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.