Domestic violence in the United States

This article is about domestic violence specifically in the United States. For the main article, see domestic violence.
Victims of Domestic Violence marker, Courthouse Square, Quincy, Florida

Domestic violence is a form of violence that occurs within a domestic relationship. Although domestic violence often occurs between partners in the context of an intimate relationship, it may also describe other household violence, such as violence against a child, by a child against a parent or violence between siblings in the same household. In the United States, it is recognized as an important social problem by governmental and non-governmental agencies, and various Violence Against Women Acts have been passed by the US Congress in an attempt to stem this tide.

Victimization from domestic violence transcends the boundaries of gender and sexual orientation. [1][2] but men are also subject to domestic violence in significant numbers, including in incidents of physical partner violence.[3] Significant percentages of LGBT couples also face domestic violence issues.[4] Social and economically disadvantaged groups in the U.S. regularly face worse rates of domestic violence than other groups. For example, about 60% of Native American women are physically assaulted in their lifetime by a partner or spouse.[5]

Many scholarly studies of the problem have stated that domestic violence is often part of a dynamic of control and oppression in relationships, regularly involving multiple forms of physical and non-physical abuse taking place concurrently. Intimate terrorism is an ongoing, complicated use of control, power and abuse in which one person tries to assert systematic control over another psychologically. Homeless shelters exist in many states as well as special hotlines for people to call for immediate assistance, with non-profit agencies trying to fight the stigma that people face in reporting these issues.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Tjaden was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Rogers, Kenneth; Baumgardner, Barbara; Connors, Kathleen; Martens, Patricia; Kiser, Laurel (2010), "Prevention of family violence", in Compton, Michael T. (ed.), Clinical manual of prevention in mental health (1st ed.), Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, p. 245, ISBN 9781585623471, Women are more often the victims of domestic violence than men and are more likely to suffer injuries and health consequences...
  3. ^ "National Statistics". NCADV. National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Archived from the original on 27 May 2019. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference lgbt was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Malcoe, LH; Duran, BM; Montgomery, JM (2004). "Socioeconomic disparities in intimate partner violence against Native American women: a cross-sectional study". BMC Med. 2: 20. doi:10.1186/1741-7015-2-20. PMC 446227. PMID 15157273.