Partner Violence And Domestic Violence Report

Running head: CRIMINOLOGY
CRIMINOLOGY
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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