Domestic Violence Argumentative Essay

According to statistics of recorded crimes in California, seventy five percent are women who are killed by an intimate partner. Moreover, more than eighty percent was being abused by a spouse or a boyfriend (CPEDV, 2007). Domestic or intimate partner violence has been a major problem in California. It includes violence between spouses, former or current partners, etc. It occurs in every part of the globe, regardless of culture and economic status.

Women are more likely to suffer from domestic violence rather than males. Domestic violence involves physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and psychological abuse. Physical abuse includes intentional using of force that can cause severe injury, disability, and even death. When an intimate partner use bodily force to oblige his partner in a sexual act reluctantly or if he used obnoxious sexual contact, that is considered a form of sexual violence.

Verbal and emotional abuse includes use of insults or any forms of humiliating acts against his partner. In psychological abuse, the victim is being dominated by her partner: controlling her, withholding facts from the victim, making the victim feel inferior, separating the victim from her family, and rebuffing her from money access or other essential resources. Economic abuse is when the victim has lost control from her own economic resources.

Also, part of economic abuse is preventing his partner to finish school or won’t allow her to get a job. Domestic violence was considerably related with her childhood’s experience, having lower education, liberal thoughts about the roles of women, substance or alcohol use, faithfulness, having a close friend or other intimate partner, her partner’s drinking habit, either of the couple supports the family financially, and the like.

Age, employment, economic difference, cohabitation, domestic assets, urbanization, conjugal status, and insights of cultural norms on women’s function in the society show trivial associations with the probability of domestic violence. Studies imply that domestic violence is most strongly associated to the type of women in a society and to the normative use of violence in conflict situations or as part of the exercise of power (Jewkes et al, 2002).

Possible consequences of domestic violence include severe injury (bilateral bruises, broken bones, internal bleeding, and even death), higher rate of long-term health problems such as headaches, back pain, sexually transmitted disease, urinary infections, appetite loss, and abdominal pain, and gynecological, chronic stress and psychological problems such as trauma, sense of inferiority, nightmares, anxiety, feeling of depression and the like.

Not only the victim can suffer from the consequences of domestic violence, her family, especially children who had witnessed the violence may acquire post-traumatic stress disorder, behavioral problems, and depressions. The incidence can leave a mark or a scar for everyone involved (Domestic Violence Intervention Center, 2008). Many cases of domestic violence are not being reported, this is due to the victim’s fear of her former partner that he may stalk, attack or even kill her anytime if his violence will be reported.

However, there are government and non-government agencies that help victims of domestic violence to escape from an abusive partner and start a new life with her own or with her family; one is the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (CPEDV). The agency was formed from two preceding agencies Statewide California Coalition for Battered women and the California Alliance against Domestic Violence. The said program aims to ensure safety and justice for victims and survivors of domestic violence and their family (CPEDV, 2007).

Domestic violence is a serious crime. It is something we should not take for granted since it can be a long-timed suffering, or even fatal, for everyone involved. References ChildbirthSolutions, Inc. (2008). Violence against Women. Retrieved January 26, 2008 from < http://www. childbirthsolutions. com/articles/issues/violence/index. php> CPEDV. (2007). Frequetly Asked Questions about Domestic Violence. Retrieved January 28, 2008 from < http://www. cpedv. org/CPEDV_faq. html> Domestic Violence Intervention Center.

(2008). Consequences of Violence on Psychological Health. Retrieved January 28, 2008 from < http://www. dvic. org/Consequences-of-Domestic-Violence-on-Psychological-Health. php> Jewkes, R. et al. (2002). Risk Factors for domestic Violence: findings from a South African cross-sectional study. PubMed Database. Retrieved January 28, 2008 from < http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/sites/entrez> SafeState. (2007). Domestic Violence. Retrieved January 26, 2008 from < http://safestate. org/index. cfm? navId=9>