Domestic violence is a prevailing global epidemic that continues to torture its victims in various ways including physically, socially, economically and psychologically. This paper seeks to determine the various causes of domestic violence while digging into how socioeconomic and psychological factors influence the incidences of domestic violence in Australia and the whole world at large. Other objectives of this paper are to investigate the effects of domestic violence on socioeconomic development and also to determine the psychological effects of domestic violence taking a deeper insight on the psychological development in infancy as well as childhood, trauma, fear and control. The above scope will help one have a deeper understanding on the social issue of domestic violence and its impacts on the society as well as how the society reacts to its effects.
Domestic violence can be defined as a form of gender-based violence likely to have results such as physical, psychological or social harm (Tauchen & Witte, 2015). To the female gender, domestic violence entails acts such as being threatened, coercion or the deprivation of freedom. Studies assert that domestic violence remains to be one of the most perpetrated abuses of human rights having one out of every three women living with fear or violence (Heise, 2014). Being an extreme manifestation of the inequality in gender, domestic violence targets women and children. The effects of domestic violence are often devastating and have a long-term effect on the mental and physical health of the victims. An individual’s physical and mental condition depends on many factors split between social, physical and economic determinants. Domestic violence affects all of the above.
Domestic violence affects women adversely on a socio-economic basis. Socioeconomic factors are those that are society related. The factors influence life’s quality adversely. Social factors that may lead to domestic violence include the level of education, inferiority or superiority complex, alcohol abuse as well as social status. According to statistics, domestic violence rate is twice as high in families where the male spouse is unskilled as compared to where he is skilled or has acquired training in a particular field of study (Martin, Tsui, Maitra & Marinshaw, 2012). Unemployment or lack of education on the side of the male partner gives rise to an inferiority complex and further translating to stress and domestic violence. The use of alcohol excessively has often been associated with domestic violence whereby in over 48% of abuse cases, alcohol was the major factor contributing to the abuse (Heise, 2014). Alcohol may not necessarily cause domestic violence on its own, it contributes to already existing factors such as stress.
There is a higher concentration of domestic violence among families belonging to a lower socio-economic setting. This is because the families have higher chances of suffering from stressful conditions including unemployment, poor health conditions, poor unsatisfactory lifestyles, as well as poor housing (Tauchen & Witte, 2015). Although the prevalence of domestic violence is higher in lower class economic status families, it also exists in higher classes of individuals.
Economic factors contributing to the rise of domestic violence include but not limited to occupation status, income level and success status. Domestic violence has been recorded highest among families or spouses where the male partner hasn’t achieved much academically, thus has a lower earning occupation as compared to his wife or partner (Martin, Tsui, Maitra & Marinshaw, 2012. This reason also explains the high prevalence of domestic violence in poorer less educated families. The aggression of the male partners is brought about by their inability to maintain their supremacy level at home as a source of compensation for their low academic achievement. This shows the existence of a relationship between a low socio-economic status and higher prevalence of domestic violence. The relationship can be interpreted as the use of violence to hide inner frustration, feeling of oppression and low self-value.
The cost of violence against women in Australia can be deeply estimated by taking a look into a number of categories. Domestic violence comes along with many costs including those associated with pain, Medicare, suffering, costs emanating from absence of work as a result of physical injury, costs related to the replacement of damaged property as well as those associated with witnessing children live with the picture of violence in their mind, child protection and other children related expenses (Martin, Tsui, Maitra & Marinshaw, 2012. Apart from injuries and deaths, domestic violence brings about adverse health issues including fractured or broken bones, brain injuries, wounds and bruises from being battered, which take up finances in the form of treatment.
Psychological factors are mentally linked factors that enable or prevent people from being in the best mind frame thus prompting good or bad performance in every aspect of life. Domestic violence can be linked to several psychological factors and is also a cause of various psychological damages. Physical damage leads to psychological damage. Depression among victims of domestic abuse is common. Lack of confidence as a result of constant abuse is also an effect. Examples of emotional domestic abuse include shaming, calling of names, blaming, yelling, intimidation, isolation and violence threats (Holt, Buckley & Whelan, 2015). Controlling behaviour is also a source of emotional abuse as portrayed in (Huang, Wang & Warrener, 2010). He illustrates this by using testaments from victims who said the psychological effects of domestic violence had more profound effects on their lives, especially where their lives have been threatened and use of controlling behaviour.
Individuals exposed to violence at a younger age learn to perceive the behaviour as a normal aspect of family life. This is one of the psychological factors that lead to tolerance of the evil behaviour. The belief that violence is normal, reduces the ability of victims to leave an abusive relationship. It also empowers the perpetrators to use more violence (Bancroft, Silverman & Ritchie, 2011). The prevalence of violence is higher in societies, like Turkey, where violence is normal even to women being abused. A health survey carried out by a Turkish demographic sought to find out if any justification for domestic abuse exists. Surprisingly, the sample of women asked returned answers mentioning scenarios when a husband is justified to physically discipline his wife (Huang, Wang & Warrener, 2010). This included when she argued with him if she cooked bad food or burned it if she spent too much money on useless things if she left the children unattended to and also if she denied him conjugal rights.
Based on (Shorey, Brasfield, Febres & Stuart, 2011) on the social theory of aggression which focuses on the dynamics of family and interpersonal relations, Febres explains domestic violence as a learned phenomenal, Learned and modelled throughout childhood (Shorey, Brasfield, Febres & Stuart, 2011). The acts of violence not only expose the child to be a violent individual but also makes them approve the use of violence (Huang, Wang & Warrener, 2010). Margolin suggests that victims of domestic violence grow up suffering from powerlessness, lack of trust, lack of the ability to contribute towards community development and issues relating to coping up with peers leading to violence use (Margolin, 2010). The assumption of this theory is that violence remains a learned behaviour that is passed and reinforced through family lines.
Children accustomed to violence learn to view the family as a dysfunctional unit due to the strained relationships, learned helplessness and unsocial norms that they have experienced throughout their lives (Kitzmann, Gaylord, Holt & Kenny, 2013). They are forced to live with the psychological trauma of violence and fear of the untold. Such children grow up to be control freaks just like in their family or resolve to be the helpless parties just as they have learned or known through modelling as they grew up (Herman, 2015). Such children grow up feeling unloved and develop self-esteem issues (Johnson, 2016). Use of family therapy may reduce the effect or perpetration of violence. It may also precipitate violence thus escalating what problems were there, once the sessions are over. This may be due to disclosure of violence done by a member who wishes the acts to remain in the family
Research conducted on groups of women to find out why they endure abusive husbands yielded psychologically reasoned answers. These included internalized family and social norms which tolerate domestic violence. These values lead the woman to think it is her fault often due to denial or shame. Religion caused endurance of such behaviour in order to preserve a marriage or family from disintegrating (Chemtob & Carlson, 2014). The belief that a woman should not work outside a home have led women to endure constant economic violence. The belief that she would neglect her husband and children causes violence when she takes an outside job. Under circumstances whereby the woman is working, a patriarchal man would feel threatened that he doesn’t have domination over the wife or family as a result of an identity crisis. The overall effects of domestic violence are suicide, which results when a partner cannot take any more violence, the murder of the violent partner or spouse is also a consequence. Fed up wives or children may result in killing the abusive party in the family. Imprisonment of the party which commits murder is also inevitable (Dugan, Nagin, & Rosenfeld, 2013). Other consequences include increased costs, physical and emotional wounds, pain and broken marriages.
To wrap up, the purpose of this paper was to look into the issue of domestic violence while citing various socio-economic and psychological factors and effects leading and contributing to the issue respectively. The socio-economic factors that cause domestic violence include alcohol abuse, unskilled partner, lack of education, unemployment and inferiority complex. The psychological factors leading to domestic violence as discussed include patriarchy, damaged mindset, learned inferiority, and societal norms. The psychological effects of domestic violence are damaged view of family concept, fear, psychological trauma, severe depression, as well learned control. A consensus the severe effects of domestic violence is finally made whereby the overall consequences of the evil are discussed. These include suicide, murder, broken marriages, insecure children, increased costs, as well as lifelong wounds. All relationships, unions and families experience their share of problems. Resulting in violence is never an advisable solution as depicted in the paper above
References
Bancroft, L., Silverman, J. G., & Ritchie, D. (2011). The batterer as parent: Addressing the impact of domestic violence on family dynamics. Sage Publications.
Chemtob, C. M., & Carlson, J. G. (2014). Psychological Effects of Domestic Violence on Children and Their Mothers. International Journal of Stress Management, 11(3), 209.
Dugan, L., Nagin, D. S., & Rosenfeld, R. (2013). Exposure reduction or retaliation? The effects of domestic violence resources on intimate?partner homicide. Law & Society Review, 37(1), 169-198.
Heise, L. L. (2014). Violence against women: an integrated, ecological framework. Violence against women, 4(3), 262-290.
Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence–from domestic abuse to political terror. Hachette UK.
Holt, S., Buckley, H., & Whelan, S. (2015). The impact of exposure to domestic violence on children and young people: A review of the literature. Child abuse & neglect, 32(8), 797- 810.
Huang, C. C., Wang, L. R., & Warrener, C. (2010). Effects of domestic violence on behavior problems of preschool-aged children: Do maternal mental health and parenting mediate the effects?. Children and Youth Services Review, 32(10), 1317-1323.
Johnson, M. P. (2016). Conflict and control: Gender symmetry and asymmetry in domestic violence. Violence against women, 12(11), 1003-1018.
Kitzmann, K. M., aylord, N. K., Holt, A. R., & Kenny, E. D. (2013). Child witnesses to domestic violence: a meta-analytic review. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 71(2),339.
Margolin, G. (2010). Effects of domestic violence on children.
Martin, S. L., Tsui, A. O., Maitra, K., & Marinshaw, R. (2012). Domestic violence in northern India. American journal of epidemiology, 150(4), 417-426.
Shorey, R. C., Brasfield, H., Febres, J., & Stuart, G. L. (2011). The association between impulsivity, trait anger, and the perpetration of intimate partner and general violence among women arrested for domestic violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 26(13), 2681-2697.
Tauchen, H., & Witte, A. D. (2015). The dynamics of domestic violence. The American Economic Review, 85(2), 414-418.
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