Violence is the use of physical force to cause harm to people, animals, or property, such as pain, injury, death, damage, or destruction. Some definitions are somewhat broader, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation."
Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other types of aggression. To these descriptions, one can also add the Kantian notion of the wrongness of using another human being as means to an end rather than as ends in themselves. Some sources describe abuse as "socially constructed", which means there may be more or less recognition of the suffering of a victim at different times and societies.
Psychological abuse, often called emotional abuse, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another person to a behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder amongst other psychological problems.
Sex differences in crime are differences between men and women as the perpetrators or victims of crime. Such studies may belong to fields such as criminology, sociobiology, or feminist studies. Despite the difficulty of interpreting them, crime statistics may provide a way to investigate such a relationship from a gender differences perspective. An observable difference in crime rates between men and women might be due to social and cultural factors, crimes going unreported, or to biological factors for example, testosterone or sociobiological theories). The nature or motive of the crime itself may also require consideration as a factor.
Verbal abuse is a type of psychological/mental abuse that involves the use of oral, gestured, and written language directed to a victim. Verbal abuse can include the act of harassing, labeling, insulting, scolding, rebuking, or excessive yelling towards an individual. It can also include the use of derogatory terms, the delivery of statements intended to frighten, humiliate, denigrate, or belittle a person. These kinds of attacks may result in mental and/or emotional distress for the victim.
Sadistic personality disorder was a proposed personality disorder defined by a pervasive pattern of sadistic and cruel behavior. People with this disorder were thought to have desired to control others. It was believed they accomplish this through the use of physical or emotional violence. This diagnosis appeared in an appendix of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R). The later versions of the DSM do not include it. It was removed as psychiatrists believed it would be used to legally excuse sadistic behavior.
The conflict tactics scale (CTS), created by Murray A. Straus in 1979, is used in the research of family violence." There are two versions of the CTS; the CTS2 and the CTSPC. As of 2005, the CTS has been used in about 600 peer reviewed scientific or scholarly papers, including longitudinal birth-cohort studies. National surveys conducted in the USA include two National Family Violence Surveys, the National Violence Against Women Survey (1998), which, according to Straus, used a "feminist version" of the CTS in order to minimize data on female perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV), and the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. A major international survey to use the CTS was the 2006 International Dating Violence Study, which investigated IPV amongst 13,601 college students across thirty-two different countries.
Dating abuse or dating violence is the perpetration or threat of an act of violence by at least one member of an unmarried couple on the other member in the context of dating or courtship. It also arises when one partner tries to maintain power and control over the other through abuse or violence, for example when a relationship has broken down. This abuse or violence can take a number of forms, such as sexual assault, sexual harassment, threats, physical violence, verbal, mental, or emotional abuse, social sabotage, and stalking. In extreme cases it may manifest in date rape. It can include psychological abuse, emotional blackmail, sexual abuse, physical abuse and psychological manipulation.
Sibling abuse includes the physical, psychological, or sexual abuse of one sibling by another. More often than not, the younger sibling is abused by the older sibling. Sibling abuse is the most common of family violence in the US, but the least reported. As opposed to sibling rivalry, sibling abuse is characterized by the one-sided treatment of one sibling to another.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is domestic violence by a current or former spouse or partner in an intimate relationship against the other spouse or partner. IPV can take a number of forms, including physical, verbal, emotional, economic and sexual abuse. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines IPV as "any behavior within an intimate relationship that causes physical, psychological or sexual harm to those in the relationship, including acts of physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviors." IPV is sometimes referred to simply as battery, or as spouse or partner abuse.
Domestic violence occurs across the world, in various cultures, and affects people across society, at all levels of economic status; however, indicators of lower socioeconomic status have been shown to be risk factors for higher levels of domestic violence in several studies. In the United States, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 1995, women reported a six times greater rate of intimate partner violence than men. However, studies have found that men are much less likely to report victimization in these situations.
Domestic violence is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. Domestic violence is often used as a synonym for intimate partner violence, which is committed by one of the people in an intimate relationship against the other person, and can take place in relationships or between former spouses or partners. In its broadest sense, domestic violence also involves violence against children, parents, or the elderly. It can assume multiple forms, including physical, verbal, emotional, economic, religious, reproductive, financial abuse, or sexual abuse. It can range from subtle, coercive forms to marital rape and other violent physical abuse, such as choking, beating, female genital mutilation, and acid throwing that may result in disfigurement or death, and includes the use of technology to harass, control, monitor, stalk or hack. Domestic murder includes stoning, bride burning, honor killing, and dowry death, which sometimes involves non-cohabitating family members. In 2015, the United Kingdom's Home Office widened the definition of domestic violence to include coercive control.
Domestic violence in United States is a form of violence that occurs within a domestic relationship. Although domestic violence often occurs between partners in the context of an intimate relationship, it may also describe other household violence, such as violence against a child, by a child against a parent or violence between siblings in the same household. It is recognized as an important social problem by governmental and non-governmental agencies, and various Violence Against Women Acts have been passed by the US Congress in an attempt to stem this tide.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to domestic violence:
Domestic violence against men is violence or other physical abuse towards men in a domestic setting, such as in marriage or cohabitation. As with domestic violence against women, violence against men may constitute a crime, but laws vary between jurisdictions. Intimate partner violence (IPV) against men is generally less recognized by society than intimate partner violence against women, which can act as a further block to men reporting their situation.
Domestic violence is prominent in Nigeria as in other parts of Africa. There is a deep cultural belief in Nigeria that it is socially acceptable to hit a woman as a disciplinary measure. Cases of Domestic violence are on the high and show no signs of reduction in Nigeria, regardless of age, tribe, religion, or even social status. The CLEEN Foundation reports 1 in every 3 respondents identified themselves as a victim of domestic violence. The survey also found a nationwide increase in domestic violence in the past 3 years from 21% in 2011 to 30% in 2013. A CLEEN Foundation's 2012 National Crime and Safety Survey demonstrated that 31% of the national sample confessed to being victims of domestic violence.
Domestic violence within lesbian relationships is the pattern of violent and coercive behavior in a female same-sex relationship wherein a lesbian or other non-heterosexual woman seeks to control the thoughts, beliefs, or conduct of her female intimate partner. In the case of multiple forms of domestic partner abuse, it is also referred to as lesbian battering.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is defined as physical and sexual violence or threat of violence, intimidation, or coercion that occurs between past or current intimate partners. Perpetrators of violence may use coercion tactics to keep the partner in the home. These tactics could include threatening harm to a family pet or threatening to take custody of children if the partner attempts to leave. IPV is a serious public health concern in the United States and one that has the potential to affect an individual’s medical readiness. Within the military community, intimate relationships may be particularly vulnerable to occupation-stress that is specific to military operations. These demands might include frequent moves to undesirable locations or overseas, separation from extended family for unknown lengths of time, frequent variability in work schedule, long hours, career uncertainty, mission ambiguity, training environments meant to simulate varying operational environments, and risk that is inherent to the field. Although there are programs in place designed to support the family unit, the stress of multiple deployments, combat exposure, and exposure to traumatic events cause additional strain on the family unit as service members reintegrate into the home environment following the return home from a deployment. Deployments bring additional stress on the family unit as two-parent homes transition to one-parent homes while attempting to maintain their semi-regular schedules.
Emily M. Douglas is a political scientist conducting research on child and family well-being, the child welfare system, fatal child maltreatment, domestic violence and divorced families, and corporal punishment. She is a full professor and the chair of the Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy at Montclair State University.
Denise A. Hines is an American psychologist doing research on domestic violence and sexual abuse with focuses on prevention, intervention, and public policy. She is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
