Substance Abuse And Domestic Violence

According to “The United States Department of Justice” Domestic violence is defined as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner. Domestic violence has different forms sexual, physical, emotional and psychological actions or threats. These forms of treatment can influence another person. There are

Unfortunately, this is all too common for victims of domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is a known issue, but there are no warning labels for relationships like there are for cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. There is no formal training on what signs to recognize as abusive; but there can be. Domestic abuse may not have an overnight solution but we do possess the power the educate people on the different types of abuse.

It is also known that domestic violence usually increases in frequency and intensity. Research has shown that about 2 to 4 million women will experience some kind of domestic violence each year in the United States, and about 23% to 34% of women will experience domestic violence in their lifetimes. This aggression towards women results in physical injuries, physical health problems, psychological disturbance, and, in some cases, death.

Author Victor M. Parachin has gathered powerful facts about Domestic Violence. Domestic Violence revolves around many myths. According to the article, former partners are responsible for about one million violent crimes accounted for per year. Of this substantial number, 85 percent of the victims are typically women. Parachin has set out to break the stereotypical myths, which bring negative light to victims.

Researchers Smith, Homish, Leonard, and Cornelius admit that it is well known that a risk factor for intimate partner violence is substance use. (2012) However, we have a very limited understanding of the association between specific substance use and intimate partner violence. These researchers set out to bring about a deeper understanding of this. For the purpose of this study, researchers examined intimate partner violence in the presence of alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, and opioid use, as well as poly-substance use of alcohol and cocaine and alcohol and marijuana. (Smith, et al., 2012) Further, this study looked at substance use and intimate partner violence and differentiated between perpetration and victimization. Alcohol and cocaine use disorders were highly associated with intimate partner perpetration whereas cannabis and opioid use disorders were more highly associated with intimate partner victimization. (Smith, et al., 2012) Individuals diagnosed with both an alcohol use disorder and a cannabis use disorder were reported to have a lower likelihood of intimate partner perpetration compared to having the diagnosis of any one substance use disorder. Having a poly-substance use disorder with the combination of alcohol and cocaine increased the likelihood of an individual to perpetrate intimate partner violence. However, if you remove the diagnosis of alcohol use disorder and only have a cocaine use disorder, the

Substance abuse disorders is easily defined when an “individual continues to use the substance despite experiencing negative consequences from their use. These negative consequences can include health problems; difficulties in their family, work, and social life; and financial and legal problems. They are said to be dependent on the substance when,” in addition to theses negative consequences, they build tolerance and experience withdrawal if they stop using the drug” (Martin, 2007, p. 265). Substance abuse dates back to the early Americans colonies with beer that was brought over by the pilgrims and more popularly the ratification of the Constitution to prohibit the use of alcohol

There are a number of reasons why domestic violence happens, some reasons could be due to family dysfunction, inadequate communication skills, to gain or maintain control over another person and chemical dependencies.

Substance abuse is the harmful or dangerous use of any psychoactive substances including drugs, alcohol and even tobacco. The term ‘Substance Abuse’, as understood today was first used in 1987’s DSM-IIIR, before that social & cultural factors were not considered. Even with that change, many Americans still today consider drug and alcohol abuse to be moral weakness or character defect.

According to the Diagnostic Statistic Manual 5 (DSM-5) substance use disorder is when the individual has a dependency on alcohol or drug, followed by penetrating craving and antisocial behavior to acquire the substance. The terms substance abuse and substance dependence refer to substance use disorder, which has been separated into three classifications as follows

Physical abuse is the use of physical force against someone in a way that injures or endangers a person (Dating Abuse Statistics, 2013). People of all races, education levels, and ages experience domestic abuse (Violence Against Women, 2015). On average nearly twenty people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner (Statistics, 2015). This adds up to ten million men and woman being abused annually in the United States alone (Statistics, 2015). Women from the ages eighteen to twenty-four are the most commonly abused population (Statistics, 2015). Statistics say that eighty-five percent of victims are in fact women (Safe Voices, 2016). One in three women and one in four men have experienced some type of abuse/violence in their lifetime (Statistics, 2015). Most cases of domestic violence are never reported and only thirty-three percent of victims ever tell anyone about their abuse (Safe Voices, 2016).

Lots of people, abuser and non-abusers blame alcohol and substance for their violent actions. While this may be true it’s not right to say flat out. Yes 93% of the persons causing violence on their spouses were alcoholics (Roleff, Tamara). Alcohol and drugs are in hankers but never and excuse and/or cause. Abuse is a choice (Introduction). Being a society of people who find it the easiest way to get out of a situation is blaming something on another thing. Substance abuse seems pretty common and generic. There are a lot of things that go into abuse before alcohol is brought into the picture. The fact that a spouse is jealous or controlling even just angry is magnified by the effect of alcohol (Roleff, Tamara) it makes everything a whole lot worse. The abuser being affected by alcohol is also a way so the abuser and the person being abused have something to blame it on (Roleff, Tamara). As stated before we are a society of giving out blame.

I decided to pick this topic because I was a victim of domestic violence, likely due to substance abuse at one point in time. Every single day was miserable and I had nowhere to go. I didn’t even know that he was using drugs. He was a few years older than me and I was naïve about what was happening. After several months, I was finally able to have my mom help me move back to Arizona. I have moved on from that chapter in my life, but I have always been curious about the relationship between domestic violence and substance abuse. Therefore, I want to find out if different drugs produce different outcomes, statistically speaking. I know that different drugs have different effects on the individual’s mental health, so I wanted to expand on that and find out the influence of different drugs on domestic violence.

In this paper I will be addressing the correlation that is between substance abuse and domestic violence. There are many factors that play a role in why domestic violence occurs in a home; this paper will be focusing on the factor of drug abuse in particularly. Early on in the course we learned that domestic violence does not only pertain to intimate partner violence but also to child abuse, elder abuse, and any other abuse of a person that occurs with inside the home. I will be providing research from scholarly journals that support the findings that substance abuse is related to domestic violence on all levels (intimate partner violence, child abuse, and elderly abuse).

Substance abuse is one of the most detrimental social problems found in all societies. It has been the leading cause for generational breakdowns of families and communities, and is probably the most controversial social problem when developing corrective solutions. Substance abuse can be defined as the chemical dependence, or pattern of usage of both legal and illegal substances, that has adverse physical, psychological, and psychomotor effects on the human body. The use of substances does not always have to be a drug, but can also be anything taken into the body that can cause a mood-altering effect, such as inhalants or solvents. Additionally, substance abuse has many different faces and is the one social problem that crosses all

Substance abuse and domestic violence are closely interlinked on various grounds both in people 's mind and scientifically. It is a common belief that substance abuse plays a significant role in the escalating numbers of domestic violence in the current society. Different studies conducted have shown that there is a correlation between substance abuse and the current emerging domestic violence issues. High rates of substance abuse by various individuals have resulted in the increased levels of domestic violence. This is a more clear indication that substance abuse and domestic violence are interrelated actions which should be addressed together. Therefore this research paper will aim at creating an understanding of drug addiction and domestic violence levels.