Domestic Violence is not a Laughing Matter
It is estimated that between 2.8 million and 5 million women are assaulted in their home by an intimate partner every year, and that women suffer 10 times as many incidents of domestic violence as do men.
The American Medical Association's Diagnostic and Treatment Guidelines on Domestic Violence state that, “Family violence usually results from the abuse of power or the domination and victimization of a physically less powerful person by a physically more powerful person.”
There are additional factors that create or maintain the “power differential”, such as inequality of financial resources (males have more income from their employment than females, women are employed in minimum wage jobs at a higher rate than men, and more women are stay at home moms and housewives due to high cost of child care), family connections, medical issues or health status, can also foster situations in which the more powerful person (91% of all abusers in America are males) exerts inappropriate control or intimidation over the less powerful person.
Any misuse of power, especially that which involves physical violence, psychological intimidation or child mistreatment as a result of spousal abuse, constitutes abuse or battering.
According to the Office of Violence Against Women at the Department of Justice, “Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone.”
Many batterers who eventually stop using physical violence substitute psychologic abuse and intimidation. Victim must understand that even in relationships in which the physical violence has ceased, a climate of fear may persist to a level where the formerly battered partner continues to comply with the requests of the dominant partner out of fear that the physical violence will resume.
Batterers are often difficult to identify because they rarely present with symptoms that suggest problems with violence; however, they may seek care for injuries received from a violent episode where the victim's attempts at self-defense result in injuries to the batterer (e.g., hand fractures, bites, lacerations, eye injuries).
The seriousness of spousal abuse and domestic violence in general, cannot be understated. Breaking the inter-generational cycle of abuse and protecting children from exposure to violence is a vital goal of the judicial process
The American Medical Association's Diagnostic and Treatment Guidelines on Domestic Violence state that, “Family violence usually results from the abuse of power or the domination and victimization of a physically less powerful person by a physically more powerful person.”
There are additional factors that create or maintain the “power differential”, such as inequality of financial resources (males have more income from their employment than females, women are employed in minimum wage jobs at a higher rate than men, and more women are stay at home moms and housewives due to high cost of child care), family connections, medical issues or health status, can also foster situations in which the more powerful person (91% of all abusers in America are males) exerts inappropriate control or intimidation over the less powerful person.
Any misuse of power, especially that which involves physical violence, psychological intimidation or child mistreatment as a result of spousal abuse, constitutes abuse or battering.
According to the Office of Violence Against Women at the Department of Justice, “Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone.”
Many batterers who eventually stop using physical violence substitute psychologic abuse and intimidation. Victim must understand that even in relationships in which the physical violence has ceased, a climate of fear may persist to a level where the formerly battered partner continues to comply with the requests of the dominant partner out of fear that the physical violence will resume.
Batterers are often difficult to identify because they rarely present with symptoms that suggest problems with violence; however, they may seek care for injuries received from a violent episode where the victim's attempts at self-defense result in injuries to the batterer (e.g., hand fractures, bites, lacerations, eye injuries).
The seriousness of spousal abuse and domestic violence in general, cannot be understated. Breaking the inter-generational cycle of abuse and protecting children from exposure to violence is a vital goal of the judicial process
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