Annotated Bibliography: Domestic Abuse and Its Societal Impact

This annotated bibliography provides an overview of domestic abuse, defining it as any behavior used to control a partner. It highlights the prevalence of domestic violence, particularly against women, and its various forms, including verbal, physical, sexual, and economic abuse. The bibliography analyzes research articles discussing the role of coercive control, the impact of different types of abuse, and the need for intervention from organizations like The National Domestic Violence Hotline and the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence. It also explores the cycle of violence and the importance of therapeutic alliances in helping victims. The document emphasizes the detrimental effects on victims and their children, advocating for immediate action to mitigate the problem and support survivors.

Annotated Bibliography – Domestic Abuse
Student’s name
Institution Affiliation(s)

Introduction
Domestic violence refers to any behaviour undertaken by the abuser to gain control and
power over a partner, spouse, and or boyfriend/girlfriend. Domestic violence is an area of
concern that requires immediate actions from the government all over the world. Women are a
larger group affected by domestic violence. For instance, in the United States, three women are
murdered each day by a male partner, a total of thirty-eight million, and twenty eighty thousand
have suffered from the domestic abuse from an intimate partner. Most of the victims suffering
from domestic abuse are afraid of exposing their partners to the people’s authority. Hence they
continue to endure the situation, which sometimes leads to death. Domestic abuse affects most of
the people in society, especially in the United States; hence there is a need for the victims to
corporate with the government agencies to put the problem to an end. Domestic abuse occurs in
the form of verbal, physical, and sexual assault.
Annotated Bibliography – Domestic Abuse
Johnson, H.; Eriksson, L. Mazerolle, & Wortley, R. (2019) ‘Intimate femicide: The role of
coercive control’, Feminist Criminology, vol.14 (1), pp.3-23.
The authors discuss the various forms of domestic violence. Verbal abuse refers to the
abusive statements made by the perpetrator that negatively affect his/her partner. Verbal abuse
affects the confidence and self-esteem of the victim experiencing the abuse (DIOMEDE, p55).
Some of the signs of verbal abuse include yelling, name-calling, and humiliation. Verbal abuse
can cause serious harm to the victim; for instance, lower self-esteem can cause the victim to
suicide.
Physical abuse occurs when a person employs physical force against his or her spouse.
Physical abuse results in bruises and causes significant harm to the body of the victim. Various
forms of physical abuse include the following; kicking, slapping, strangling, or chocking, among
others. Physical abuse grows gradually over time. It can lead to the death of the spouse or even
cause severe injuries on the body of the victim.
Sexual abuse refers to the sexual act forced upon man woman or even a child without
their accord. Sexual abuse is an action committed deliberately by the abuser since he/she
considers the victim to be weaker than them. Women are the most group of people affected by

sexual abuse in relationships. They often encounter marital rape, which occurs among married
couples. Most of the women are afraid of disclosing their suffering to outside society since they
are determined to keep their relationships going. Hence they end up suffering from the abuser;
there is a need for an immediate intervention to help the victims of the sexual abuse by various
agencies.
Various organizations strive to mitigate the issue of domestic abuse in society, for
instance, The Office on Women’s Health (OWH) in the United States. The National Domestic
Violence Hotline (NDVH) offers twenty-four crisis and support intervention to the survivor’s
sufferers of Domestic abuse and violence. The NDVH provides help for domestic abuse victims
through resources, advocacy, supportive ear, and planning. ABA (American Bar Association
Commission on Domestic Violence) help to bring justice to the victims of sexual assault and
domestic violence through mobilizing the legal profession. The commission advocates for the
establishment of supported attorneys and well-trained attorneys who will enhance the victims to
attain justice.
National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH) indicated that 24.3% of the women and
13.8% of men who are above eighteen years in the US have suffered from domestic violence.
The NDVH noted that almost half the number of men and women in the US had suffered
psychological aggression through intimate partners through their life (48.4% men and 48.8%
women). Hence this indicates that the issue of domestic abuse is a severe problem in society and
requires to be addressed urgently to mitigate the rate of suffering amongst the victims.
Postmus, J.L. et al. (2018) ‘Economic abuse as an invisible form of domestic violence: A multi-
country review’, Trauma, Violence and Abuse, vol. pp.1-23.
https://dolorg/10.1177/1524838018764160
Domestic violence can take on various forms; physical, emotional/psychological,
financial, and even sexual. An abuser uses various tactics to exert control over their partners and
cause them to have an ongoing fear and this will prevent them from challenging the abuser.
Physical abuse tends to be recurrent and can escalate in frequency and severity. It can look like
pushing, shoving, slapping, and assault with a weapon, restraining, leaving one in a dangerous
place, and/or refusing to help one who is sick or injured. Sexual abuse includes any forced sexual
acts or sexual degradation. Emotional/psychological abuse can often lead to physical violence,

and it includes threats of harm, physical/social isolation, extreme jealousy/possessiveness,
deprivation, intimidation, humiliation, criticizing/name-calling, false accusations/blaming,
ignoring/dismissing, lying/breaking promises, destroying trust, or driving fast to intimidate.
Another form of abuse that is not discussed a lot is financial abuse and in some studies is referred
to as an invisible/hidden form of abuse. Financial abuse can be reducing one’s access to savings
and assets, causing housing insecurities, malicious interference with workforce and educational
participation, and blocking access/use of resources.
Domestic violence can take on many forms and men, women, and children are
susceptible to this form of violence. Domestic violence is most recently being called intimate
partner violence (IPV), and the World Health Organization has included that it can occur
between those aged 16 or over who are or have been intimate partners or family members,
regardless of gender or sexuality. Even with this change, women are predominately still targeted
domestic violence is the most prevalent form of violence among humans. The most common
form of domestic violence is partner violence, and men are more likely to be the victimizers.
Men are also subject to be abused in relationships. There are about 30% of women in the world
who have been subjected to partner violence. When looking at research for women who have
been hospitalized, domestic violence was the main cause of those visits to the hospital.
Walby, S. & Towers, J. (2018) ‘Untangling the concept of coercive control: Theorizing domestic
violent crime’. Criminology & Criminal Justice, vol.18 (1), pp.7-28.
The therapeutic alliance will be especially beneficial when trying to assess a client about
their chief presenting problem. Many will say depression, suicidality, anxiety or panic attacks
without disclosing the real traumatic event. The clinician must find out if the client is functioning
at a base level in reference to psychological stability because after a traumatic event the client
can be psychologically disorganized. It can be important to find out about the client’s symptoms
that have brought them into treatment such as discussed previously; their presenting problem.
This will give time for the clinician to develop a sense of trust and rapport before delving into the
more intrusive questions about the trauma.
During assessment and therapy, the clinician will be asking client questions and causing
them to have flashbacks, threat-related cognitions, and conditioned fears. During the assessment,
the clinician must understand that some of these trauma-related activations can cause the client to

answer the questions asked as avoidance, fear, anger, or re-stimulated trauma memories. These
things can be hard to address during the assessment, but the clinician should be sure to utilize
treatment options that promote and communicate to the client that they are safe, respected, and
not judged.
Domestic abuse hurts the victims of the abuse. The pain (physical or emotional)
experienced by the victims of domestic abuse can be overwhelming. However, with excellent
help from appropriate agents, the victims can be able to regain inner strengths that can help them
to lessen the pain and recover from the pain (Humphreys and Bradbury-Jones, p.36). Survivors and
their supporters should understand that the process of curing takes time. According to the
National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH), 29% of women and 10% have experienced
physical violence by a spouse in the United States. The effect of the domestic abuse extends to
the children too; for instance, NDVH indicated that 30% to 60% of domestic abuse by the
spouses affects children negatively. Hence there is a greater need for the various agencies to
establish initiatives necessary to mitigate the problem of domestic abuse.
The “Cycle of Violence” constitutes four stages that occur in a continuous form. The
four stages of the domestic abuse include the following; Incident stage, tension constructing
stage, make-up stage, and the peaceful stage. The first stage (incident stage) refers to the stage in
which the abuse happens. In the second stage (tension building stage), the spouse (abuser) begins
to become angry; this might, in turn, make him/her start abusing the partner. The stage is
characterized by infrequent communication between the victim and the abuser; this makes the
victim develop a need to keep the abuser calm. Hence the situation yields much tension on the
victim. The other stage is referred to as a making-up stage; in this stage, the abuser may
apologize for his/her actions and assure the victim never to repeat it. The other stage (calm stage)
is where the abuser acts in a pretentious manner as if the abuse did not happen at all.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Domestic violence is a vice in the society that causes more harm to the
victims. The effect of domestic violence extends to the children of the families engaging in
domestic violence. The problem of domestic violence poses a lot of dangers to the victims and
their children, which, to some extent, leads to death. Hence the problem needs immediate action
to stop it from spreading further.

References
Johnson, H.; Eriksson, L. Mazerolle, & Wortley, R. (2019) ‘Intimate femicide: The role of
coercive control’, Feminist Criminology, vol.14 (1), pp.3-23.
Postmus, J.L. et al. (2018)'Economic abuse as an invisible form of violence: A multi-country
review’, Trauma, Violence and Abuse, vol. pp.1-23. https://dolorg/10.1177/1524838018764160
Walby, S. & Towers, J. (2018) ‘Untangling the concept of coercive control: Theorizing domestic
violent crime’. Criminology & Criminal Justice, vol.18 (1), pp.7-28.