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Domestic Violence Dealing With Alcohol

The United States Department of Justice defines domestic violence as an abusive type of behavior used in any relationship to gain control by one person over his/her intimate partner. Domestic violence can be expressed in physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions influencing another person. Emotional abuse means disrupting a person's sense of self-worth. The examples of emotional abuse can be as follows: continuous criticism, diminishing person's capabilities, name-calling, or destroying person's relationship with his/her kids. The majority of people consider emotional abuse worse than physical. Economic Abuse means limiting ones access to financial resources. Psychological abuse includes threatening and causing fear of physical violence. Domestic violence affects not only those people been subjected to it, but also all the witnesses of it, family members, co-workers and the society at large. It can occur in opposite-sex as well as same sex relations with married, dating or living together people. (Domestic Violence)

Disclosure

The problem is that the domestic violence is considered as a shameful topic to discuss, so people do not often speak about it on public. Though, it affects all of us either directly or

Surname 2 indirectly. The world statistics shows that between 55 and 95 percent of women do not ask for help from public authorities after been subjected to domestic violence. Males who witnessed domestic violence as children are twice more likely to behave violently with their families than the males who did not witness it. In the US 4 women are murdered everyday by their husbands or boyfriends. Domestic violence is the major cause of injuries to women in the US. (Domestic Violence Statistics)

Domestic Violence and Children

Sixty three percent of all boys between 11 and 20 committing murder kill the man who was abusing their mothers. Children cognitive development is directly related to domestic violence exposure, as children been exposed to it show lower IQ rates, worse memory and language skills. Scale of domestic violence is enormous around the world. (Ten Alarming Domestic Violence Statistics) About one third of all female homicide victims were murdered by their intimate partners. Forty percent of women exposed to domestic violence report that their children witnessed it, but these figures are not full. One third of children were hit by their father when trying to protect their mother and stop the violence. Domestic violence is often accompanied by child abuse. In most of the cases children experience neglect by the parent, psychological or physical abuse, more rarely sexual abuse. A survey conducted among young people aged 12-20 showed that 92 percent of them consider domestic violence very serious issue. Thirty seven percent of males and 12 percent of females agreed that the man should take control in relationships and in the household.

Surname 3 Economic Impact

All of the domestic violence victims lost about eight million days of job due to their inability to work after the violence was committed against them. This loss can be compared to 32 thousand of full-time jobs. Furthermore, huge amount of money is spent annually to treat domestic violence victims, including the mental health services. The medical treatment costs reach up to 35 billion dollars each year. (http://www.ncadv.org/files/DomesticViolenceFactSheet(National).pdf)

Alcohol Influence in Domestic Violence

Alcohol seems to be a big catalyst of violence around the world, but it is not always true. A research conducted in the US in 1991 showed that average amount of alcohol consumed before the act of domestic violence was no more than a few drinks. While domestic violence related to drug abuse was found to be more widespread than the violence connected with alcohol. Furthermore, alcohol consumption is often used by the abusers as a kind of excuse for domestic violence. They hope to justify their abusive behavior with the alcohol overuse. (Minnesota) In ninety two percent of domestic violence incidents, the abusers reported the use of alcohol or drugs prior to the assault. However, there is no direct connection between alcohol abuse and domestic violence. Another research indicated that the majority of heavy drinkers do not abuse their partner. As we can see, there is an overlap of two different social problems: alcohol abuse and domestic violence. (Domestic Abuse and Alcohol) A research conducted on this matter in 1990 investigating the connections between domestic violence and drinking, attitudes and occupational status. It singled out one major factor contributing to domestic violence the most, attitude. The attitude approving violence against women and the wife control by her husband were found to be the direct factors related to domestic violence.

Surname 4 Alcohol Helps Women to Cope With Domestic Violence

Even though men use alcohol as an excuse for domestic violence, women who were victims of it use alcohol to cope with the stress related to it. They say alcohol and drugs is the only way they can cope with continuous domestic violence. Suicide attempts, anxiety and depression are the results of repeated abusive behavior.

Possible Solutions to the Problem

To get rid of domestic violence it is not enough to heal the alcohol abuse among men, but the belief system of men should be changed. Success in domestic violence treatment can be achieved only by dealing with mens attitudes towards women. Both approaches in domestic violence treatment are used in the US. Alcohol abuse and domestic violence treatment programs were incorporated to form a single effective program Duluth. (Chan)

Statistics

One in four women experience domestic violence in some form during their lives. Women from rural areas experience domestic violence more often than urban women, and they are less likely to seek for help or treatment of their injuries. Between 41 to 69 percent of murdered women were killed by their current or former intimate partner, while there are only around 4 to 8 percent of male victims. About 750 thousand of children witness domestic violence annually. Violence against women results in serious health problems, both physical and mental. Around 75 percent of domestic violence results in injury or mental health trauma. One third of all women attending self-harm emergency were previously subjected to domestic violence. As it was mentioned before, the major reason of domestic violence is the belief that it is normal to abuse women. Research data shows that 1 in 5 young males and 1 in 10 young

Surname 5 females hold that violence against women is acceptable. Women with disabilities are reported to be assaulted, raped or abused twice to twelve times more than women without disabilities.

Domestic Violence and Pregnancy

About 30 percent of domestic violence incidents start when women are pregnant. This results in miscarriages, still-births, or even in the death of mother during childbirth. Domestic violence was found to be the major reason of those incidents. Domestic violence represents itself an extreme health risk to pregnant women and their children. The laws of US treat violence directed toward pregnant women in a different way than the violence against nonpregnant. The perpetrator can be accused of causing physical harm to a newborn human or a pregnant woman. (Statistics: Domestic Violence) It is hard to say whether domestic violence is related to certain pregnancy period or to other reasons. It is interesting to note that before the 18th century the majority of legal systems accepted physical violence against wife as a valid method of exercising husband's authority over the wife. (domestic violence)

Domestic Violence and the Law

Historically, domestic violence has been considered as a private, family topic which does not need any intervention form the public authorities. Police officers and the court did not impose any significant punishment on the perpetrators; they merely ask them to leave home for a while without arresting the abusers. In the majority of Islamic countries the same traditions exist nowadays; women are often subjected to domestic violence with serious and painful consequences. Nowadays, police officers consider domestic violence incidents as of the same danger situation as fights in a bar. The most efficient way to treat such incidents was

Surname 6 found to be an arrest. The majority of states have ratified the law allowing police officers to arrest the perpetrators at their homes without any warranty.

Same-sex Relationships

Family violence occurs in same-sex relationships too. Gay men and lesbian are as likely to abuse their intimate partners as the heterosexuals. The types of abuse are the same, physical, emotional, economic, and psychological; the reasons are the same too: unemployment, substance abuse, low self-esteem; the victims reactions stay the same: depression, low self-esteem, helplessness, etc. The difference is that gays and lesbians do not get the same support from their peers; they do not disclose the abusive situations as often as heterosexuals.

Violence against Men

Obviously, most often men play the role of abusers when it comes to domestic violence. Even when a man becomes a victim, he must had penetrated his intimate partner before. Police officers consider men victims as pathetic and do not usually treat them seriously. Moreover, men do not usually report of domestic violence to police or to other institutions so that they could save their dignity. Some consider women being as violent as men with their intimate partners. Men used weapon in 26 percent of domestic violence situations, while women in 86 percent. (McLeod, M.) However the cases of womens violence against men are often caused by self-defense.

Surname 7 Domestic Homicide

How domestic violence should be recorded? It depends on the type of penetration. A research conducted in Australia showed that 20 percent of all homicides involve intimate partner with a man being a penetrator and a woman victim. Sixty five percent of the domestic homicides occurred between current spouses, about 20 percent between former/separated spouses, and about 10 percent between current/former boyfriend and girlfriend, whilst only 2 percent of homicides occurred within same-sex relations. In almost every case of homicide there is a clear history of previous domestic violence.

Works Cited

Chan, Carrie. "Alcohol Issues in Domestic Violence." n.d. Australian Domestic & Family Violence Clearing House. <http://www.adfvc.unsw.edu.au/PDF%20files/Alcohol_Issues.pdf>.

Domestic Abuse and Alcohol. 19 January 2011. Document. <http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/abuse/a/aa990331.htm>.

"domestic violence." n.d. Britannica. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/168589/domestic-violence>.

Domestic Violence. August 2012. <http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/domviolence.htm>.

Domestic Violence Statistics. n.d. <http://domesticviolencestatistics.org/domestic-violencestatistics/>.

Surname 8 "http://www.ncadv.org/files/DomesticViolenceFactSheet(National).pdf." n.d. National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV). <http://www.ncadv.org/files/DomesticViolenceFactSheet(National).pdf>.

Minnesota, University of. ALCOHOL AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. n.d. Article. <http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/svaw/domestic/link/alcohol.htm>.

"Statistics: Domestic Violence." n.d. Women's Aid. <Statistics: Domestic Violence>.

Ten Alarming Domestic Violence Statistics. 6 June 2011. <http://blog.makersofmemories.org/2011/06/ten-alarming-domestic-violencestatistics/>.