Intimate Partner Violence - Essay Example

IPV can vary in frequency and severity. It occurs on a continuum, ranging from one hit that may or may not impact the victim to chronic, severe battering. Victims of domestic violence who are overwhelmingly women are at high risk for mental problems (Intimate partner violence: Intervention in primary health settings by Carlson and McNutt, 1998). There are four main types of intimate partner violence (Intimate partner violence surveillance: uniform definitions and recommended data elements by Saltzman et al. 2002): Physical violence is the intentional use of physical force with the potential for causing death, disability, injury, or harm.

Physical violence includes, but is not limited to, scratching; pushing; shoving; throwing; grabbing; biting; choking; shaking; slapping; punching; burning; use of a weapon; and use of restraints or one's body, size, or strength against another person. Sexual violence is divided into three categories: 1) use of physical force to compel a person to engage in a sexual act against his or her will, whether or not the act is completed; 2) attempted or completed sex act involving a person who is unable to understand the nature or condition of the act, to decline participation, or to communicate unwillingness to engage in the sexual act, e.g., because of illness, disability, or the influence of alcohol or other drugs, or because of intimidation or pressure; and 3) abusive sexual contact.

Psychological and emotional Intimate Partner Violence 2emotional violence may involve trauma to the victim caused by acts, threats of acts, or other coercive tactics. Compared to White women, Latinas tend to be younger, have lower socioeconomic backgrounds and lower educational levels, factors that are known to increase intimate partner violence. (Sociodemographic predictors and cultural barriers to help-seeking behavior by Latina and Anglo American battered women by West, Kantor and Jasinski, 1998).

In the field of practice, intimate partner violence among Latino households had increased over the years. Krishnan et al. (1997) in Documenting domestic violence among ethnically diverse populations: Results from a preliminary study, noted that approximately 61% of Anglo Americans reported experiencing partner violence in the past compared with 36.5% of Latina women in the U.S. There is a need to address the specific requirements of the Latina situation. I would like to focus on the frequency and extent of IPV in terms of ethnic and sociodemographic data.

The socioeconomic data I will propose are age, gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic factors (SES). An added data that I will use is the data on past physical abuse and present physical abuse. The theoretical framework that I will use is the Anderson and Umberson framework which characterizes gender as performance. They found that the men in their study "attempted to construct masculine identities through the practice of violence and the discourse about the violence that they provide" (GENDERING VIOLENCE: Masculinity and Power in Men's Accounts of Domestic Violence by Anderson and Umberson 2001; 359).