by Donald Rahrer

Created on: May 07, 2010   Last Updated: May 09, 2010

The Negative Impact of Domestic Violence on Families

Domestic violence is epidemic in the United States and is an equal opportunity employer. It plays no favorites and crosses all economic, sexual, religious, and racial boundaries. This article will explore the dynamics of domestic violence, its causes and effects on the individuals and families in its chokehold.

I have obtained personal interviews with law enforcement professionals, conducted interviews with victims, observed group counseling sessions, and completed extensive research on the topic of domestic violence.

As a result, I have been able to identify conclusions relating to the causes of domestic violence and abuse as well as the devastating effects on the victims and families involved. 

Domestic violence and abuse includes physical violence, verbal and emotional abuse, economic abuse, sexual abuse, intimidation, and using children to gain power and control. The examples are as follows. 

Physical violence is any behavior that may result in physical injury. Emotional abuse, or “mind games”, is anything making a partner feel badly about him or herself.   Economic abuse is creating a situation where one partner is financially dependent on the other.  

Sexual abuse includes physical attacks on one’s sexual parts or forcing a partner to have sexual relations against their will. Intimidation is terrorizing or frightening a partner into submission  Using children as pawns and threatening to deny custody or deprive the children of care

Briefly stated, domestic violence is any abusive behavior used to control a partner by force in order to change their behavior and appease the abuser. Although perpetrators include men and women, approximately 95%, are male.

In regard to the statistics of abuse occurring in the United States, a National Victimization study by the U. S. Department of Justice conducted from 1992-1996 reported the following facts:

An act of domestic violence occurs every twelve seconds  Approximately 2000 women are murdered yearly by an intimate partner.  Each year from, 1992-1996, there were 960,000 violent victimizations of women who were 12 years of age and older.  One third of the victims experienced more than one attack in the previous six months 

Further, consider the following facts: 

Three to four million women are beaten every year, but that refers just to women hurt so severely that they received medical

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