Domistic Violence in America

Domestic Violence in America

Every year there are 1.3 million reported instances of domestic violence. One in six women has experienced an attempted or contemplated rape. One in twelve women will be stocked in their lives. Almost one-third of women homicide victims that are reported in police records are killed by an intimate partner. Only approximately one-quarter of all physical assaults, one-fifth of all rapes, and one-half of all stalking perpetuated against females by intimate partners are reported to the police. It is estimated that 25% of women will be physically or sexually abused in their life. Domestic violence is one of the highest unreported crimes. (Domestic Violence Facts).

Domestic violence has been a problem in society since the beginning of time, and it is a very serious problem that needs to be addressed more often. Domestic violence is defined as “incidents of inter-spousal physical or emotional abuse perpetrated by one of the spouses or parent figures upon the other spouse or parent figure in the child victim's home environment.” (National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System). The definition for domestic violence is actually pretty broad so “murder, negligent homicide, justifiable homicide, kidnapping, rape, forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object, forcible fondling, robbery, aggravated assault, simple assault or intimidation are all also considered domestic violence, where the victim to offender relationship is based on marriage, family ties, a romantic relationship or a former marriage.” (Glossary). An important type of domestic abuse that was left out of those definitions is deprivation, which means a spouse keeping their partner from having essentials of living.

While domestic violence can be a woman abusing a man, a man abusing another man, or a woman abusing another woman, the majority of the cases involve a man abusing a woman. For the purpose of this paper the type of domestic violence covered will be a man abusing...