Domestic violence

Domestic Violence
Introduction
Thesis statement:

I. What is domestic violence?

A. Myths about domestic violence

B. Sexual orientation and gender

C. The costs of domestic violence

II. Types of abuse

A. Physical

B. Sexual

C. Emotional

D. Economic

III. Characteristics

A. Characteristics of the victim

B.Characteristics of the batterer

IV. The cycle of violence

Overview on Domestic Violence

With the passage of centuries, one of the most serious problems in society is domestic violence, which is the use of physical, sexual, economic, and/or emotional abuse by one person in an intimate relationship in order to establish and maintain power and control over the other person. Domesticviolence mainly happens between people who are dating, married, separated, and divorced. Also, it occurs in heterosexual as well as in gay and lesbian relationships and in adolescents dating relationships.

According to the American Medical Association (AMA), 95% of victims are female and 1500 women are killed by their partners annually. But, why do many women not report it? Some of thereason why domestic violence victims do not do anything about abuse, is because fear, hope for change, their children, economic dependency, lack of support from society and also many of them do not know where to go or who to talk with.

A curious fact occurred in the United States in the 1800s, was that spousal abuse became such a problem that some progressive laws were passed to protectabused women, but there were states like Mississippi in which the court held that a husband could use corporal punishment against his wife without prosecution.

As it was mentioned above, there are different forms of abuse. This can take the form of physical violence, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, and economic abuse. In the case of physical violence this can be defined as,“…the intentional use of physical force with the potential for causing injury, harm or even death to a person”(Wikipedia). Physical Abuse includes hitting, shoving, choking, biting, kicking, slapping, punching, pulling hair, burning, bruising, twisting, preventing access to an exit, or using a weapon to bully and/or intimidate.

How a person with psychical abuse can be detected? In thiscase, there are two factors to take into consideration. The first are the physical indicators, which are the most notable and the second one are the behavioral indicators. In the physical indicators can be for example: bite marks, burns, and fractures in unusual places, injuries, swellings to face and extremities. On the other hand, in the case of behavioral indicators can be mentioned: avoidcontact with others, complains of pain upon movement or contact, and has difficulty getting along with others. Otherwise, children respond in a different way, for example: they often are late or absent from school, run away from home, play aggressively, and some reports abuse by parents.

Sexual abuse, which are actions that compel a person to maintain contact sexualized physical or verbal, orparticipate in them by force, intimidation, coercion, blackmail, bribery, manipulation, threat or other means to annul or limit the person will. Also is considered sexual violence, the fact that aggressor forces the victim to engage in any of these acts with third parties. Victims often do not tell with words that they have been sexually abused or that they have resisted an assault. “There are manyreasons why the victims hesitate or are afraid to tell about what has happened, including fear of the consequences, retaliation or uncertainty about whether or not they will be believed”.

Besides, sexual abuse has also physical and behavioral indicators. Some examples of physical indicators are: difficulty for walking or sitting, stained or bloody underwear, pregnancy and the worst of all...