The Effects of Domestic Violence on the Family

Domestic Violence is a pattern of mental, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse where one partner makes the other feel scared, weak, isolated, hurt or sad. Studies have shown that one in three women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime. The mindset of the abuser is to gain and maintain power and control over the person being abused. In these cases, it's usually the man doing most of the abusing. Woman suffer from domestic violence everyday and it leads to murder. Sometimes it's referred to as femicide, a murder against a female. One in three woman in the United States are killed by an intimate partner. The risk of a woman being killed by an intimate partner increases when the partner has access to a gun, threatens murder, forces sex, strangles the victim, is extremely jealous, is physically violent, or abuses drug and alcohol.

Social status and employment are the two main factors that cause domestic violence. Other things that may lead to domestic violence is drug abuse, alcohol consumption, and extreme jealousy. Everyone by now should know what happens when alcohol is present. It causes people to act out of character and at times people blackout and have no control over what happens due to their overwhelming raged emotions. The results of domestic violence is almost like the cause of it. Some women suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This leads to drug abuse, women being placed on welfare, single parent, alcohol abuse, depression and even thoughts of suicide. Women that are abused are six times more likely to abuse drugs, three times more likely to be diagnosed with depression, and three times more like to have an STD. Domestic violence leads to divorce and most times leaves the women on welfare or even homeless. Sixty Percent of women that are homeless has been a victim of domestic violence. Women are not the only people affected by domestic violence; children are affected also.

Women that are abused as children are more likely to be abused as adults and men are over two times likely to abuse others. Children who are exposed to domestic violence experience the same symptoms as children who are abused themselves. These symptoms include: trauma-related anxiety or depression, fighting and bullying, lying and cheating, difficulty forming relationships, increased involvement in violence, and the attempt of suicide. They are also exposed to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder such as, bedwetting, asthma, nightmares, and even headaches and flu. Out of all the domestic violent acts that occur, 36% of them had a child present.

These acts of violence are usually taking place in an impoverished or low income household. Women in the lowest income category experience domestic violence at 6 times the rate of women in high income households. This draws a connection with the women that are African American. African Americans make up for most of the low income neighborhoods in America so that means that they are more subject to experience domestic violence by an intimate partner. African American women also do not seek help until the situation gets too severe because they do not want the stigma of Black Men being abusive to be true.

The biggest problem with domestic violence is that the women wait too late to take action against their intimate partner. A study was done to show that on average, it takes a women five times to decide whether or not to leave their partner. That is five times too many. Another problem is that they usually return to their abuser out of fear or fatal attraction. Another statistic showed that 20% of women that are abused stay with their abuser. This is a huge problem because the only thing that will result in a person returning to their abuser is more severe abuse or even death. Domestic Violence as you may see destroys a family and individual lives. It is an unhealthy situation for children and adults and it is no way to run a household. It has affects that can last a lifetime and/or even cut a life short. Please do not ignore the signs of domestic abuse. Seek help immediately. You do not want to ruin a child's life or even your own.

Question: How do you feel about women returning to their abuser? Do you have sympathy or no sympathy?