Abuse and Family Violence
Priti Vijay Kawhale
Manikchand Pahade Law College Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar
This Blog is written by Priti Vijay Kawhale, a Fourth Year Law student of Manikchand Pahade Law College Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar
Introduction
‘Abuse’ when we hear this word the first thought that comes in our mind is physical abuse. Harming a person physically includes beating, slapping, and hitting with an object which can injure a person heavily. And the same with family violence. When the term family violence came first thought that came across our mind was domestic violence. Domestic violence is considered as a subset of family violence. And when we speak about family violence or domestic violence people consider an image of a woman getting beaten by her spouse or family members. But is it necessary to think that only women face abuse and family violence?
In today's period people whether it is men or women, children, or old age, younger or older everyone face abuse and family violence in different forms. This abuse and family violence leads people towards different traumas. Sometimes it becomes difficult to see abuse and family violence from the other end. Most of the time people who face abuse and family violence keep silent about the things that are happening with them. This leads to the problem in a person's life. Abuse and family violence are not new in society. But it is now becoming prominent nowadays. This problem leads to the different forms of other social problems. Abuse and family violence may create drift between two persons whether it is intimate partners in a relationship or immediate partners or family members living under the same roof. Abuse and family violence are becoming a major problem in society because of this people face a lot of problems, traumas, and disorders.
What is Abuse and Family violence?
Abuse occurs when people miss or misuse other people, showing no concern for their integrity or innate worth as individuals and in a manner that degrades their well-being.
Abuse means causing distress to a person. Anyone can become a victim of abuse. It does not matter if that person is intelligent, strong, worthy, rich, or poor. There are different types of abuse which include physical abuse, verbal abuse, financial abuse, spiritual abuse, social abuse, psychological abuse, emotional abuse, etc.
Family violence
Family violence is any threatening, coercive, dominating, or abusive behavior that occurs between people in a family, domestic or intimate relationship, or former intimate relationship, that causes the person experiencing the behavior to feel fear.
There are certain types of family violence relationship
People often think that family violence occurs between intimate partners or immediate relations living in the same home. But family violence can also be perpetrated by someone that you normally live with who is in a family-like relationship or any person from a family.
· Intimate partner abuse: any violent behavior used by a spouse or partner against another partner or spouse. In the intimate partner relationship, the violence can be verbal abuse, sexual abuse emotional detachment, or physical abuse. It is mostly seen that in any intimate relationship, a partner tries to control the other partner's life. It is also observed that a partner also tries to be a dominant in relationship. The person also restricts the other partner from meeting people like friends and family and makes the relationship toxic.
· Child abuse: any violent behavior or mistreatment towards a child or young person by parents or caregivers. It occurs when parents start comparing their children with other children by making them feel unwanted. It also happens when parents start ignoring the child which leads the child to become a silent and introverted person. The behaviour of parents towards a child has a major effect on the brain of that child or a young person. Always comparing themselves with others, and ignoring that child makes them feel unworthy of their love and care which leads to different traumas and phobia of being with people, a fear of always getting compared with other people, and feeling low self-esteem.
· Elder abuse: any violent behaviour or mistreatment towards an elder person by a spouse partner or family member which often includes verbal abuse, financial abuse, controlling behavior, or negligence. Elder abuse also includes the ill and bad behaviour of the family members towards the elder person or old age person. Sometimes because of the generation gap the elderly person feels unwanted, lacks communication with family members, getting ignore by family members or their children which leads to different traumas like feeling helpless toward themselves, feeling isolated or alone, and burden on others.
· Women abuse: it is also defined as domestic abuse. Any relationship where a woman is getting physically, verbally, emotionally, or sexually abused, or harassed is known as women abuse. In most relationships, a man abuses a woman sexually physically, or verbally. But most of the time it can also be because of dowry-related issues or spouse feels dominant in the relationship. Most of the time women not only face domestic violence from their spouse or partner but also, face from the relatives of their spouse or partner. In India, there are many cases of domestic violence in which women are not safe in any relationship or marriage. Not only in marriage or relationships the women are facing sexual abuse in their own houses and by their family members. There are certain laws made for women's safety from dowry death and domestic violence which help women to stand up for themselves.
There are different types of abuse and family violence.
§ Physical abuse: physically harming a family member whether it is a man or woman, child or old person, young or elderly person. Physical abuse is also considered as a domestic violence.
§ Emotional abuse: emotional manipulation through bullying or controlling behaviour or giving the silent treatment to the partner or any family member by other partner or family members.
§ Financial abuse: restricting other person from using money not giving access to a bank account or using that person’s money without their consent means financial abuse.
§ Sexual abuse: it means for the same partner to have a sexual relationship without their consent. It can also involve causing pain during sex, assaulting the genitals, or using sexually colored or degrading insults.
§ Social abuse: controlling someone by isolating them from other people like friends and family. Making them live alone.
§ Verbal abuse: verbal abuse means calling a person with degrading words, humiliating that person in front of outsiders or other family members, and taunting them either privately or publicly.
§ Elder or child abuse: harming a child or elder person physically, verbally, financially emotionally, or sexually or neglecting that person’s existence.
There are some reasons why a person can be abusive.
I. They have a disorder: the person is a psychopath or sadist. That person gains pleasure by seeing another person in pain.
II. They were abused: some abusers act out their dysfunctional behaviors on others because it was done to them.
III. They watched something: it happens when a person watches something abusive and wants to try it out on someone else.
IV. They have anger issues: some people have anger issues. So, they vent their anger on another person in the form of physical harm.
V. They grow up with an addict: a person who grows up with an addict seeing that person causing harm to others mentally makes that person sick and that person tries to do the same.
VI. They have control issues: some people cannot control themselves so they harm other people.
VII. They don't understand boundaries: a person doesn't understand the limits and boundaries of another person and initiates harm toward that person.
VIII. They are afraid: some people feel afraid of being missing out. So, they try to harm others.
IX. They lack empathy: some people do not feel any kind of empathy towards others. They can't feel the pain of others. So, they harm people.
X. They have personality disorder: some people face split personality disorder because of which their personality switches from a soft to aggressive person and harms another person in their aggressiveness.
There are some causes for abuse and family violence like family crisis or stress, single parenting, financial stress, unemployment, poverty, isolation, alcohol and drugs lack of education, lack of social skills, insanity, or lunatic behaviour, etc. are the causes for abuse and family violence.
Abuse is a learned behaviour. Some people witness it in their own families while some learn it from friends, culture, or through structural inequities in society. Many people experience or witness abuse or family violence and use their experience to end this abuse and family violence cycle. But some cannot overcome that problem. They face many problems in their regular life because of abuse and family violence some people face lifetime traumas because of abuse and family violence which lead them to become silent and introverted people. It also makes that person physically, emotionally, or socially weak. The victim of abuse and family violence mainly faces problems of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and lack of social skills, and also develops a phobia of engaging with people. It also led them to develop suicidal thoughts. Some people also turn to alcohol and drugs or self-harm to try to cope with everything.
Conclusion
This abuse and family violence are deeply rooted in society. People who face abuse and family violence try to forget it, people who witness the abuse and family violence try to move on, but no one is ready to help themselves or others. There are some laws made to punish the person who commits the abuse and family violence. There are some special laws made for children, old people, and women to make them feel safe from abuse and family violence.
There are other help available for the victims of abuse and family violence. There are specific doctors of psychology or psychotherapy who provide therapy to mentally, and emotionally unstable people to improve themselves and help them to overcome the Traumatic incident.
References
2. https://safesteps.org.au/understanding-family-violence/what-is-family-violence/
3. https://www.missionaustralia.com.au/stories/safe-homes/types-of-domestic-violence-abuse
5. https://psychcentral.com/pro/exhausted-woman/2017/03/13-reasons-why-people-abuse#2
6. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/child-abuse/symptoms-causes/syc-20370864