Causation Effects of Domestic Violence in Couples Marriages - Research Paper Example

? Causal effects of domestic violence on couples' marriage Index Topic Page No Introduction………………………………………………………………… 3-4 2. Domestic Violence and Marriage………………………………………….. 4-5 3. Theory related to domestic violence in Marriage……………………….... 5-6 4. Gender inequality and domestic violence…………………………………. 7-8 5. Concept of Situational Couple Violence…………………………………… 8-9 6. Domestic violence and Marital relationship……………………………….. 9-10 7. Domestic Violence and Divorce……………………………………………… 10 8. Domestic Violence: Reason behind Men are getting Violent Against Women………………………………………………………. 10-12 9. Study on Domestic Violence on Pregnant Women………………………….. 12-13 10. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………… 13-14 11.Bibliography…………………………………………………………………….. 15-16 Introduction According to the report of “Domestic violence, Forced Marriage and ‘honour’ based violence” (2009) the definition of domestic violence varies in different countries. The UN uses an approach that defines violence against women in contrast with gender based and domestic violence . According to their report, Domestic violence can be defined as “ any act of gender based violence that results in or that may likely result in physical, sexual or psychological harm to the women including threat of this kind of act occurring in public or private life”. Where as , in the UK the same definition is not specified about any gender. It was a common non-statutory definition accepted by the UK government to describe domestic violence in couple marriages.. The definition was any kind of threatening behavior or incident , violence or abuse between adults who were married among a family regardless of their gender or sexuality can be defined as domestic violence. The abuse can be psychological, physical, sexual, financial, or emotional. (Domestic Violence, Forced Marriage and honor based violence, 2009, p. 11). According to Kaur and Garg (2008), Domestic violence can be defined as misuse of power by one adult over another to have dominance in a relationship. In any marriage generally men misuse their power to dominate the women and want to have control over the relationship. It can be physical assault, psychological abuse, social abuse, financial abuse or may be sexual assault. According to The Protection of Women from Domestic Violent Act(2005), any activity or conduct, omission or commission that causes harms or injuries or has the possibility of causing harm to women known as domestic Violence. In marriage, the domestic violence is a part of the concern. According to Kaur and Garg,Cultural difference, religious practice, economic and political condition play a major role behind domestic violence. They also added that, the role of macro-system-level-forces like cultural and social norms, individual level variables like observing violence among parents while growing up, absence or rejecting of father in childhood, delinquent peer associations also have key roles behind domestic violence among married couples.(Kaur and Garg, 2008, pp-73-76). According to Schwarze (2012), among Christian community, submission and abuse by any husband to his wife exists significant way. According to the concept of the Bible, for any Christian wife, submission to her husband is not the highest virtue one woman can show and also this was not the wife's first commandment. For both of them, the first and foremost important thing is to love the God. But, there also have the differences. The man himself to dominate his wife, sometimes takes the help of violent activity. According to him, for the women escaping from that situation will be the only alternative when cost of staying become more than the cost of living.That's why women generally leave their family when not only they get abused but when the effect of that incident started to have an impact on her children (Schwarze, 2012). Domestic Violence and Marriage: There is a linkage between domestic violence and couples' marriages. According to Peterson and Bush(2012), the social study in USA shows that regular attendance in social and religious service reduce the level the domestic violence among the couples. Regular attendance to religious activity reduce 49% chance of social violence among the men whereas the same reduce the chance of social violence by 35% among women. This result remains constant despite taking into considerations affect of social integration and support, alcohol and drug abuse,and different psychological problems like depression or low self esteem.( Peterson and Bush,2012, P.648). According to McCue (2008), domestic violence is a type of oppression and generally happens against an oppressed group. In most of the cases women are considered as an oppressed group, because in the world women do not have the equal rights or power as compare to man.In most of the cases they are exploited, marginalized remain powerless and suffer from cultural imperialism. According to his study the law to protect the women against domestic harassment was considered in the mid 1800s, when there was a movement for the same in the UK and USA. However, there was very little change took place. Movement against domestic violence was taken a major boost in the 1970s when women of USA gathered to discuss issues which were important to their lives and their rights both in home and in the public forum. This was known as the first organized feminist movement of the world. Along with that, in the UK, in the year 1971, around 500 children and women were gathered and protest against the reduction in free milk service for the school children. This protest led to the development of the Chiswick Women’s Aid, a meeting place where women can discuss about their issues.(McCue, 2008, pp.5-6). Theory related to domestic violence in Marriage: According to McCue (2008) , domestic violence can be of different types, namely physical, sexual, emotional or economic. According to him, sometimes, all these different kinds of domestic violence took place in a single married relation between husband and wife or sometime any one kind of abuse was noted. But the study shows that the most common type of domestic violence in a married relationship is emotional abuse (McCue, 2008, p.6). According to his study there were few different theories behind the domestic violence, more precisely to explain why in a married relationship a man became batterer. These theories were as follows: Psychopathology theory: according to this, in most of the cases in a married relationship, the batterers possess characteristics like personality disorders. Social Learning Theory: According to this theory, the domestic violent behavior was learned by an individual (especially the men) from the childhood experience , by seeing their parents getting involved in this incident. Biological theory: The violent characteristic was there in an individual as a hereditary factor or due to some childhood trauma caused by any kind of violent incident. Family System Theory: Sometimes the domestic violence took place due to the influence of the family. According to this theory, the blame was on the victim who get affected by this domestic violence. Feminist Theory: according to McCau, one of the most common reasons or theory behind domestic violence among married couple was the concept in the society which believes on male power and female submission and inequities among them (McCau, 2008, pp. 12-16.). Gender inequality and domestic violence: Peters & Dush (2009), in their study pointed out concept of gender inequality in marriage and also its impact on domestic violence. In their study they have pointed out the multilevel sociological gender perspective to explain gender inequality within marriage. The concept of game theory applied in economics can be implemented here to understand the bargaining models. In this concept, spouse’s relative’s power to bring in the money (wage) tends to increase the bargaining power. In the concept of external threat points it was very much important to figure out one’s own earning as it was absolutely necessary in case of separation one have to fall back on their own earnings. Generally it was observed that the women who were affected by the domestic violence sometimes not have the higher bargaining power.(Peters & camp Dush, 2009, p.59). According to their study, the violence among married couple was due to the factors like earnings and all. The exchange or bargaining power of one’s relative resource decreases the chance of her getting victimized. Their study reveals that considering the household income, age, race and the duration of marriage, the womes’s relative earning has little or no effect on the level of violence. If the women’s relative earning go up compare to that of the man sometimes the level of violence mat also increase just because of the compensatory gender display. Men, increase their violation just because the general believe among men were they should earn more than the women. Another interpretation of this of violence was men generally use violence to show their dominance over women when they not able to dominate women by their earnings. . (Peters & Dush, 2009, pp. 63-64). According to Dolan (2009), the word marriage represents two becoming one and the husband covers the wife. The process of husband covering his wife was governed by a legal process which in legal term known as coverture.In relation to domestic violence, the women who were subject to violence was grouped under battered.The term itself represent helplessness.According to him, the battered women syndrome often argues about the fact that some women who have faced long duration and history of domestic abuse were so faced by the terrors that their response to the world was very much different to that of those who does not faced the same. One of the most common feature of battered women syndrome was they learned helplessness-an acquired feeling that no one can help them out from their present situation (Dolan, 2009, pp.70-71). According to Goodmark (2012), historically domestic violence was treated as private affairs within the family and it was also considered as a husband’s right to control his wife. But in the last 40 years with continuous feminist movements in the UK and USA, government and society started to take the matter seriously.With the concept, that the state government should intervene to protect women, who were subject to abuse, and domestic violence tougher laws were introduced, to prosecute the individual who was involved in domestic violence. According to him the implementation of domestic violence law was not only to give equal opportunity to feminism concept, but it was also designed to prevail the feminist ideology. According to him the concept of men dominated society and men dominated law was to treat women as a sexual object for men’s use. The feminist movement was to prevent these activities and also give proper justice to victimized women of the society (Goodmark, 2012, pp1-2). Concept of Situational Couple Violence: The most common part of domestic violence related to marriage is situational couple violence. Here the violence was provoked by any particular situation or circumstances, as the tensions or emotions regarding any particular incident leads someone to react violently on his or her partner. Any kind of relationship has always possessed conflicts among individuals and in some cases those conflicts resultant into violence. According to their study, the violence can be minor and singular. Any kind of difference in opinion sometimes led to domestic violence in the form of a minor push or slap, but as soon the incident happens individual who became violent apologies to his partner and never repeat that again. These kind of domestic violence can be resolved among couple with mutual understanding. Whereas, if one or more partner continuously tends to repeat the violent activities over another cannot be resolved and that may result into a severe domestic violence. While defining the Motive behind the domestic violence among couples, the Columbia University press study pointed out few motives behind domestic violence among couples. According to them a physical attack sometimes the only way out for few individual to show or demonstrate their dominance or anger. Among married couples sometimes this kind of physical attack was carried out to cause serious injuries. In situational couple violence it can be said that there was no specific pattern related to violence, it is just because of the few disagreements which cause violence among married couples. The frequency of this kind of violence was dependent on how frequently the difference in opinion was happening.The root of Situational couple violence was in the situation rather than the status of the relationship of the couple. Domestic violence and Marital relationship: Domestic violence has a key impact on any kind of marital relationship. According to the survey of Columbia University Press and their report published in Marriage and Family (2013), in the year 1970, 50 percent of women were dissatisfied with their marriage and was facing the trauma of intimate terrorism. However, among those only 13 percent were facing situational couple violence. The research in 1995-96 pointed out that only 7 percent of women were facing the problem of situational domestic violence whereas 29 percent were facing the extreme domestic violence (Marriage and Family: Perspectives and Complexities, 2013). Domestic Violence and Divorce: In the past, it was the general opinion among maximum people that one of the most important reasons behind any kind of divorce was Domestic violence among married couples. Most of the cases women asked for the divorce. People used to think that due to the ultimate level of domestic violence caused by men on their wives, women were looking for separation. But according to George and Elshtain (n.d.), domestic violence was one of of the reason behind the divorce but not the only one. In fact , their survey proves that domestic violence was ranked sixteenth in terms of the reason behind the divorce. Only 20 percent of women in their survey mention domestic violence as the most important reason behind the divorce. Another survey conducted by them in Verginia, shows that only 6 percent cited domestic violence as a reason behind their divorce (George and Elshtain, n.d, p. 95). Domestic Violence: Reason behind Men are getting Violent Against Women: According to Hawaii, O’Neil and Biden (1999), in the USA, till 1970 the domestic violence among married couple was considered as their private matter. But after 1970, the concept started to change. The research revealed that domestic violence exists among all age groups of married couples irrespective of their class, race, and socioeconomic level.Despite of the existence of hard data regarding the domestic violence people of the USA during 1970s & 1980s were in a denial mode to consider this as a serious problem. According to them domestic violence among married couple, especially towards the women was existent among pathological and economically poor families. But, during 1980s, several brutal cases of domestic violence among married couple were helpful to change their perspective. According to them, the battering related to domestic violence was a hard topic to discuss as men generally used to avoid it taking into consideration guilt, shame, fear and defensiveness related to the incident, whereas females used to avoid the topic just because they were not in a position to judge how men will react to the same. Hence the chances of constructive dialogue to resolve the issue within the family was dead and buried. According to their point of view, biology, genetics did not receive enough attention by the researchers in order to find out the exact reason behind why the men getting violent against the women (Harway, O’Neil and Biden, 1999, pp.6-7). According to Harway, O’Neil & Bidden (1999), there were 4 different factors that can justify the reasons behind men getting violent against women in general terms. All these factors were also applicable in case of any domestic violence among married couples. These were: macrosocietal factors; biological factors; gender role socialization factors and relational factors. Macrosocietal Factors: The Macrosocietal factors represent those institutional and patriarchal factors which were behind the violence against women. This factor not only include the history of violence against women but also represent the fear that the men have regarding their loss of power in the society (Harway, O’Neil , Bidden, 1999 , p.13). Biological factors: Different hormonal Neuro anatomical dimension of the men which were responsible behind the violent activity of men against their wife grouped under biological factors. It also includes men’s physiological process which made them violent against women (Harway, O’Neil , Bidden, 1999 , p.13). Gender Role Socialization Factors: According to their study, the learning of any man over his life span in respect to emotions, sexist attitude and behavior were the reason behind their violent activity against women; these parameters were grouped under gender role specialization factors. The main focus of this factor was to emphasize how an individual (man) were socialized in contrast to the gender role conflict , negative attitude towards his wife (Harway, O’Neil , Bidden, 1999 , p.13). Relational Factors: the relational factors behind domestic violence were defined as any kind of verbal or interpersonal differences between any married couple when resultant into a violent outcome. This factor was also dominated by the previous experience that any men was coming across in his family during his childhood time or thereafter (Harway, O’Neil and Biden, 1999, pp. 13-14). Study on Domestic Violence on Pregnant Women: Naved & Persson (2008), in their study on domestic violence among married couple discussed about the violent activities that generally happen on the Bangladeshi women. Their study reveals that, the more violent activities generally took place while they were pregnant. Their study reveals that 10% of women from urban area and 12% women from rural area reported to face violent activities during their pregnancy . The reason behind this was the lack of education among their husband, economical condition as well as their in laws faced the same treatment during their time. In urban area around 13 % of men were less or no education compared to that of 38% in rural areas who get involved in domestic violence with their wife. Among 36 % of women in rural area and 23% in urban area stays with their mother in law at the time of their pregnancy, whereas study shows that, around 17% in urban areas and 13% in rural are mother in laws faced the same treatment from their husband or in laws during their pregnancy time. So it was a kind of chain incident that tends to follow (Naved and Persso, 2008). According to their study, in North America around 4%-8% women face the violent behavior during their pregnancy time. A study of Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) in USA, during 1996-1998 reveals the fact that the overall level of physical violence at the time of pregnancy was standing at 8%. The highest rate was in Oklahoma (7%) and the lowest was in Amine (4%). The study also reveals the fact that around 28% of women were having the experience of facing physical assault during their pregnancy time in countries like India, Pakistan, China and Ethiopia (Naved & Persson, 2008, pp.71-74). Conclusion: Development of the society all around the world in both the developed countries as well as the developing countries brings about many changes. There are lots of laws in place which always talks about equality in the society , in the family so on and so foarth. But, still the domestic violence is one of the major concerns of the society among married couples. It is not only the concern of less developed countries but also for the developing as well as the developed countries. The only difference is that , in case of less developed countries, the poor economic and social structure is shown as the domestic violence among married couple and it also came to light very quickly. In most of the cases the women are the victim of this incident. Throughout the world, in any kind of married relationship the women get most affected by the domestic violence. The domestic violence inflicted upon married women is not only caused by their husbands, but sometimes her in laws also involved in this. Demand for money from their house, pressure of earning more to stabilize the family by any means are some of the reasons why women get physically abused after marriage. References Dolan, F. E. (2009), Marriage and Violence: the Early Modern Legacy, University of Pennsylvania Press . Domestic Violence, Forced Marriage and honor based violence, 2009, Volume 1, The Stationary Office George P. R. & Elshtain, J.B. (ND), The Meaning of Marriage, Scepter Publishers. Goodmark L. (2012). A Trouble Marriage: Domestic Violence and Legal System, NYU Press. Harway, M.; O’Neil, J. M.; Biden, J. R., (1999), What Cause Men’s Violence Against Women, Sage Publication. Kaur , R. & GArg, S. (2008) Addressing Domestic Violence Against Women: An Unfinished Agenda. Indian J. Community MED, 33 (2), pp. 73-76 Marriage and Family: Perspectives and Complexities (2013), Columbia University Press. McCue, M. L.(2008) Domestic Violence, ABC-CLIO Naved, R.T & Persson, L.A. (2008), Factors Associated with Physical Spousal Abuse of Women during Pregnancy in Bangladesh, International Family Planning Perspectives, 34 (2)71-78. Peters E. & Kamp Dush C.M., (2009), Marriage and Family, Columbia University Schwarze, A(2012), On Christian Marriage, Submission and Abuse, Eternity Newspaper, retrieved on 07-09-2013 from http://www.biblesociety.org.au/news/on-christian-marriage-submission-and-abuse Schwarze, A(2012), On Christian marriage, submission and abuse, Eternity Newspaper, retrieved on 07-09-2013 from http://www.biblesociety.org.au/news/on-christian-marriage-submission-and-abuse Read More