What Are the Types of Domestic Abuse?

What is Domestic Abuse?

There are several ways to describe the problem: “domestic abuse”, “family” or “partner”. The phrase itself implies that this violence occurs between people in personal relationships – spouses or partners, sometimes former and not necessarily living together, regardless of whether it is a heterosexual couple or homosexual. 

It is very important to distinguish between family conflict, which is one-off in nature, and partner violence – regularly recurring or more frequent incidents that follow a certain pattern. 

Conflict, no matter how cute it may be, turns into the category of domestic violence only when it follows the same pattern at least twice. The fundamental difference is that a family conflict is of local isolated nature and arises on the basis of a specific problem that can theoretically be resolved, for example, with the help of a psychologist or lawyer. Simply put, the conflict has a beginning and an end. 

Partner violence is a system of the behavior of one family member towards another, based on power and control. It has no specific reason, except that one of the partners seeks to control the behavior and feelings of the other and suppress him as a person at different levels.

What Types of Domestic Abuse Are There?

In society, domestic violence is usually understood as primarily 

PHYSICAL violence also assaults. Indeed, this is one of the most widespread types of domestic abuse: according to the ANNA crisis center, every third Russian woman is beaten by her husband or partner. Physical violence includes not only beatings but also restraint, strangulation, burns, and other methods of causing bodily harm, up to and including murder. However, there are other types of domestic abuse: sexual, psychological, and economic.

SEXUAL violence is coercion into sexual acts through force, blackmail or threats. According to research conducted in Russia in 1996 and 2000, approximately one in four Russian women are forced into sexual relations against their will by their husbands. This is directly related to the idea of ​​sex as a “marital duty” that a woman must perform regardless of her desire, and the general idea of ​​the dynamics of sexual relations in which a woman “gives” and a man “takes”. 

PSYCHOLOGICAL violence is systematic insults, blackmail, threats, manipulation. It is a subset of violence involving children, from using children as hostages to threatening to harm children if the partner does not obey. 

ECONOMIC– this is the deprivation of one of the partners of financial freedom, from withholding income to situations in which one partner completely takes the salary of the other and does not allow him to participate in making financial decisions. 

The problem is that it is possible to prove physical or sexual violence and they are crimes, but economic and psychological ones are not. It is not uncommon for one of the partners to use all types of violence at the same time.

Why Is It Believed That Women Are Mostly Affected by Domestic Violence?

The types of violence that can be identified (i.e., physical and sexual) are predominantly affected by women. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for 2013, women make up 91.6% of victims of violent crimes in relation to their spouses. 

Among victims of violence by spouses or partners, the number of women exceeds the number of men by about 9 times. Women suffer 8 times more grievous bodily and other harm from their partners than men. 

Male violence most often has a practical purpose or is expressive (expressing emotions). Women are more likely to resort to physical violence when they feel cornered and desperate to prevent further abuse.  

Is There a Link Between Domestic Violence & The Financial & Social Level Of The Family?

There is an opinion that only dysfunctional families are susceptible to domestic abuse, while wealthy and educated couples do not have such a problem. This is not true. According to a study conducted by the Women’s Council of Moscow State University, 61.6% of dysfunctional families and 38.4% of well-off families face domestic abuse. 

At the same time, for families with low incomes and a low level of education, problems are more often associated with alcoholism and the use of physical violence. In families with a high level of education, but low income, economic and psychological violence is more developed (sophisticated psychological manipulations, and so on). Domestic violence in high-income families is most often both physical and sexual.

The point is also that in dysfunctional families the problem of violence is more noticeable, since these families can be visited by social workers or guardians, for example, because of the child’s behavior. Domestic killings of a partner are also more likely to occur in marginalized families, for which the “drinking – fighting – knife” pattern is eerily typical. 

Such stories also penetrate the press, become material for reportages, with photographs, names, private stories. It is impossible to get into the “status” layers in this way: until it comes to cruel reprisals or murder, no one suspects anything.

What Are the Causes of Domestic Violence?

The main and most dangerous misconception that exists in society regarding the problem of domestic abuse is that the reason lies in the actions of the injured partner, and the rapist was “provoked”. This automatically raises the erroneous question “for what?” and the tendency to seek excuses for the aggressor. 

It is necessary to remember that there is no behavioral reason for systematic violence and cannot be – this is only the fault of the rapist’s tendency to aggression and the manifestation of his power over his partner.

This tendency directly depends on the upbringing and the scheme of family relations, which a person “inherited”, observing the relationship of his parents, as well as on the attitudes that prevail in society as a whole, and in particular in the environment of the couple. 

For example, the likelihood of domestic abuse is increased if a woman and her acquaintances choose not to discuss the topic of violence or seek help, and the husband and his friends do not condemn the use of force. 

How Is Domestic Violence Different from Any Other & Why Does This Problem Need a Special Approach?

First, in the case of domestic abuse, the victim partner is in constant contact with the abuser and is often economically dependent on him. 

You don’t have to see the person who hit you on the street every day and sleep in the same room. In a situation of domestic abuse, victims are often unable to find housing, and constantly communicating with the abuser means being subjected to violence again.

If you want to read more informative articles, please visit >> https://oceanarticles.com/