Partner Violence And Domestic Violence Report

Running head: CRIMINOLOGY
CRIMINOLOGY
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Introduction
Intimate Partner Violence is a type of domestic violence towards an individual by their
present or former spouse or partner with whom they had an intimate relationship. The violence
towards the victims can be including sexual harassment, rape, physical assault, emotional or
psychological harm or stalking (Devries et al., 2013). Intimate partner violence is an increasing
concern around the globe. Intimate partners can often be seen as reaching to the extreme form
of violence. This paper aims to discuss in detail about the increasing concern of the intimate
partner violence globally. The paper will further provide the readers with the prevalence of
domestic violence in Australia. In this paper the theories that can be considered as applicable to
the crimes of intimate partner violence. In this context the paper would be discussing about
thee sociological and psychological theories. The paper will further provide with the policies
that have been taken into consideration for the improvement of health of the IPV victims.
Intimate Partner Violence
Intimate Partner Violence can be described as a type of domestic violence towards an
individual by their existing or past spouse or partner with whom they had a close connection.
The viciousness towards the victims can be including sexual harassment, rape, physical assault,
emotional or psychological harm or stalking (Devries et al., 2013). As per the World Health
Organization intimate partner violence has been defined as any conduct within the scope of
intimate relation causing sexual, psychological or physical injury to the individuals in the said
relation. Both heterosexual and homosexual couples can be seen as being victimized in this
type of violence (World Health Organization 2013). Intimate partners can often be seen as
reaching to the extreme form of violence. The extremities in intimate partner violence are often
termed as battering, coercive control or intimate terrorism. Although the women are mostly

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considered to be the victims in intimate partner violence, this however, is not always the case.
The men are as much as at risk to be victimized in an intimate relationship as the women. The
men, however, are found less likely to be reporting their experience on domestic violence. A
major reason for this is the social stigma attached to the issue. There are various forms of
intimate partner violence including situational couple violence and mutual violent control.
Situational couple violence consist a multitude of factors which in a combined manner helps in
verbal arguments to be escalated. The factors that are considered to be the influences for the
escalation of the violence are stressors, weaknesses, and poor surviving abilities. The mutual
violent control can be described as one of the rarest form of domestic violence in which both
the partners are seen as acting in an aggressive manner for controlling the other.
Prevalence of IPV in Australia
The occurrence and significances of intimate partner violence cannot be deliberated to
be a new incident. Conversely, the developing acknowledgment of the point that the miens of
intimate partner violence are not remote but are somewhat interactive patterns that are
sacrilegious towards the privileges of individuals and in continuance bound the contribution of
the individuals in the society and is destructive to the wellbeing of the individuals, is reflected
to be somewhat new (García-Moreno et al, 2013).
In Australia intimate partner violence often can be comprehended as being unreported and
consequently the accurate magnitude of this problem is unknown (Aph.gov.au, 2019). In
Australia the definition of domestic has been provided in the Family Law Act 1975. The Family
Law Act defines domestic violence as any violent or aggressive behaviour my any individual
the control any member of the family or can make them fearful (Stavrou, Poynton and
Weatherburn 2016). The definition also refers to violence between intimate partners and in
furtherance recognizes violence occurring between partners in a same sex relationship

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(Gannoni and Cussen 2014). As per a recent survey 1 in every 3 women and 1 in every 5 men
in Australia have been victimized in intimate partner victim. As per the data released by the
Australian Bureau of Statistics 80% women and 95% men in Australia who have been
victimized in intimate partner relationships did not report the incident to the police
(Crimestatistics.vic.gov.au 2016). The reason that was found to be most common was the fear
of revenge or violence from their partners. As per the 2018 reports of the Australian Institute of
Health and Welfare an approximate of 1.5 million women and 992,000 men have been abused
sexually or physically or both even before they reached the age of 15 years(Aihw.gov.au 2018).
The report also revealed that almost 3000 women and 600 men were required to be hospitalized
after they had been assaulted by either current or former partners (Aph.gov.au 2019).
Sociological theories of Intimate Partner Violence
The sociological theories describe violent behaviour as the structural functions in the society.
In the theories of family violence the explanation of intimate partner violence has been
provided as the exhibition of conflict in the family which can best be assumed through the
examination of the social structures contributing towards the use of aggression (Lawson 2012).
The sociological theories for intimate partner violence include the subculture of violence
theory, exchange theory, resource theory, system theory, and feminist theory.
The main Idea behind the resource theory is that every social system, including the family
system can be observed as being held to a certain extent by way of either real or threat of force.
It is considered that the more resource an individual has access to you, the more effective their
use of threat of force would be. If an individual has fewer resources, they are more likely to use
physical force for the maintenance of control towards the other person.
According to the systems theory domestic violence or intimate partner violence can be
described as an out of balance symptom of the social system of family. As per this theory

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factors like the normative structure on which the family is based on, the traits of the
personalities of the people in the family and any stress or conflict that the members are
subjected towards in a combined way provides for a situation which helps in the escalation of
violence.
The main Idea behind the exchange theory is that it is in the nature of human beings to be
engaging in such behaviour that would be rewarding towards them and avoiding any such
behaviour that would be costing them highly. It has been historically and culturally approved
for the men to be using violence towards women to maintain hierarchy and authority over the
woman with whom they are in a relationship. As there was a lack of sanction institutionally
therefore not much penalty was imposed on search behaviours. As there was no high cost paid
by the perpetrators therefore they did not fear to commit domestic violence (Kropp 2018). In
furtherance to this as the victims have to pay a very high price if they choose to leave an
abusive relationship therefore the victims are also seen as tolerating the violent and aggressive
behaviour of their partners.
The feminist theory proposes that the main cause of violence against women is the inequality
between genders. According to the feminist theory the culture that is appreciated by the society
is a male dominated one (Wong and Mellor 2014). This culture approves the men for having
control and domination over the women. The theory proposes that because of this domination
and control that men have over women, they tend to physically and psychologically abuse and
coerce them into submission.
Following the discussion it can be deduced that the feminist theory would be best suited to
describe the sociological aspect of intimate partner violence. The supporters of the feminist
theory view gender in relation to the power held at a social structure including sexual
orientation, economic status, class and race of the individuals (Allen, 2018). Feminist theory

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suggests the main cause of violence in intimate partner relationship is the inequality existing
between the genders. The main focus in the feminist theory is the inequality between the
genders. The supporters of feminist theory consider the problem of domestic violence to be
focussing the preservation of family. The feminist theorists are seen as emphasizing on the
patriarchal dominance over the weaker sections of the society as the major reason for the
emergence of intimate partner violence (Di Stefano, 2019). The theory suggests that the
inequalities that exist are because of the normal socialization processes existing in the society.
Psychological theories of Intimate Partner Violence
Not only sociological but the psychological theories can also be seen as describing the reasons
for the behaviour of being aggressive towards one's own spouse or intimate partner. The
psychological theories describe the reasons for intimate partner violence by learned behaviour
theory, psychiatric disorder aberrant behaviour theory and sociopathic behaviour theory
(Miller-Graff 2016).
The sociopathic behaviour theory proposes that any individual who becomes aggressive
towards their relationship should be considered as sociopaths without any kind of regard for
other people, institutions of the society or even about themselves. Often times the perpetrators
of intimate partner balance are seen as enjoying and taking pleasure in abusing their partners.
The aberrant behaviour theory proposes that aggressive in a relationship is a type of an
abnormal behaviour and can most likely be cause because of drug or alcohol abuse by the
perpetrator or any kind of stressor that has been triggered situationally and which has caused
them to act in in a manner which is not likely for them to be acting in normal situations.
As per the learned behaviour theory, the behaviours of the individuals in a society can be
learnt by way of their experience or exposure personally. This theory suggest that the

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perpetrators of intimate partner violence have learnt in one way or other that it is right to be
using violence in certain situations and similarly the victims of intimate partner violence have
contradictory learnt that it is alright to accept aggressive behaviour in a relationship.
The psychiatric disorder theory of domestic violence is often seen as having physical
anomaly that has been caused because of chemical imbalance in their brains. The perpetrators
are stimulated to behave in a specific psychological way which makes them out of control
because of some specific actions of their partners.
From the above discussion it can be deduced that the learned behaviour theory would be best
suited for the explanation of the psychological aspects of the intimate partner violence. This
theory proposes that individuals the behaviours of the individuals in a society can be learnt by
way of their experience or exposure personally (Walker, 2017). The learned behaviour theory
proposes that most of the times domestic violence is inheritable and is passed on among the
generations. The theory further finds that there are many special factors that are contribute
towards the causation of domestic violence including maltreatment of children and the bias in
gender in the family (Wright and Valgardson, 2017). It is further proposed in this theory that
the perpetrators are often seen as experiencing one time or other during their life that it is
alright to use violence in some situations in the course of their relationship, similarly the
victims are seen as believing that it is alright to accept aggressive behaviour in a relationship.
Policies
The Australian government can be seen as taking many measures and strategies for improving
the condition of the intimate partner violence victims. The first strategic plan for handling the
issue of domestic violence was proposed by the government of Western Australia by way of
the Department of Community Development. The Department of Community Development of
the Government of Western Australia was observed to be releasing the Strategic Plan for

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Family and Domestic Violence after almost 31,000 incidences of family violence and domestic
violence were recorded in just one year (Dcp.wa.gov.au 2013). The Government of Western
Australia has also proposed a prevention strategy for domestic violence to 2022
(Lrc.justice.wa.gov.au. 2018). It has been proposed that the strategy plan will be monitoring the
proposed outcomes of the strategy in three different levels. In furtherance to this the
Government of Australia has also released guidelines for family violence by way of the
Department of Health for sharing that the health professionals unified at the time of working
with family violence victims. The ambulance services have also been subject to many
strategical plans for ensuring the improvement of the health of intimate partner violence
victims (Sawyer et al. 2015).
Conclusion
Intimate partner violence is an increasing concern around the globe. It can be described
as the violence towards an individual by their present or former spouse or partner. This paper
has discussed in detail about the growing apprehension of the intimate partner violence
comprehensively. The paper has further delivered the readers with the pervasiveness of
domestic violence in Australia. In this paper the theories that can be reflected as appropriate to
the misconducts of intimate partner violence are also discussed. In this context the paper
conferred about the sociological and psychological theories. The sociological theories
discussed for intimate partner violence include the subculture of violence theory, exchange
theory, resource theory, system theory, and feminist theory. The psychological theories
described in the paper for intimate partner violence by learned behaviour theory, psychiatric
disorder aberrant behaviour theory and sociopathic behaviour theory. The paper has also
provided with the strategies that have been taken into deliberation for the development of
wellbeing of the IPV victims. It has often been observed that not only the direct sufferers of the

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intimate partner violence tolerate the adverse effects, but the individuals connected with the
sufferers comprising also their children are subject to the anguish of the damaging effects of
the intimate partner violence.

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Family Law Act 1975

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