Domestic violence and statistic

What is Domestic violence?

Domestic violence is not physical violence alone. Domestic violence is any behavior the purpose of which is to gain power and control over a spouse, partner, girl/boyfriend, or intimate family member. Abuse is a learned behavior; it is not caused by anger, mental problems, drugs or alcohol, or other common excuses.

Studies have found that, survivors of domestic violence experience higher rates of depression, eating disorders, anxiety, PTSD, and suicidal thoughts. The effects of domestic violence are physical too, including increased rates of chronic pain, unwanted pregnancies, HIV, irritable bowel syndrome, hypertension, and substance abuse.

Types of Domestic violence:-

When the general public thinks about domestic violence, they usually think in terms of physical assault that results in visible injuries to the victim. This is only one type of abuse. There are several categories of abusive behavior, each of which has its own devastating consequences. Lethality involved with physical abuse may place the victim at higher risk, but the long term destruction of personhood that accompanies the other forms of abuse is significant and cannot be minimized.

Please explore the following sections to learn more about how to identify domestic violence.

Types of Abuse:

  o   Control

o   Physical Abuse

o   Sexual Abuse

o   Emotional Abuse & Intimidation

o   Isolation

o   Verbal Abuse: Coercion, Threats, & Blame

o   Using Male Privilege

o   Economic Abuse

 

Consequences of domestic violence-

Effect on victim-

●Death, illness, injury & disabilities- this is a very critical issue in the area of domestic violence as because of not psychologically well -being, certain steps were taken by an individual.  every year lakh of people including female and in some case male in India result in death because of domestic violence and also suffer from one and other types of illness such as severe Headache, body pain etc, and disabilities, which a person ever thought in his or her life.

 ●Emotional & psychological trauma– it includes Depression, stress, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and last but not least somatic symptoms. As many of the female population in our society, are suffering from psychological disorder more than any other problem because the grass root of other problem in the body is not good well being and in many cases, in female, it is of due to domestic violence, which results in not handling once emotion, and excessive use of defense mechanisms.

●Homelessness- After the abuse it becomes difficult to stay at home with the same person who abused or many times the abuser forces the victim to leave the house. And the result of this is a divorce between the loving couple because of the small issue and which is sometimes not considered to be an issue because of the dominant feeling or behavior of either from a male side or female.

●Physical health injury & problems, which may not get medically treated.

Effect on family-

●Violence & threat of violence at home, create fear and destroying the family environment and lead to the break-up of families. And it is hence proved nowadays there is more nuclear family as compared to a joint family because of the small issues in family result in violence and result in division. If we compare statistical data of the last 20year India's maximum family segregated from joint family because of the issue of domestic violence.

●Regular household conflict- creates the negativity and a conflicting environment, and because of this, it impacts the psychology and mental health of both old-age members and children at the home. Daily fight, between husband and wife, directly impact other members of the family as they feel why they are not dying, as they have to see this type of environment.

Effect on children-

●Children mostly suffer from anxiety & depression because of the toxic environment.

●Emotional distress

●Eating & sleeping disturbance- unable to eat and sleep properly because of the disturbed environment.

●Physical symptoms such as headache and stomach-ache- happens.

●Low self-esteem- they develop low self-esteem seeing their parents unstable and disrespecting each other.

●Self-harm- try to do self-harm as they feel they cannot stop them and it happens almost daily.

●Aggressiveness towards peers- being in the environment, the child develops the aggression and may displace it towards peers.

●Difficulty in concentration- they tend to have difficulty in concentrating in studies.  

Effect on community-

●Children growing up in this environment where there is no respect in relationship.  

●Higher rate of usage of alcohol- to went these feelings out there is higher chances of alcohol usage.

Treatment of domestic violence 

 The treatment involves counseling of both the individuals who conduct abusive behavior and the person who suffers from particular abusive behavior.

·       For treating victim many therapies are given by the counselor or clinical psychologist and medication is prescribed by psychiatry to reduce symptom and therapies like CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy).  

 

Domestic Violence at the time period of COVID-19 lockdown- 

In 2020, between March 25 and May 31, 1,477 complaints of domestic violence were made by women. This 68-day period recorded more complaints than those received between March and May in the previous 10 years.

 

Conclusion: -

The number of domestic violence cases is on the rise in the state of Gujarat. Ahmadabad tops the dubious distinction list with nearly 13,500 cases or 18 percent over 71,000 cases from across the state, say official sources. Cent of the women had suffered from emotional abuse. 

Citation- 

Sharma, K. K., Vatsa, M., Kalaivani, M., & Bhardwaj, D. (2019). Mental health effects of domestic violence against women in Delhi: A community-based study. Journal of family medicine and primary care, 8(7), 2522.

Ministerie van Algemene Zaken. “What Is Domestic Violence?” Domestic Violence | Government.nl, Ministerie Van Algemene Zaken, 5 Oct. 2016, www.government.nl/topics/domestic-violence/what-is-domestic-violence.

Watts, C., & Zimmerman, C. (2002). Violence against women: global scope and magnitude. The Lancet, 359(9313), 1232-1237.

Submitted by-

Name- 1.Paresh Harsh  

2.Priyanka Gupta

course- BA( Hons) Applied psychology

subject- community psychology

semester-5