the Western Pacific,
22% in high-income countries, and
Europe 25%
World Health Organization regional
Thee Americas to 33%
African region 31%
Western Mediterranean area 33%
However, these data reports are only those collected by the World Health Organization. Unfortunately, domestic violence could be an under-covered crime. Most victims cannot say enough to the criminal investigators ; the incidence will cause additional risk. Criminals could be family members, governing officials, or influential individuals who will have power over the victim to make the problem even more complicated. Simultaneously, economic difficulty in initiating the crime investigation and its character of systemic application of the violence the women and children will always be the target of the crime. The main reason this article focused on domestic violence against women and children is that their vulnerability and prevalence ranges higher than others.Â
Intimate partner violence is on the rise in the United States, and this month is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Stephanie Moses, Ph.D. talks about what this looks like in the U.S. and how this effects women. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.Moses, Ph.D. talks about what this looks like in the U.S. and how this efects women.
What are the main characteristics of domestic violence?Â
Domestic violence could be systematic, which means it will hide the violence from the public view and be hard to investigate; when domestic violence is associated with a family member or caregiver, the issue will create fear, normalization of abuse, and shame. Also, Intimidation, low self-esteem, lack of resources, disability, immigration status, cultural context, children, and love for the partner are some of the issues that make an investigation and reporting brutal (National Domestic Violence Hotline, 2020). Each of these elements will be a crucial factor that helps the criminal could hide from justice. Most of the time, the fear of financial dependency is the victim of the violence due to their childcare and economic dependence on the child's father. The fear of filing a charge against the criminal covered as the investigation could lead the violent to a jail sentence or imprisonment. The spouse of the child-mother develops a fear of separation and economic difficulty to take care of her family. Therefore, giving up the report against violence will hide the crime.Â
The character of a criminal. Based on the circumstance of an issue, the criminal will not stop violating others' rights. When we look up domestic violence related to family group intimidation, the dominant group will be continuous with its character as the subordinate weakens himself to normalize the issue—developed this character due to fear and dependency. In some cultures, women are inferior to men, who will limit their rights based on the cultural description. For example, childcare is solely the responsibility of women as a universal norm during the child's growth period. The men will take the dominant character without support. Due to the financial obligation falling on the man's side, he will take that as a guarantee for his spouse's inferiority, which the spouse also takes the option as the last chance to survive. On the other hand, the man could be married to other women anytime, even in a relationship in which the option is limited for women. The separation after marriage and children is more challenging for women than men; these norms make women fail to report abusive relationships.