Essay, Research Paper: Violence 2

Throughout history many women have been victims of domestic violence. Society
considered men to be superior to women because men were always in power
economically, legally, and religiously. This gave men the attitude that women were
inferior to them. Men harm their wives by beating them physically and abusing them
emotionally. Many of these women did not report the abuse that they got from their
spouses and families because they thought that no one would believe them. By becoming
informed with the causes, effects, and treatments of domestic violence towards women in
the United States, we can then contain the damages that are done to women or at least
get the message across to other women that there is help to overcome this tragic display
of affection . Domestic violence is defined broadly as violent acts carried out by
persons in a marital, sexual, parental, or care-giving role toward others in reciprocal
roles. Spousal abuse may apply to couples engaged in a sexual relationship outside of
marriage. And child abuse may be penetrated by parents, siblings, step-parents, or
live-in boyfriends or girlfriends of the abused child s parent (Rosen 3). Battered women
are defined as women that have been Victora 2 physically or emotionally abused by their
husbands or families. These women suffer from many different types of domestic
violence but the cause is just one abuse. Abuse happens to many women but most of
the time it is not reported to the police. Abuse is an underreported crime, it is
underreported for two reasons: a) it occurs in the privacy of one s home where there are
typically no witnesses aside from family member s to detect and report it and b) though
violence is by no means restricted to the lower classes, middle- and upper class violence
is likely to go unreported to the police (Stets 3). Why it is not reported to the police
could be the result of the emotions that are building up inside the victim s head. These
women feel apprehensive in reporting the abuse because they are scared of what the
abuser will do to them. They were afraid because if he found out that they called the
police he might hurt them or their children even more than he already did. The lower
class violence is usually reported because they deal with social services more often than
the middle and upper classes do. They are more educated in knowing that public social
control agencies can help them get through the abuse. The middle and upper classes do
not usually report these acts of violence because they probably can afford a psychiatrists
or a marriage counselor. Abusive behavior begins in cycles and not everyday
occurrences. This abusive cycle is called the battering cycle and it contains three phases.
The first phase is the tension-building phase, the second phase is the explosion or acute 3
battering incident phase, and the third phase is the calm, loving phase. The first phase is
when the woman notices the man building tension and becoming very edgy which causes
minor violent episodes. Then the second phase begins when that tension builds up higher
and the man explodes in anger or in a blind rage that revolves into a severe violent
incident. And the third and final phase is when the man apologizes and tries to win the
woman back by showering her with gifts. The abuse that women obtain towards them
can be experienced with various types of violence. Those types of violence can be
anything from a minor push or shove to something major such as threatening with a
weapon. In the past, spousal abuse has been treated as a fairly simple set of violent
behaviors . The five most common types of domestic or spousal violence are: 1) when a
woman is thrown against an object, 2) when she is hit with the man s open hand or fist,
3) when she is pushed or shaken roughly, 4) when she is hit with an object and the 5)
and most deadly of all is when a woman is threatened with a weapon (Rhodes 32). The
causes of domestic violence towards women in the United States are many but the best
known and lucid are the male gender attitudes of being number one. Men have the idea
that women are worthless and inferior to them. This concept degenerates women to a
lower class or form of life that can not allow men to see women as their equals.
According to Violence Hits Home, Karen Rosen reported that men who abuse their
spouses tend to have more 4 traditional gender-role orientation than do non-batterers.
She also suggests those abusive men tend to be more controlling, dominating, and
aggressive in order to get their needs met (85). These men also believe that their abuse
will help them to maintain power in their families. Rosen also found out that witnessing
marital violence as a child was consistently related to abuse in adult relationships in
other words Being a member of a violent family is how each generation learns to be
violent ( 85 ). When a child is exposed to everyday acts of domestic violence then that
child is brought up to believe that domestic violence is acceptable and can be done to
their own spouses. Some men also abuse their wives in an act of jealousy, anger, and
aggression or poor impulse control. Men usually tend to abuse women more often when
the women involved are not their wives. Batterers are more likely to be violent in
non-family situations than men that are married and do not batter their wives. According
to Sandra Stith, a researcher of the causes for domestic violence, Abusers were more
likely than non-abusers to believe that wife-beating is not only justified but acceptable (
86 ). This belief that violence is justified to maintain power may explain why men may
choose not to control their anger and frustrations. In an abusive man s eyes violence is
not only justified but also acceptable.