Table of Contents
Domestic violence is a dark truth in which differences such as financial status, sexual identity, religious affiliation and age are broken. It’s a complicated and emotionally charged subject marked as a personal family matter, often swept under the carpet. Violence against women should not be taken as a private family matter but must be seen as a social phenomenon.
In addition to this in relation to the psychological, mental and safety expenses, there are economic expenses associated with violence against females (Garcia-Moreno, Heise, Jansen, Ellsberg, & Watt, 2005; Shipway, 2004). Intimate relationship domestic violence is not restricted to physical violence alone; it involves psychological abuse, mental, economic and cultural segregation. Kirkwood (1993) defined six emotional types of emotional abuse as follows:
Degradation
The female is constantly being told that by verbal abuse or being compelled to conduct sexual acts that contradict her will, she is of lower importance. Females may also be deteriorated for being considered ignorant, utterly useless or untrustworthy in all that they do. Kirkwood says that these deterioration has a negative influence onto the self-worth of females.Ultimately, females permitted their abuser to determine their value.
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Fear
Abused women experience fear. They may be continually concerned about security, not just their own but their kids as well. They must be continually on the alert for the prospective outbreak of violence. Furthermore, ‘the unpredictable nature and unexpectedness of further assaults created an environment of sustained danger, and thus constant fear and anxiety’ (p. 49).Trying to live in that kind of environment for women can be quite nerve-shattering
Objectification
Objectification of women occurs when the female is handled as an item instead of a human being. It is by refusing the females their individuality that violent men objectivized their associates. They had to alter their external image in order to correspond to the wishes of the abuser.Excessive and unnecessary obsessiveness, articulated through the willingness of males to regulate the social network of women alone, means that the female is simply a man-owned item.
Deprivation
Kirkwood cited two primary types of poverty, namely financial and social inequality, which in turn prevents females in the situation of violence as their financial and private assets are restricted. Women have been stripped of fundamental human needs and often have an intense feeling of solitude.
Overburden of Responsibility
Ideally, relationship involves fair accountability. However, females discover that accountability for mutual issues has placed much more upon them in abusive and controlling interactions. There was no ‘giving and taking’ in the relationship, and it was the responsibility of women to maintain the relationship, take complete accountability for looking after children, and meet ends.
Distortion of Subjective Reality
Kirkwood describes this kind of emotional abuse as ‘the continuous casting of trust on the views of women by their abusers and [ the ] powerful and continuous appearance of those in conflict’ (p. 56). By continually doubting and challenging the personal truth of females, abusers can create females fear and distrust their own views and effectively make them more susceptible to recommendations from their peers.
