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Domestic Violence And Women
By Kadence Buchanan
Every single day a number of health care professionals have to
encounter an incident of an abused victim turning to them to
request help. But even of you are not a trained professional
you should be familiar with what domestic violence is and what
it can do to victims. Then you will be better prepared to react
correctly in case you encounter such an unfortunate incident.
Helping the victim regain a sense of control over his or her
life should not be your responsibility if you are not a trained
professional, but being informed can sometimes save a victim
from keeping everything within and self-destruct.
Domestic violence is characterized as a pattern of coercive
behaviors that may include repeated battering and injury,
psychological abuse, sexual assault, progressive social
isolation, deprivation and intimidation. Someone who is or was
involved in an intimate relationship, with the victim, might
perpetrate these behaviors. According to official data from law
enforcement units and medical institutions, gender plays an
important role in dynamics of abuse. Over 85 percent of
reported victims of domestic violence are women and most
perpetrators are men. Moreover, domestic violence is the
leading cause of injury to women of all ages and the leading
cause of injury to pregnant women and ladies between 18 and 44
years of age.
On the other hand, domestic violence is also known as "partner
violence or spouse abuse" since experts recognize that also men
may be abused in intimate relationships. In addition, many of
today's societies report domestic violence incidents between
gay or lesbian partners, since this type of intimidating
behavior is not a characteristic of a specific sexual
orientation. Physical assault, sexual abuse, threats against
person, creating stress and psychological damage to children or
loved ones, destruction of home or personal property, are some
of the most common cases reported as examples of domestic
violence incidents.
Unfortunately, although extremely common, domestic violence is
considered an extremely sensitive subject that victims do not
easily report and thus it remains confined inside the
particular territory of a family's neighborhood or even walls.
Some of the most common domestic violence myths include that it
is a behavior pattern indicative of particular economic and
social groups; it is a marital problem; victims will never
speak of what they are experiencing; it is associated with
alcohol or drug abuse; and that violence can be handed down
from one generation to the next.
In fact, research indicates that violence may be a learned
behavior, particularly from observation, however all men who
are violent do not have histories of violence in childhood.
Very interesting is the fact that unmarried partners and those
who are separated or divorced have higher rates of abuse than
those who are married. Additionally, rate of domestic violence
vary little between economic and/or cultural groups. Finally,
while studies have shown that alcohol and/or drug addiction and
violence frequently coexist, they are not resulting from each
other and that violent behavior will not end unless
professional treatment and adequate interventions address both
problems; the substance abuse and the violent behavior.
About the Author: Kadence Buchanan writes articles for
http://forahealthywoman.com/ - In addition, Kedence also writes
articles for http://cookingforfun.net/ and
http://iwomensinterests.com/
Source: http://www.isnare.com
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