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Definition
Domestic violence occurs when a family member, partner or ex-partner
attempts to physically or psychologically dominate another. Domestic violence
occurs in all cultures; people of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexes and
classes can be perpetrators of domestic violence.
Violence can be criminal and includes physical assault (hitting, pushing,
shoving, etc.), sexual abuse (unwanted or forced sexual activity), and stalking.
Although emotional, psychological and financial abuse are not criminal
behaviors in some legal systems, they are forms of abuse and can lead to
criminal violence.
Recent attention to domestic violence began in thewomen’s movement,
particularly feminism and women’s rights, in the 1970s, as concern about wives
being beaten by their husbands gained attention. Estimates are that only about
a third of cases of domestic violence are actually reported in the United States
and the United Kingdom. According to the centers for desease control,
domestic violence is a serious, preventable public health problem affecting
more than 32 million Americans, or more than 10% of the U.S. population and the
Number of murders of women from Spain in 2003-2009 are 315.
Forms of abuse
• Physical violence
• Sexual violence
• Emotional abuse
• Economic abuse
• Stalking
Physical violence
Physical violence is the intentional
use of physical force with the
potential for causing injury, harm,
disability, or death, for example,
hitting, shoving, biting, restraint,
kicking, or use of a weapon.
Sexual violence
Sexual violence is divided into three
categories:
1. use of physical force to compel a
person to engage in a sexual act
against his or her will.
2. attempted or completed sex act
involving a person who is unable
to understand the nature or
condition of the act.
3. abusive sexual contact.
Emotional abuse
Emotional abuse can include
humiliating the victim privately or
publicly, controlling what the victim
can and cannot do, withholding
information from the victim,
deliberately doing something to make
the victim feel diminished or
embarrassed, isolating the victim from
friends and family, implicitly
blackmailing the victim by harming
others when the victim expresses
independence or happiness, or
denying the victim access to money or
other basic resources and necessities.
Economic abuse
Economic abuse is when the abuser
has complete control over the
victim's money and other economic
resources.
Stalking
Stalking generally refers to
repeated behaviour that causes
victims to feel a high level of
fear.
Domestic violence occurs across the world, in various cultures, and affects people
across society, irrespective of economic status. For example:
Barbados (30%)
Canada (29%)
Egypt (34%)
New Zealand (35%)
Switzerland (21%)
United States (22%)
Some surveys in specific places report figures as high as 50-70% of women surveyed
who were ever physically assaulted by an intimate partner.
Another controversy is the level
of physical aggression in
relationships of men versus
women. For example, Martin S.
Fiebert examined 219 studies on
intimate partner violence and
concluded that "women are as
physically aggressive, or more
aggressive, than men in their
relationships with their spouses
or male partners".