Domestic Violence Essay: Causes and Effects

 

All essays on domestic violence generally discuss the causes and consequences of abusive behavior on behalf of one spouse towards another. The following domestic violence essay is aimed at investigating the issue in detail. Domestic violence essays usually explore such issues as dynamics of abusive behavior in the domestic environment. The current argumentative essay on domestic violence will investigate not only the dynamics of this phenomenon, but also the characteristics of the abuser to make it clear what kind of intimate partners generally tend to use physical assault against their spouses. The current domestic violence argumentative essay will provide arguments regarding the ever-growing problem of violence and abuse in the home environment. The paper will also try to answer the question of why victims of domestic violence stay with their partners without reporting about the abuse. The essay on domestic violence presented below will further explore the issue of societal barriers that prevent victims of abusive behavior from escaping their partners. This will help to analyze the phenomenon of domestic violence in detail and get a clear idea of what this kind of abuse means.

We will start from giving a definition of domestic violence. What is domestic violence? As a rule, this phenomenon means physical or sexual assault and other kinds of abusive behavior that takes place systematically on behalf of one of the partners towards another. Such violent behavior includes physical violence, psychological and emotional violence as well as sexual abuse among others. The severity and frequency of violence exhibited in domestic environment may vary dramatically. However, it generally has a systematic nature meaning that one of the partners uses violence to maintain control and power over their spouse. Domestic violence has become a real epidemic that continues to affect individuals in all communities disregarding their age, financial status, gender, sexual orientation, religion, race or nationality. This phenomenon is generally accompanied with emotional abuse that is a part of a systematic violent behavior for the sake of control and dominance. All this can result in emotional traumas and physical damage and sometimes even death. The effects of domestic violence including physical, psychological and emotional consequences may last for the lifetime.  

When the relationships have just been formed, it is often not easy to find out whether a person is likely to use violence towards their partner. Domestic violence is known to intensify with time. Abusers are often perfectly normal during the early stages of relationships, but later become aggressive and dominating. Abuse can start from threats, distrust or name-calling. The abusers can have a tendency to apologize for their behavior in an attempt to convince their partner that their actions are explained by care and love. Nevertheless, with time violence and dominance are likely to intensify regardless of the apologies. In fact, such seemingly harmless issues as a desire of a partner to stay with their victim all the time out of love may later escalate into physical abuse and total control of another partner’s actions. The abuser may start threatening to hurt the victim or even kill. The examples of such tendencies include but are not limited to the following:

  • Abuser might tell the victim that they never do anything properly
  • Abuser might show jealousy when the victim spends much time with their friends and family
  • Abuser may constantly suspect the victim in cheating
  • Abuser can discourage the victim from visiting their family or friends
  • Abuser might start controlling the financial situation in their household
  • Abuser might take money from the victim and refuse to give them any finances even for minor expenses
  • Abuser might force the victim to use alcohol or drugs

It is important to mention that domestic violence is not always revealed in physical abuse. It can be revealed in psychological or emotional abuse, which can cause as much harm as physical violence. If the abuser does not use physical violence, it does not mean that this person is not dangerous. Besides, despite the abusive behavior of the partner, domestic violence does not always result in the escape from the abuser in an attempt to seek help. This is because the victim of domestic violence might be too frightened to report about the abuse to the authorities. Besides, another reason why victims of domestic violence do not try to terminate their relationships lies in a strong belief that their partner will change for the best being reassured by their apologies and regret. Domestic violence often intensifies if the abuser feels that they lose control over their victim. The abuser might continue to harass and threaten the victim even after they escape. It is a fact that the victim of domestic violence is sometimes in greater danger right after the escape. This is proved by the statistics, according to which 1 out of 5 domestic violence victims are murdered several days after they escape the relationship, while 1 out of 3 are murdered during one month after that.

As for the characteristics of an abuser, they can belong to any culture; have different economic levels and diverse backgrounds. They can be your friend or neighbor, a school teacher or relative, your colleague or even a pastor. It is important to mention that most abusers exhibit violence only towards their intimate partners. It has been found that around 90% of abusers do not even have any criminal records and tend to be law-abiding beyond the boundaries of their households. Abusers are characterized by a denial of seriousness of their violent actions and the negative effects of their behavior on the victims. The warning signs of any kind of abuser include the following:

  • Jealousy
  • Unpredictable behavior
  • Longing for dominance
  • Bad temper
  • Cruel treatment of animals
  • Verbal abuse, etc.

In such a way, it can be concluded that domestic violence is a dangerous phenomenon of the modern world that greatly affects the welfare of the society and women in particular. It is a fact that women are most likely to become victims of domestic violence. Therefore, in order to mitigate the problem, the governments should implement certain legislations and regulations to prevent the situation from getting worse, if not solve it completely.

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