Domestic Violence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Domestic Violence - Essay Example In recent times, reports show a wide estimate in their prevalence. In the US, it is affecting over 22% of the American women through their lifetime. Men are also falling subject to domestic violence however; in most cases, it is usually situational couple violence, therefore, likely to be physically unhurt. The following essay looks at the domestic violence situation to find out how wide spread the violence is in United States. It also looks at the current laws and initiatives put in place to counter the situation. Literature review One agreed upon definition of domestic violence are the willful intimidation, sexual assault, battery, physical assault or any other abusive behavior towards one partner by the other. Domestic violence in most cases leads to cases of psychological trauma, physical injury, and sometimes-even death. It is a fact that those women who are against violence in most cases they are often accompanied by controller comportment and emotionally abusive, which results to a systematic form of control and governance (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence 1). The NCADV fact sheet also contains a brief overview of the degree of domestic violence in the country. It states that statistically in every four women one is likely to experience or become a victim of domestic violence through her lifetime. ... The report also supports the argument that the cases of this abuse rarely goes to the police (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence 2). The US office of Justice is also concerned with the rise of unreported instances of domestic violence in the United States. Therefore, the department conducted various public researches on domestic violence and compiled a specific report on their findings in June 2009. The overview of the report starts with a statistical indication that between the periods of 1993 to 2005 the average rate of domestic violence per 1000 persons is 2.1 for men and 5.9 for women (Klein 1). According to the victims, the report narrates that a third of the victims reported actual physical abuse. Two thirds are those that are subject to threats by a physical attack or death. The rate of injury according to the study was over a half of the women victims. Most had mild injury marks with another percentage of about 4.5% having serious bodily harm. A percentage of about three faced sexual assault. The report also showed that women who had separated from the spouse faced a high chance of physical abuse than those who were still in their marriages. When it comes to reporting the cases and police arrest the reports shows that: a large proportion of the abuse victims tends to deny abuse contrary to the police findings and documentation. The research found that, around 29 per cent of the victims claim, there was no assault, however ironically the suspects in most situations admit to the offence with a disparity of 19 per cent (Klein, 5). According to a preliminary report by Manjoo for the U.N. special rapporteur on domestic violence against women, the poor minority together with immigrant women are