Attitudes toward Domestic Violence: Race and Gender Issues
Attitudes toward Domestic Violence: Race and Gender Issues
Domestic violence is an act of abusing your partner mainly through fighting. Around the globe, most people who are often faced with domestic violence are women. The violence on the female gender is a common issue with significant issues on health, communal, economic costs to the feminine gender in addition to the children not to forget the community in general. Gender differences and lack of respect for the feminine gender augments the possibility of domestic violence to occur. According to the definition found on the United Nations, domestic violence is an action of gender-supported violence that comes in or probably to come in due to corporal, sexual harassment, mental harm or affliction to women, in addition to the inclusion of intimidation, oppression or subjective withdrawal of freedom, irrespective of whether it is happening in an open life of secured life. Domestic violence takes several forms, for instance, sexual aggravation, wife/husband violence, sexual battering, and pestering. Such violence is the typical domestic violence around the world.
There is an attitude that gender inequality and lack of respect for the feminine gender leads to the probability of domestic violence taking place (Wallach, Weingram & Avitan, 2009). This notion is true given that with the 21st century, women deserve to be treated as equal to men. But because of the superiority complexes portrayed by the majority of men out there, they tend to show how powerful they are in the society. It may look like a wise thing to do, but emotionally, it affects the partner and may lead to violence if not well handled. Done research by scholars has shown that women come across double difficulty and traversing outcomes of race and gender-based violence. Such kinds of violence are not the only preservative but interrelate so that the women come across a specific kind of violence.
Attitudes are formed by the universe surrounding us, though the kinships and acquaintances, societies, and organizations like schools. Attitude helps in pointing out the progress regarding gender violence (Wallach, Weingram & Avitan, 2009). Done research has failed to demonstrate how attitudes en route for domestic violence differ regarding race and gender. Research shows that most women who have become victims of domestic violence each year blame their husbands for the violence. In as far as the issue of African-American husband and European-American husbands, research shows that the European-American husbands subjected their wives to violence. Therefore, it is a clear indication that gender and race have an impact on attitudes toward domestic brutality.
Women involved in violence with their husbands are notable because of the community’s awareness of domestic violence as a personal matter. The failure of several casualties to forward the matter to the concerned authorities, and the understanding that the concerned authorities dismiss violence as insignificant (Allison, 2011). Research shows that approximately one million of the women are subjected to gender-based violence annually either by their husbands or their boyfriends. The issue of domestic violence does not choose races but instead covers all the ethnicities ranging from African-Americans to the Asians. The attitude behind the fact that police and judges have towards domestic violence has led to divorce and injuries. An example is a family in Chicago involving an African-American woman and a European-American man who were living together, and they had a son. Being the neighbors, to the couples, all went well until when the husband was dismissed off his duties. He started coming home when he was drunk and portrayed some levels of frustrations since, most of the time, he argued with his wife. In some cases, he would fight with his wife for no reason. Being the good neighbors to the family, the wife was advised to report the matter to the police. She heeded to the advice and went to make the report. Surprisingly, the woman was told to go and sort their issues at home since it was a family issue. After trying it several times, she packed her things and moved away with her son to avoid complications. From the scenarios, one can quickly learn that women do not wish to be subjected to gender-based violence. Men are the causative agent to most of the domestic violence recorded across the world (Allison, 2011).
The United States government has tried to make an effort to eliminate the issues of gender-based violence by promoting gender equality among men and women in society. Both men and women in society should respect each other (Allison, 2011). Based on my experience in race and gender-based violence, every group of women in the United States will have one or two women subjected to domestic violence. Whereas the issue of violence affects women on diverse social continuum, domestic violence has a specific effect on racial marriages and girls in the United States. Despite that, it is hard to provide the exact degree of domestic violence in the United States and around the globe; research based on the previous studies and personal experiences provides enough information to justify the fact that American women and those around the universe are being subjected to domestic violence.
In as far as the issue of race is a big concern when it comes to domestic violence, black/African or Asian women have become prey to the flesh thirsty men out there (Attitudes toward Domestic Violence among Korean Immigrants, 2014). For instance, the majority of the victims have found themselves in such scenarios due to their desire to pursue their careers in education. At the end of it, they fall in love with the natives, which sometimes leads to marriages. On a scale of 50/50, some marriages will work, whereas others will never work. Some people believe that women are just tools for sexual harassment, and their motives are to sample different women from all over the universe to satisfy their curiosity. There are several online examples where women have cried and asked for assistance to be returned to their homes because they were being mistreated sexually. Recently, a man in the United States was arrested for publicly posting bragging on the internet on how he had slept with over 100 women with different ethnic ground with a motive of infecting them with HIV/Aids. Surprisingly, the women who had been photographed with him were of the African-American origin. This shows that race and sexual harassment plays a vital role to the victims in the United States.
The violence taking place in the United States is viewed as a section of the larger picture as domestic violence, portrayed as a more significant array of human, sexually, communal, religious, and cultural and mentally exploitations that take place within the domestic setting. This portrays the importance of extended family and association relationships in the United States and across the universe, consequential to a comprehensive comprehension of kinship and understanding that the outcomes of domestic violence affect the victims.
Domestic violence has resulted in families being dismantled. Children have become homeless, and women have become single due to divorce. It has also led to increased imprisonment rates in the United States due to assault (Allison, 2011). From an experienced point of view, domestic violence has led to deaths where, in most cases, men may opt to wipe his family out completely by killing them. Taking someone’s life is regarded as a punishable offense that will see that the offender is sentenced to life imprisonment.
Several factors lead to gender-based domestic violence. The issue of communal and economic segregation like lack of employment and lack of proper education in addition to continuous limitations, dispossession, and desert may be consequential to the collapse of collective controls in opposition to gender-based domestic violence, and such limitations may augment resources and emotional stress. At some point, it might not result in violence but may act as a leeway to doing a conflict (Lockhart & Danis, 2010). With the attitudes people have regarding the entire process of colonization, people are still stuck to the idea that people from different origins were meant to be colonized. Therefore, you will find that the natives tend to subject their non-native spouses to a racial kind of relationship which views them as minors in relationships. Such incidences have often caused gender-based violence (Yoder, 2007).
In conclusion, the attitudes toward domestic violence are steered by race and gender issues. The domestic violence exhibited by women includes sexual aggravation, wife/husband violence, sexual battering, and pestering. The majority of the domestic violence being seen across the world is due to the ignorance of the police officials, judges, and men in general. Subjecting a woman to violence because of their ethnic backgrounds is promoted by the issue of attitudes. Several factors can impact attitudes toward domestic violence. Race and genders play a vital role in the issue of domestic violence. As stated, the majority of the African-American women would love to be in a relationship with the European-American kind of man. However, they sometimes become prey to the European-American men who are in hunting spree for sex from different women with different ethnic grounds. In cases where they are or were legally married, the women are subjected to sexual harassment, which at times leads to fighting. As a result of the assault, women have gone ahead to report the case to the relevant authorities but not able to get their justice. In short, domestic violence affects the woman both physically and emotionally and may, in the end, cause divorce or death to the affected victims. In cross-marriages, black men have been accused of causing violence with the usual notion that African-American men are violent.
References
Allison, R. (2011). Race, gender, and attitudes toward war in Chicago: An Intersectional Analysis1. Sociological Forum, 26(3), pp.668-691.
Attitudes toward Domestic Violence among Korean Immigrants. (2014). Arts and Social Sciences Journal, s1.
Lockhart, L. L., & Danis, F. S. (2010). Domestic violence: Intersectionality and culturally competent practice. New York: Columbia University Press.
Wallach, H., Weingram, Z., and Avitan, O. (2009). Attitudes toward domestic violence: A Cultural perspective. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25(7), pp.1284-1297.
Yoder, J. D. (2007). Women and gender: Making a difference. Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY: Sloan Pub.
