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Intimate Partner Violence Essay

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There are many different terms to describe the physical, mental, and emotional abuse that can occur between couples. Some of the common terms include family violence, intimate partner violence, domestic violence, and etc. Regardless of what it is referred to as, intimate partner violence is defined and characterized as “the physical, psychological, and sexual violence perpetrated by individuals in a present or past relationships” (Bartol & Bartol, 2010, p. 275). Although Intimate Partner Violence can occur between individuals in same-sex relationships in addition to women being the perpetrator, the majority of the research done is in regards to the man being the culprit and the woman being the target. According to the National Family Violence …show more content…

This violence was presumably at the hand if intimate partners” (Bartol & Bartol, 2010, p. 275). It is also noted that an estimated 1/3 of murders committed yearly are intimate partner homicides (Bartol & Bartol, 2010).
The research that has been done on Intimate Partner Violence shows that majority of women stay in abusive relationships throughout their life, are murdered by their partners, or leave the relationship completely. Only a small minority of women actually kills their abusers. Victims, not all, have been shown to show low self-esteem, developed learned helplessness, and depression (Bartol & Bartol, 2010).
When looking that the perpetrators, there has been three identified type of male abusers. The first type is the family-only batter. These men are most likely to "engage in the least severe...violence and be the least likely to engage in psychological and sexual abuse. The violence...is generally restricted to family members; these men are the least likely to engage in violence outside the home or to have related legal problems (Holtzworth-Munroe & Stuart, 1994, p.481). The second type is the dysphoric/borderline batterer. They have been found to found to “engage in

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