Women And Domestic Violence Essay

Domestic violence occurs all around the world irrespective of race, culture or social categories. The British Crime Survey (1996) reported that about 30 per cent of violent crime was domestic assault. Domestic violence is recognised when there is violent or aggressive behaviour within the home and which commonly involves the abuse of a spouse, a partner or even an ex-partner. This essay will explore the prevalence of male-to-female, or female-to-male domestic violence and whether one form presents more of a social problem than the other. Domestic violence can be displayed in many different forms. Violence means that someone abuses their power against another person: it can be an injurious physical force, action or treatment, but at the same time it can be rough vehemence shown through words and body language. The British Government …show more content…
For instance, the police won’t actually help a victim unless there are actual, visible signs of domestic violence. A person cannot report a partner abusing them unless there is actual proof of this as explained by Dobash et al (1999: 20) “Similarly, police may deem no injury to have occurred unless blood, cuts, or burns can be seen at the time they arrive at the incident”. When reporting domestic violence, substantial evidence of violence is necessary in order to even arrest someone, let alone prosecute them. When there are prosecutions, they are not always as severe as they could be “The most frequent used legal sanctions have been fines, suspended sentences, and protection orders.” (Dobash et al,1999: 4). Female-to-male violence is becoming just as much of a problem as male-to-female abuse if the statistics are to be taken into account. However the difference today is that socially, it is still not being recognised and given the importance which it should have. This is leaving men with less legal protection and social support than they should