“The guarantee of safety in an abusive relationship can never rest on a promise from the perpetrator, no matter how sincere,” a quote from Judith Lewis Herman, a psychologist American and teacher. Women often enter relationships, even marriage, expecting to be protected rather than abused. Needing a certain sense of security and protection, many suffer betrayal at the hands of the very men they trust and love, resulting in domestic violence. Women have been publicly, economically, politically and even emotionally oppressed for what may seem like the beginning of time, so being oppressed in the form of abuse, at the hands of a loved one is like pouring salt on an open bruise. Domestic violence, as you will learn from this essay, is a major oppressor of women, not only in America, but globally. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay You may be wondering, “What is domestic violence?” According to the Women's Advocates website, domestic violence is described as "a pattern of behavior in any relationship used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner." This is abuse that manifests itself in many forms, including but not limited to physical, emotional, psychological and sexual. Such acts of threat or violence are usually inflicted by people whom women trust and love deeply and tenderly. This type of abuse is intended to “frighten, intimidate, terrorize, manipulate, hurt, humiliate, blame, hurt, or hurt someone.” Its end results are usually psychological trauma, physical injury, and even death. Domestic violence does not discriminate against women. Victims are of any age group, race, ethnicity, economic class, religion, sexual orientation, education level, socioeconomic status, and/or religion. Married couples, cohabiting partners, single women, common-law couples and cohabiting couples are also vulnerable to acts of domestic violence. Although the severity and frequency vary, one factor that certainly influences domestic violence is usually linked to the innate need of one partner, usually the dominant one, to dominate and control the other. The abuser and abuse often leave the victim with a sense of weakness and lack of self-confidence. Warning signs of domestic violence usually start small and are usually dismissed or downplayed. Some of these behaviors, according to Visio of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, a website committed to advocating and spreading awareness about domestic violence, “insulting, threatening, possessiveness or distrust. Abusers may apologize profusely for their actions or try to convince the person they are abusing that they do these things out of love or care. Usually, these small acts of manipulative behavior escalate into more violent behavior. Although it does not have a broad, time-stamped history, domestic violence is not a new epidemic. “Medscape” says the history of domestic violence dates back to a time when it was legal for a man to punish his wife. The Common Law of England, which dates back to the time of the monarchy in England, stated that a man was permitted "to beat his wife, provided that the diameter of the stick so used was not larger than the diameter of his thumb, hence the term 'Rule of Thumb'.”In America, domestic violence was commonplace and a man beating his wife was usually considered a joke. It was considered a valid reason for husbands to exercise and express authority overtheir wives. Domestic violence was considered a trivial crime, and some psychologists even considered it a way to relieve stress. In 1641, a document was drafted that provided guidelines for the use of force and abuse against women. The document was called the Body of Liberties of the Massachusetts Bay and stated that a woman should not endure any type of physical violence or conflict from her husband. A wave of feminist movements, probably the first ever, began in the nineteenth century, which led to changes in opinion and even laws on the physical abuse of women and domestic violence in general. The state of Tennessee was the first to pass a law prohibiting wife beating in 1850. Other states soon followed, and by 1870 most American courts denied husbands the right to physically abuse their wives. In 1920 the once legal act of wife beating was made illegal in every state in America. In 1878, the UK Matrimonial Act was passed in the United Kingdom, allowing women to seek legal separation from their abusive husbands. The passing of the laws allowed police officers to arbitrate in domestic violence cases. However, the men were still not punished for their behaviors. It wasn't until the 1990s that domestic violence issues began to be taken seriously. In 1993, the United Nations led the way for countries around the world to treat domestic violence as a criminal act with the publication of a manual known as Strategies for Addressing Domestic Violence: A Resource Manual. In 1994 the United States Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 which was part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. According to Legal Momentum, VAWA was the first “comprehensive federal legislative package designed to end the violence against women. " The law included prevention and funding strategies for victims of domestic violence, as well as the “federal criminal battery law and the requirement that every state give full faith and credit to orders of protection anywhere in the United States.” We read on the Guttmacher Policy Review website that there is a coalition between domestic violence and that of being a “sexual and reproductive health and rights issue in the United States”. I thought reading the article written by Kinsey Hasstedt and Andrea Rowan. Rather than referring to the act as domestic violence, the couple calls it “intimate partner violence (IPV)” and explains how it is a public health crisis in America, addressing the consequences that appear to be “a component criticism of sexuality and reproduction”. health and rights in this country”. The sexual abuse factor of domestic violence is considered a factor of reproductive control and unfairly affects women of all ages. The pair concludes that domestic sexual violence and sexual and reproductive health acts have intersectionality perspectives that occur at the federal policy level. The pair goes on to say that of the large percentage of women who are victims of domestic violence in America, “nearly half have experienced psychological assault, approximately one in four have been subjected to severe physical violence, and nearly one in 10 have been raped.” .” Of all women killed in America, one-third are killed during acts of domestic violence by former or current partners. As a result, the act of domestic violence publicly costs the country billions of dollars. They state that apart from sexual and reproductive violence resulting from domestic violence, the heinous act has been “linked to adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Furthermore, they are thewomen of reproductive age – most often those who are young or poor – who are more likely to experience IPV, including sexual violence and reproductive control.” They also report that there are a number of negative health concerns regarding sexual and reproductive problems that women experience as a result of domestic violence. The physical violence that women experience causes women to experience greater risks of reproductive harm. Aside from the negative sexual and reproductive effects of domestic violence, the law also imposes millions of dollars in annual economic costs. Medscape estimates that as of In 2003, annual costs resulting from domestic violence were estimated at $8.3 billion. Of this sum, $6.2 billion was spent on victims of physical assault, $461 million on victims of stalking, $460 million on victims of rape, and $1.2 billion on victims killed by of domestic violence. The domestic violence epidemic has statistics that push the envelope. Statistics show that one in four women is a victim of domestic violence in one form or another. UN Women, a website dedicated to ending domestic violence against women, states that 35% of women worldwide have experienced domestic violence, physical or sexual, by an intimate partner or a non-partner at least once in life. While seventy percent of these women experienced violence in an intimate way. Children confessed to witnessing abuse of their mothers by their fathers or other male figures globally. An estimated 87,000 women were killed intentionally during an incident of domestic violence in 2017, which is the direct result of the daily killing of one hundred and thirty-seven women worldwide by a family member or intimate partner. Around thirty thousand women have been killed by their ex-partners. In America, the NCADV states that nearly “nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. For one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men.” One in four women suffers serious domestic violence, whether physical, sexual or stalking by a partner. On a daily basis, it is reported that more than twenty thousand calls are made to domestic violence hotlines nationwide. As a result of domestic violence, there are also reports of higher rates of depression and suicide among victims of domestic violence. It can be concluded that a large percentage of domestic abuse is usually committed by intimate partners, both husbands and wives. In countries around the world, at least one in three women experiences domestic violence at the hands of their husband or intimate partner. At least ten million people in the United States are victims of domestic violence every year. This equates to at least twenty people per minute. Although the numbers are not as high as in the United States, domestic violence is still prevalent in other countries. Studies have shown that even women from different cultures that prohibit violence against women experience domestic violence. By way of comparison, there are reports that of 832 Muslim children surveyed, 76% of them reported witnessing domestic violence on their mothers, at the hands of their fathers. Another study conducted in Tunisia, an Islamic country, out of 500 women interviewed, 33.3% of them admitted to having suffered abuse from their spouse. Among Muslim Americans, 31% reported experiencing domestic violence from an intimate partner in a relationship. 53% of American Muslim women have reported some type of domestic abuse in their lifetime. Like divorce, committing acts of violence is frowned upon in the Muslim community.