Health Promotion 

The nature of domestic violence

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Domestic violence takes the form of different types of violence. These include:

 

 Physical assault

    This can be any act that is intended to cause bodily harm physical pain , injury or suffering. This type of assault come in various forms including: hitting, slapping, punching, chocking, pushing etc.

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 Sexual violence

   The abuser usually forces  and coerces sexual acts, rape and having sex  without the victims consent.

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Threats of violence

   Victims who have been regularly physically assaulted, threats can inject just as much fear as the actual act. Many victims live in constant fear, which is the most typical a man will keep a woman in subjugation. These threats include threatening to kill the wife or girlfriend, children, the wife’s family etc. This can also include several actions such as smashing or destroying objects, windows, crockery and the deliberate destruction of anything that has any importance to the partner.

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 Social Abuse

  This involves victims being stopped from meeting or seeing friends or   family, not allowed to leave the home, including the victim being stalked. Perpetrators purposefully distance the victim from family and friends and all potential sources of external help.

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Psychological/ Emotional abuse

Victims  of domestic violence often  suffer from constant insults and humiliation.  . Perpatrators exert extraordinary control over the women’s behaviour, thoughts, feelings, what she wears, where she goes, who she sees including her family. These women are constantly humiliated, diminished as well as often told they are ugly, no one else could ever love them, dirty, they smell etc. This emotional torture and living under terror is often more unbearable than the physical assaults, with mental stress leading to a high incidence of suicide and suicide attempts.

Abused women can be characterised by the following four characteristics:

• The woman believes that the violence was or is her fault.

• The woman has an inability to place responsibility for the violence elsewhere.

• The woman fears for her life and/or her children's lives.

• The woman has an irrational belief that the abuser is omnipresent and omniscient.

These victims often suffer from extreme fear, low self-esteem, anxiety, insomnia and depression.

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Economic abuse

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 This is the unreasonable deprivation or control   of the victim's of economic or financial resources. This include the control or deprivation of household necessities, mortgage bond repayments or payment of rent if the perpetrator with the victim. This can also be the disposal i.e. sale or giving away of the victims household goods other property, money etc.