Essay About Domestic Violence And Sibling Abuse

Domestic Violence
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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 todays 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 1840s when the American
womens 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 ones spouse. It begins with verbal insults and degradation then over time escalates into
physical violence. The abuser has usually been involved in domestic violence cases 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
todays 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