Domestic Violence

Many people will define violence as the use of physical force to cause physical harm or abuse someone. On the other hand, domestic violence is the harm inflicted on a family member by another on purpose. This behaviour may be repeated several times. This harm can physical, emotional, psychological or sexual as a show of control of one partner by another. The severity and consistent of domestic violence may widely vary, but the common thing among all domestic violence is the urge to maintain control and power by one of the partners over the other. Domestic violence is a menace that is slowly consuming our society silently. Domestic violence is spread across communities regardless of economic status, ethnicity, race, educational level, sexual orientation, religion, gender and nationality. Domestic violence is accompanied by controlling power and emotionally abusive behaviour. Domestic violence can lead to psychological trauma, physical harm and in severe cases can result in death.

Dynamics of domestic violence

Everybody can a victim of domestic violence regardless of the nationality, economic status, religion, ethnicity, race, gender, age, lifestyle or ability. In most cases, victims do no bring domestic violence upon themselves. In addition, the victims do not always lack self-confidence or lack the opportunity to be as abusive as their partners but the violator feels the urge to use violence to maintain power and control over the other partner. Although in events of domestic violence the victim may try to resist the abuse, there is always one person who is the primary source of power and ill-treatment in the relationship.

Much domestic violence is different in different ways, but one thing that is common in all the cases is the tactics that are employed by the abusers to maintain power and control over the other partner in a relationship. Statistics show that the most prevalent forms of assault are Physical and sexual assaults. They are the forms that make the victim realise that their partner can become violence. Other abusers may frequently use other forms of abuse combined with the physical abuse. One instance of physical assaults is enough to install fear of future violent attacks on the victim. Domestic violence is cyclical; it may start at a slower pace and an inconsistent rate but later peak pace and tend to be more often.

Effects of domestic violence

In most cases, most victims of domestic violence suffer silently in the society. Victims of domestic violence fear to come and expose their abusers due to the fear of being stereotyped by the society and the also feel the need to stay in the relationship to take care of their children. Victims often suffer from emotional and psychological trauma.