Also referred to as intimate partner violence or domestic violence, spousal abuse is a behavioral cycle that involves emotional, sexual, and physical violence inflicted on a partner within the domestic context such as marriage or cohabitation. In essence, any individual can be a victim of this behavior regardless of gender, race, age, sexual orientation, or economic background. Whereas the abuse can be directed towards one partner, in some cases, both partners might be actively engaged in abusing, manipulating or controlling each other. Even though the spousal abuse is significantly associated with physicality, it can also be psychological or sexual.
Statistics
Spousal abuse is a major contributor to and cause of mortality and morbidity in the United States. According to statistics, between 1976 and 2004, approximately one-third of female murder victims were killed by an intimate partner. Similarly, three percent of male murder victims were perpetrated by intimate partners (McDowell, 2011). Notably, statistics from the US Department of Justice indicate that 835, 000 men and 1.3 million women become victims of domestic or spousal abuse annually (Good Therapy, 2018). In addition, out of the total adult population in the US, ten percent of adult men and twenty-nine percent of adult females have experienced some form of abuse including rape, stalking, or physical abuse from their intimate partner at one point of their lives. Financially, the costs related to the vice amount to 8.3 billion dollars annually with most of the finances being directed towards medical and mental health care (Good Therapy, 2018).
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Interventions
Most of the perpetrators of domestic abusive do so out of the security of not being caught. As such, setting up stringent penalties regarding spousal abuse is crucial towards punishing the perpetrators and ultimately reducing the number of victims. However, these penalties have to be backed up by laws and policies whereby the risk of going to jail will deter the abusers. These penalties, though stated, provided, and protected by the law, have to be implemented by the judicial system and law enforcement. Most of the interventions as those mentioned above are proactive.
Nonetheless, reactive measures for reducing the incidence level of domestic violence can also be employed. These include increasing funding for government support services and other organizations that support spousal abuse survivors. According to statistics, women are the most at risk group of domestic violence. According to Cohn (2014), empowering them to become economically independent could suffice in reducing their dependence on abusive men ultimately cutting down the number of victims.
In the case of abuse, there are several agencies that the victim can contact and the most basic and crucial one is the law enforcement agency or the police. Additionally, the victim can contact a family court to initiate a litigation process against the abusive spouse. Also, the victim can contact the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) that provides education and transformational programs to domestic violence survivors.
Conclusion
Spousal abuse is a definitively behavioral cycle that involves emotional, sexual, and physical violence inflicted on a partner within the domestic context such as marriage or cohabitation. The abuse can be physical, sexual, or psychological. Statistically, 835, 000 men and 1.3 million women in the US become victims of domestic violence or spousal abuse annually. The prevalence increases towards the female gender, and as such, one of the preventive mechanisms is empowering them financially to become independent of men, especially the abusive ones. Also, setting up stringent laws policies to be implemented by the courts could suffice in curbing the number of incidences. Among the fundamental agencies that a victim of spousal abuse can contact are the police or law enforcement agency, the NCADV, and the family court.
References
Cohn, J. (2014). Five Things We Can Do to Reduce Domestic Violence. The New Republic . Retrieved from https://newrepublic.com/article/119436/how-stop-domestic-violence-experts-offer-5-steps-policymakers
Good Therapy. (2018). Spousal Abuse. Retrieved from https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/spousal-abuse
McDowell, J. (2011). Chapter 11 - Recognizing, Documenting, and Analyzing Physical Evidence in Abuse Cases. Forensic Dental Evidence (Second Edition), Elsevier . https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-382000-6.00011-1
