Domestic Abuse – a Pressing Social Justice Issue

People all over the world may suffer or witness some form of domestic violence, yet they can do nothing about it. Hence, I decided to research and analyze this problem in the hope of raising people's awareness and offering some possible resolutions. Hopefully, you can have a better idea of what domestic abuse is, its causes and effects, and what our next steps are after listening to my presentation.

What is Domestic Abuse?

Let me begin with the definition of domestic abuse.

What is domestic abuse then? Domestic abuse is the kind of violence occurring among family members, especially between intimate partners. It can affect people of all races, cultures, and social statuses, and therefore is a pressing global issue today. The victim can be of any family role, such as a child, a wife, a husband, a sibling, an elderly and so on. Consequently, every one of us needs to focus on this severe issue because no one is entirely safe from domestic violence.

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The Majority of the Domestic Violence Offences are Against Women

Although as I mentioned in the last slide, any person can suffer from domestic abuse, most of the domestic violence offences are acted by men against women. In other words, females are more likely to be bullied in a household. The bar graph illustrates data gathered by Statistics Canada. The blue bars indicate female victims, and the red bars mean male victims. Based on the graphic demonstrated, we can clearly see that the number of domestic assaults against women is way more than the ones against men in any age group of victims, almost twice the amount.

As a result, it is fair to include that women are the easier targets and victims when it comes to domestic violence.

Root Causes

To understand an issue, we must analyze its root causes. How does the problem of domestic abuse come in to practice? In fact, any kind of violence, especially domestic violence, is based on the desire for power and control. If one partner of a relationship holds the need to dominate over another, then the relation is extremely likely to become violent. When one of the people in relationship fails to view and respect the other as an equal party, the scale of balance leading to harmony will begin to lose balance. In this way, it promotes an unhealthy and abusive family atmosphere, which is remarkably detrimental to uniting the family together. According to studies, people with abusive tendencies usually become violent when they find events or people out of control. The greediness for power and control may come from a variety of reasons: childhood encounters, significant changes in life, financial dilemmas, and so on. When a person experiences extraordinarily unfavorable circumstances, he may lose his rational thinking and commit actions that are irrevocably evil.

Historical Influences

Domestic abuse is not a recent social justice issue. Instead, its origins date back to a long time ago in history. As we all know, we live in a patriarchal society throughout the history. For thousands of years, abuse against women has been tolerated and accepted as the general practice. Even worse, it has also been encouraged. In most ancient societies, women were treated as the property of their fathers and then of their husbands. Women have to be obedient while men adopt the dominant roles. Patriarchy is a type of social organization that puts males as supreme rulers within a household, making females dependent upon them by both law and social expectation. Sadly, in the 21st century of today, we still live in such a society. Domestic violence is rooted in this unfair society of male dominance, where women's rights are belittled and not valued. Gender equality is still an unfulfilled promise.

Types of Domestic Abuse

When talking about domestic abuse, people tend to think of physical abuse only. However, there are generally five additional types of violence other than the physical one. Firstly, verbal violence consists of assaults and curses of oral language. Secondly, mental disturbance involves threat and intimidation for the purpose of terrifying the victim. Thirdly, emotional abuse means humiliation and insult through facial and gestural expressions. Number four, financial exploitation contains taking money and property away from the victim. And finally, number five, spiritual harassment includes isolating the victim through silence or confinement. There are a variety of domestic abuse types, which makes this issue complex and difficult to solve.