Course Title: Introduction to Law-2

Course Code: LAW-1201

Session: 2019-23

Semester: 2nd

Topic: Domestic Violence

Presented to: Ma’am Sadia Sarwar

Presented By: Muhamad Zohaib Asif (2219-BH-PS-19)

Introduction:

Domestic violence is a problem of epidemic proportions with far-reaching

consequences for individual victims, their children and their communities.
Domestic violence results in death, serious injury, and chronic medical and
mental health issues for victims, their children, the perpetrators, and others. The
deadly result of aggressive behaviour at home is sadly clear in media reports
that depict a constant flow of murders against casualties, their kids, family or
companions, the individuals who are attempting to ensure them, guiltless
spectators, and culprits. Examining what is thought about crimes and suicides is
just a single method to comprehend the deadly idea of aggressive behaviour at
home. Right now there is little exploration estimating the effect of attacks and
maltreatment regarding lasting and wellbeing break. Domestic violence presents
unique challenges to the health care system and requires specialized responses
from health care providers. Before providers are able to effectively and
efficiently respond to patients experiencing domestic violence they must first
understand the nature and ethology of the problem as well as its impact.

Definition of Domestic Violence:

Domestic violence has many names: wife abuse, marital assault, woman battery,
spouse abuse, wife beating, conjugal violence, intimate violence, battering,
partner abuse, for example. Sometimes these terms are used interchangeably to
refer to the problem while at other times a particular term is used to reflect a
specific meaning (e.g., “woman abuse” to highlight the fact that most victims
are women). In addition to these multiple terms, there are different behavioural
and legal definitions for domestic violence.

“Domestic violence is a pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviours,

including physical, sexual, and psychological attacks, as well as economic
coercion, that adults or adolescents use against their intimate partners.”

The sociological definition of Domestic Violence according to the Michigan

Judicial Institute is:

“Domestic violence is more than an occasional incident of angry name-

calling, or an isolated, one-time slap or shoves between a husband and wife
who are frustrated with one another. Moreover, domestic violence is not out-
of-control behaviour; it is one person’s effort to control another person using
a variety of tactics that may involve both criminal and non-criminal acts”
Forms of Domestic Violence:
The abusive and coercive behaviours take different forms: physical, sexual,
psychological, and economic. To understand the pattern, different types of
domestic violence behaviours are described below. The first two categories are
types of physically assaultive battering where the perpetrator has direct contact
with the victim’s body. The other categories involve tactics where the
perpetrator has no direct physical contact with the victim’s body during the
attack although the victim is clearly the target of the abuse.

1. PHYSICAL ASSAULTS

Physical abuse may include spitting, scratching, biting, grabbing, shaking,

shoving, pushing, restraining, throwing, twisting, slapping (with open or closed
hand), punching, choking, burning, and/or use of weapons (e.g., household
objects, knives, guns) against the victim. The physical assaults may or may not
cause injuries. Sometimes a seemingly less serious type of physical abuse, such
as a shove or push, can result in the most serious injury. The perpetrator may
push the victim against a couch, a wall, down a flight of stairs, or out of a
moving car, all of which could result in varying degrees of trauma (e.g.,
bruising, broken bones, spinal cord injuries). Sometimes the physical abuse
does not cause a specific injury but does cause other health problems. For
example, one perpetrator frequently abused his partner during meals and late at
night. He would push, restrain, and spit at his partner as well as abuse her
verbally. While there were no visible injuries, the victim suffered from severe
sleep deprivation and poor nutrition, since both her sleep and eating patterns
were repeatedly interrupted by her abuser’s conduct.

2. SEXUAL ASSAULTS

Some perpetrators sexually batter their victims. Sexual battering consists of a

wide range of conduct that may include pressured sex when the victim does not
want sex, coerced sex by manipulation or threat, physically forced sex, or
sexual assault accompanied by violence. Victims may be coerced or forced to
perform a kind of sex they do not want (e.g., sex with third parties, physically
painful sex, sexual activity they find offensive, verbal degradation during sex,
viewing sexually violent material) or at a time they do not want it (e.g., when
exhausted, when ill, in front of children, after a physical assault, when asleep).
Some perpetrators attack their victims’ genitals with blows or weapons. Some
perpetrators deny victims contraception or protection against sexually
transmitted diseases. The perpetrators’ message to the victims is that they have
no say over their own bodies. Sometimes victims will resist and are then
punished, and sometimes they comply in hopes that the sexual abuse will end
quickly. For some battered victims this sexual violation is profound and may be
difficult to discuss. Some victims are unsure whether this sexual behaviour is
really abuse, while others see it as the ultimate betrayal.

3. PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSAULTS

Because psychological violence is harder to capture in quantitative studies, a

full picture of the deeper and more insidious levels of violence defies
quantification. Victim-survivors report that on-going psychological violence –
emotional torture and living under terror – is often more unbearable than the
physical brutality, with mental stress leading to a high incidence of suicide and
suicide attempts. There are different types of psychological assaults.

a. Threats of violence and harm

The perpetrator’s threats of violence or harm may be directed against the victim
or others important to the victim or they may be suicide threats. Sometimes the
threat includes killing the victim and others and then committing suicide. The
threats may be made directly with words (e.g., “I’m going to kill you,” “No one
is going to have you,” “Your mother is going to pay,” “I cannot live without
you”) or with actions (e.g., stalking, displaying weapons, hostage taking, suicide
attempts). Perpetrators may be violent towards others (e.g., neighbors, family
members) as a means of terrorizing victims. Perpetrators may coerce victims
into doing something illegal (e.g., prostitution, larceny) and then threaten to
expose them, or may make false accusations against them (e.g., reports to Child
Protective Services, to the welfare department, or to immigration).

b. Emotional abuse

Emotional abuse is a tactic of control that consists of a wide variety of verbal

attacks and humiliations, including repeated verbal attacks against the victim’s
worth as an individual or role as a parent, family member, friend, co-worker, or
community member. The verbal attacks often emphasize the victim’s
vulnerabilities (such as her past history as an incest victim, language abilities,
and skills as a parent, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or HIV status).

Psychological mistreatment in aggressive behaviour at home cases isn't only

merely somebody blowing up and considering his accomplice a couple of
names or reviling. Not every verbal affront between accomplices are
demonstrations of savagery. All together for obnoxious attack to be viewed as
aggressive behaviour at home, it must be a piece of an example of coercive
practices where the culprit uses or takes steps to utilize physical power. In
abusive behaviour at home, boisterous ambushes and different strategies of
control are interwoven with the danger of damage so as to keep up the culprit's
strength through dread. While rehashed boisterous attack is harming to
accomplices and connections after some time, only it doesn't set up a similar
atmosphere of dread as obnoxious attack joined with the utilization or danger of
physical mischief.

d. Isolation

Perpetrators often try to control victims’ time, activities and contact with others.
They gain control over them through a combination of isolating and
disinformation tactics. Isolating tactics may become more overtly abusive over
time. At first perpetrators cut victims off from supportive relationships by
claims of loving them “so much” and wanting to be with them all the time. In
response to these statements, victims may initially spend increasing amounts of
time with their perpetrators.

e. Use of children

Some abusive acts are directed against or involve the children in order to
control or punish the adult victim (e.g., physical attacks against a child, sexual
use of the children, forcing children to watch the abuse of the victim, engaging
children in the abuse of the victim). A perpetrator may use children to maintain
control over his partner by not paying child support, requiring the children to
spy, requiring that at least one child always be in the company of the victim,
threatening to take children away from her, involving her in long legal fights
over custody.

4. Financial Abuse

Abusers often attempt to establish financial control over victims. Victims who
are financially dependent on abusers have fewer resources for escape. Financial
abuse includes:

 Making all financial decisions for the household

 Keeping financial secrets
  Monitoring the victim's spending
 Controlling the victim's access to cash
 Controlling the victim's access to check book or credit cards
 Refusing to let the victim work
 Forcing the victim to turn over income to the abuser

Causes of Domestic Violence:

A. Domestic Violence: Learned Behaviour

Domestic violence is behaviour learned through observation and

reinforcement. Like other forms of aggression, domestic violence is not
caused by genetics or illness. People are not born perpetrators and for the
most part there is no disease or illness that turns a non-abusive person into an
abuser. Domestic violence is a behaviour acquired over time through
multiple observations and interactions with individuals and institutions .The
behaviours, as well as the perpetrator’s internal “rules and regulations” about
when, where, against whom, how, and by whom domestic violence is to be
used, are learned. Domestic violence and the beliefs that support it are
learned through direct observation (e.g., the male child witnessing the abuse
of his mother by his father or from the proliferation of images of violence
against women in the media). Domestic violence is observed and reinforced
not only in the family but also in society. It is overtly and covertly reinforced
by society’s major institutions: familial, social, legal, religious, educational,
mental health, medical, entertainment, and the media

B. Patriarchal Culture:

The patriarchal nature of the Pakistani society, which fosters a safe space for
such ideas to perpetuate. For example, it is considered the right of the
husband to beat his wife if he deems it is needed. Strictly prescribed gender
roles of women, such as cooking, bearing and raising children, result in
violent outcomes in case the women deviates from these prescribed tasks.

C. Religious Factors
The patriarchal culture is strengthened by the misguided support of some
religious leaders, who use Islam as a tool to keep women at a subservient
position. These leaders play an important role in validating the use of
violence against women by presenting religious texts taken out of context to
support their arguments

D. Domestic Violence and Gender

Domestic violence is a gender-specific behaviour which is socially and

historically constructed. Men are socialized to take control and to use
physical force when necessary to maintain dominance. While most victims
of male violence are other men, the majority of victims of domestic violence
are female, although female-to male, male-to-male and female-to female
violence also occurs in intimate relationships. Male violence against women
in intimate relationships is a social problem condoned and supported by the
customs and traditions of a particular society. There is a great deal of
discussion about whether gender is the sole factor determining the pattern of
abusive control in intimate relationships or one of a cluster of significant
variables However, gender is clearly a salient issue when considering the
following factors: the prevalence of male-to female domestic violence,
injuries to female victims, the use of physical force as part of a pattern of
dominance, and specific responses of victims and perpetrators to domestic
violence. Furthermore, the purpose of women’s use of physical force appears
to be different than men’s.

E. Cultural Cause:

Domestic violence occurs in all cultural/ethnic groups. Studies indicate that

wife beating is more typical than husband beating in those societies and that
the prevalence and severity of wife beating is influenced by a variety social
factors within a particular society .While a review of that literature is beyond
the scope of this chapter, it is referenced here as a reminder that domestic
violence is socially constructed and learned.

Social components ought not to be utilized to excuse the truth of abusive

behaviour at home in a patient's life. Culprits and others will at times offer
different social legitimizations for the lead culture some of the time shapes
the particular strategy of control utilized by the culprit. A few culprits utilize
social variables of the casualties as an approach to advance the oppressive
control
Consequences of Domestic Violence:
The results of domestic abuse are listed as follows:

 Denial of fundamental rights:

Perhaps the most crucial consequence of violence against women and

girls is the denial of fundamental human rights to women and girls.
International human rights instruments such as the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted in 1948, the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),
adopted in 1979, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC),
adopted in 1989, affirm the principles of fundamental rights and freedoms
of every human being. Both CEDAW and the CRC are guided by broad
concept of human rights that stretches beyond civil and political rights to
the core issues of economic survival, health, and education that affect the
quality of daily life for most women and children. The two Conventions
call for the right to protection from gender-based abuse and neglect.
Human development goals undermined. There is a growing recognition
that countries cannot reach their full potential as long as women’s
potential to participate fully in their society is denied. Data on the social,
economic and health costs of violence leave no doubt that violence
against women undermines progress towards human and economic
development

 Health consequences:

Domestic violence against women leads to far-reaching physical and

psychological consequences, some with fatal outcomes While physical
injury represents only a part of the negative health impacts on women, it
is among the more visible forms of violence. Assaults result in injuries
ranging from bruises and fractures to chronic disabilities such as partial
or total loss of hearing or vision, and burns may lead to disfigurement.
The medical complications resulting from FGM can range from
haemorrhage and sterility to severe psychological trauma. Studies in
many countries have shown high levels of violence during pregnancy
resulting in risk to the health of both the mother and the unborn foetus. In
the worst cases, all of these examples of domestic violence can result in
 the death of the woman – murdered by her current or ex-partner. Sexual
assaults and rape can lead to unwanted pregnancies, and the dangerous
complications that follow from resorting to illegal abortions. Girls who
have been sexually abused in their childhood are more likely to engage in
risky behaviour such as early sexual intercourse, and are at greater risk of
unwanted and early pregnancies.

 Impact on Children:

Children living with domestic violence in the home are often the
forgotten victims. They may experience issues at school and think that
it’s difficult to grow close and positive companionships. They may
attempt to flee or even showcase self-destructive propensities.

Current research indicates that domestic violence affects children in a

variety of ways, and that the effects are both short and long-term.
Children may be physically, emotionally, and cognitively damaged as a
result of domestic violence. The nature and extent of the damage caused
by the perpetrator’s violence will vary depending primarily on three
factors:

a. The type and history of abusive control used by the perpetrator;

b. The age, gender, and developmental stage of the child;

c. Situational factors, such as other social supports.

Domestic Violence in Pakistan

Pakistan was ranked as the third most dangerous country for women in the
world (TrustLaw, 2011). A major reason for this is the alarmingly high rates of
domestic violence in the country. Although efforts to combat domestic violence
have been made like the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act
2012 and the Punjab Protection of Women against Violence Act, they are yet to
yield substantial results. This policy brief unpacks domestic violence against
women and explains the physical and psychological impact it has. It addresses
the causes of domestic violence, mainly patriarchy, lack of awareness and
institutional inefficiencies. The two main policies aimed at combating this
problem are analysed and recommendations are made accordingly including
training of police, awareness campaigns and rehabilitation of victims. From
2008 till 2014, there was a 33 per cent increase in cases of violence against
women

Current Policies

As domestic violence is a grave concern in Pakistan, the government has made

certain efforts to curb it:

i) Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2012 The Domestic

Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2012 declares that a hearing date must
be set within seven days of receiving the complaint and the case be dealt with
within ninety days. The convicted felon faces a minimum of six months jail
time and a Rs. 100,000 fine

ii) The Punjab Protection of Women against Violence Act The Punjab
Protection of Women against Violence Act (PPWVA) includes protection
against physical and mental domestic violence, harassment, economic abuse and
cybercrimes It also entails the establishment of Violence against Women
Centres and District Women Protection Committees aimed at providing judicial
and healthcare assistance.

iii) Shelter homes Special shelter homes established by the government provide
protection to victims and a safe space for dispute resolution.

Although these efforts are welcoming but they still lack effectiveness due to the
cultural and societal barriers that remain unaddressed.

Conclusion

Domestic violence is a regular issue which can influence any lady, paying little
heed to her age, financial or sociocultural status. No reasonable hazard profile
exists; the wellbeing outcomes of those influenced by savagery are not kidding.
Understanding domestic violence as an issue of abusive control of intimate
relationships with health-shattering consequences is the first step to effective
interventions

Bibliography:
1. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. (2014). Stats. Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan.
2. Nabeel, F., Qamar, K. A., & Malik, B. (2016). Punjab Women Protection
Law 2016: Research Brief. Center for Strategic and Contemporary
Research
3. Amnesty International. (1973). Report on torture. New York: Farrar,
Straus, & Giroux.
4. Jaffe, P., Wolfe, D., & Wilson, S. (1990). Children of battered women.
Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
5. World Health Organization (1996) ‘Violence Against Women’. WHO
Consultation, Geneva: WHO.
6. The Human Rights Watch Global Report on Women’s Human Rights,
New York,1995
7. Toby D. Goldsmith, MD: “What Causes Domestic Violence?”
8. https://www.acesdv.org/domestic-violence-graphics/