Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed by men or boys against women or girls. Such violence is often considered a form of hate crime, committed against women or girls specifically because they are female, and can take many forms.
VAW has a very long history, though the incidents and intensity of such violence have varied over time and even today vary between societies. Such violence is often seen as a mechanism for the subjugation of women, whether in society in general or in an interpersonal relationship. Such violence may arise from a sense of entitlement, superiority, misogyny or similar attitudes in the perpetrator or his violent nature, especially against women.
The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women states, “violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women” and “violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men.”
Violence against women is one of the most frequent human rights violations. It is a threat to women’s lives, it puts their physical and psychological health at risk, and it is a threat to the well-being of their children, with consequences for the whole community. The perpetrators can be found in every social and economic milieu, and the majority of them are male. The reason: In societies shaped by patriarchy, violence against women is an expression of unequal power relationships between men and women. So the causes of this violence are to be found not only at the individual level but also, and particularly, at the structural level. These causes need to be eliminated in order to prevent further violence. Gender justice cannot be established unless misogynist structures are resolved. Only then will women and girls be able to live a life free of violence.
Violence against women is one of the most frequent human rights violations. It is rooted in the power imbalance between the genders. It is a threat to women’s health – and also that of their children – and it restricts their participation in society as well as their opportunities in life. Violence against women and girls is widespread all around the world and can be found in all social classes, whether economically affluent or not.
This violence manifests in various ways: sexualised, physical, psychological, social and financial. Sexualised violence is one form of gender-based violence and an expression of discrimination. However, women are not only discriminated against in a sexist manner: they are also often subjected to additional forms of discrimination, such as racism, homophobia or ableism. The impacts of these interlock, reinforcing and changing each other.
‘Domestic’ or ‘family’ violence, also known as ‘intimate partner violence’, refers to any violence committed by people within close social relationships. This is an internationally recognised violation of human rights. The aim of this violence is to exercise control and power. Although the term ‘domestic’ might often refer to a house or household, the violence is often committed within the wider family or by a former partner.
In the majority of cases of partner violence, those carrying out the violence are male, and those affected are female (and frequently their children). Within partnerships, those affected by the violence are almost exclusively women.
Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, declared in a 2006 report posted on the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) website: Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime with the abuser usually someone known to her.
A number of international instruments that aim to eliminate violence against women and domestic violence have been enacted by various international bodies. These generally start with a definition of what such violence is, with a view to combating such practices. The Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence) of the Council of Europe describes VAW “as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women” and defines VAW as “all acts of gender-based violence that result in or are likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological, or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”.
The 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of the United Nations General Assembly makes recommendations relating to VAW, and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action mentions VAW. However, the 1993 United Nations General Assembly resolution on the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women was the first international instrument to explicitly define VAW and elaborate on the subject. Other definitions of VAW are set out in the 1994 Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women and by the 2003 Maputo Protocol.
In addition, the term gender-based violence refers to “any acts or threats of acts intended to hurt or make women suffer physically, sexually, or psychologically, and which affect women because they are women or affect women disproportionately”. Gender-based violence is often used interchangeably with violence against women, and some articles on VAW reiterate these conceptions by stating that men are the main perpetrators of this violence. Moreover, the definition stated by the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women also supported the notion that violence is rooted in the inequality between men and women when the term violence is used together with the term gender-based.
In Recommendation Rec(2002)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the protection of women against violence, the Council of Europe stipulated that VAW “includes, but is not limited to, the following”:
Violence against women does not mean only physical violence. It is much broader and includes sexual, emotional, psychological and financial abuse.
On an international level, the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women provides the following definition:
The term violence against women means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.
Physical violence can include slaps, shoves, hits, punches, pushes, being thrown down stairs or across the room, kicking, twisting of arms, choking, and being burnt or stabbed.
Psychological and emotional abuse can include a range of controlling behaviours such as control of finances, isolation from family and friends, continual humiliation, threats against children or being threatened with injury or death.
Financial or economic abuse includes forcibly controlling another person’s money or other assets. It can also involve stealing cash, not allowing a victim to take part in any financial decisions or preventing a victim from having a job.
Family violence is a broader term that refers to violence between family members, as well as violence between intimate partners. It involves the same sorts of behaviours as described for domestic violence. As with domestic violence, the National Plan recognises that although only some aspects of family violence are criminal offences, any behaviour that causes the victim to live in fear is unacceptable. The term ‘family violence’ is the most widely used term to identify the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, because it includes the broad range of marital and kinship relationships in which violence may occur.
Sexual assault or sexual violence can include rape, sexual assault with implements, being forced to watch or engage in pornography, enforced prostitution, and being made to have sex with friends of the perpetrator.
Research has demonstrated that violence against women often involves a continuum of violence from psychological, economic and emotional abuse through to physical and sexual violence.
Research has shown that the significant drivers of violence against women include:
the unequal distribution of power and resources between men and women; and
an adherence to rigidly defined gender roles and identities i.e., what it means to be masculine and feminine.
Attitudes that condone or tolerate violence are recognised as playing a central role in shaping the way individuals, organisations and communities respond to violence.
Violence is a global phenomenon resulting in the deaths of more than 1.6 million people each year, making it one of the leading causes of death worldwide.
While no country is untouched by violence, the vast majority of its resultant deaths occur in low- to middle-income countries, many of which are stricken with internal conflicts. However, it should be kept in mind that violent deaths cannot simply be attributed to war, and more than 80% of such deaths occur outside of armed conflicts.
Violence has also shown to be an incredibly costly issue (13.3% of world GDP).
Violence has become increasingly interpersonal and tied in with criminal activity, particularly in urban areas. According to the UN’s Global Study on Homicide, intentional homicide was the cause of the deaths of almost half a million people across the world in 2012.
It is also important to note that deaths only constitute a part of the health and social burden which can be attributed to violence, which also results in non-fatal, sexual and psychological abuse. In addition, violence places a heavy burden on health and justice systems, social welfare services, and the economy of communities.
The adverse effects of violence on a country are harmful not only to its citizens, but the wellbeing of the community and country as a whole. In many countries, the impact of violence has significantly and directly reduced economic growth, and poses an obstacle in reducing poverty, while violence also causes profound psychological and physical trauma, reducing the quality of life for all of society.
Although violence is often seen and responded to as an inevitable part of the human condition, such assumptions are shifting, focus is broadening, and an increased emphasis is being placed on prevention of violent behaviour and consequences.
In order for prevention efforts to be successful, there needs to be an increase in our understanding of this complex phenomenon. Moral codes may vary vastly throughout the wold, making it more of a challenge to address the often sensitive topic of violence, its causes and its consequences, however some form of shared understanding needs to be reached in order to protect human life and dignity effectively.
On the basis of the WHO’s definition of violence, an elaborate “typology of violence” has been developed that characterises different categories and types of violence, as well as the links between them (allowing for a holistic approach to intervention).
It divides violence into three broad categories according to who the perpetrators and victims are of violent acts:
Self-directed violence
Interpersonal violence
Collective violence
Self-directed violence refers to violent acts a person inflicts upon him- or herself, and includes self-abuse (such as self-mutilation) and suicidal behaviour (including suicidal thoughts, as well as attempted and completed suicide).
By looking more closely at the nature of acts of violence, these three categories can be further divided into four, more specific, types of violence:
Physical violence
Sexual violence
Psychological violence
Neglect
Physical violence is the intentional use of physical force, used with the potential for causing harm, injury, disability or death. This includes, but is not limited to: scratching, pushing, shoving, grabbing, biting, choking, shaking, slapping, punching, hitting, burning, use of a weapon, and use of restraint or one’s body against another person.
This type of violence does not only lead to physical harm, but can also have severe negative psychological effects – for example, if a child is frequently a victim of physical violence at home, he or she can suffer from mental health problems and be traumatised as a consequence of this victimisation.
These four types of violence can occur in each of the previously mentioned broad categories, and their subcategories (except for self-directed violence).
The typology of violence clearly distinguishes between perpetrators of violence across different levels. There are situations, however, when violence cannot be attributed to a specific actor but rather to structures put in place that exert violence (in any of its forms) on individuals or communities. The system of apartheid and its overt discrimination against a large part of the South African population is one example.
In this context, Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung provides a useful distinction:
Direct violence – this is where an actor or perpetrator can clearly be identified. All forms of self-directed violence and interpersonal violence, as well as many forms of collective violence, can also be understood as direct violence
Indirect or structural violence – this is where no direct actor exists. Violence is rather built into the structures, appearing as unequal power relations and, consequently, as unequal opportunities.
Structural violence exists when certain groups, classes, genders or nationalities have privileged access to goods, resources and opportunities over others, and when this unequal advantage is built into the social, political and economic systems that govern their lives.
Structural violence requires both political and social change in order to transform the existing, discriminatory structures and patterns that govern the lives of citizens.
The terms “violence” and “crime” are often closely linked and used interchangeably. They should, however, not be confused.
Some types of crime are violent as per definition (such as armed crime or contact crimes, including murder, assault and rape), while other crimes involve no direct violence at all (such as tax evasion or illicit drug use). Similarly, not all types of violence are criminal, such as the previously mentioned structural violence, or many forms of psychological violence.
In other words, not every case of violence is a crime, and not every crime is violent. Therefore it is important to distinguish between violence and crime as two different terms that can overlap each other (and often do), but need not necessarily do so.
Violence, on the other hand, is an act of physical aggression that in most cases results in harm. Whether a violent act is considered a crime changes from country to country, and it might change over time, as countries adapt their laws due to changing political systems and social values. Understanding the difference between these two concepts is important in responding appropriately and adopting effective prevention strategies.
Violence is a relatively common type of human behaviour that occurs throughout the world. People of any age may be violent, although older adolescents and young adults are most likely to engage in violent behaviour. Violence has a number of negative effects on those who witness or experience it, and children are especially susceptible to its harm. Fortunately, various programs have been successful at preventing and reducing violence.
Violence can be categorized in a number of ways. Violent crimes are typically divided into four main categories, based on the nature of the behaviour: homicide (the killing of one human being by another, sometimes for legally justifiable reasons), assault (physically attacking another person with the intent to cause harm), robbery (forcibly taking something from another person), and rape (forcible sexual intercourse with another person). Other forms of violence overlap with these categories, such as child sexual abuse (engaging in sexual acts with a child) and domestic violence (violent behaviour between relatives, usually spouses).
Violence can also be categorized according to its motivation. Reactive, or emotional, violence typically involves the expression of anger—a hostile desire to hurt someone—that arises in response to a perceived provocation. Proactive, or instrumental, violence is more calculated and is often performed in anticipation of some reward. The American psychologist Kenneth Dodge found that those two types of violence involve distinct physiological states: a person engaging in reactive violence experiences increased autonomic nervous system arousal (i.e., increased heart rate and breathing, sweating), whereas a person committing an act of proactive aggression experiences low autonomic arousal.
Another method of categorizing violent behaviour involves distinguishing between predatory and affective violence. Predatory violence involves planned acts of hostile force. Affective violence is more impulsive and unplanned. Other types of violence have been suggested, including irritable violence (motivated by frustration) and territorial violence (motivated by intrusion into one’s perceived territory or space).
One point that all researchers seem to agree on is that violence is multicausal, meaning that no single factor is responsible for violent behaviour. Instead, violence results from a combination of factors, including those originating in the violent person’s social or cultural environment and those representing immediate situational forces. Researchers have examined multiple factors within a person that may contribute to violence, including genetic predisposition, neurochemical abnormalities (e.g., high testosterone levels), personality characteristics (e.g., lack of empathy for others), information-processing deficits (e.g., the tendency to view others’ actions as hostile), and the experience of abuse or neglect as a child.
Regardless of its cause, violence has a negative impact on those who experience or witness it. Violence can cause physical injury as well as psychological harm. Several psychological disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative identity disorder, and borderline personality disorder, are associated with experiencing or witnessing violence. Other psychological symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, and mood swings (see bipolar disorder), are common in victims of violence.
Children seem to be particularly susceptible to the negative effects of violence. Those who experience or witness violence may develop a variety of problems, including anxiety, depression, insecurity, anger, poor anger management, poor social skills, pathological lying, manipulative behaviour, impulsiveness, and lack of empathy. As such examples show, some children may respond to violence in “internalizing” ways, such as by developing feelings of insecurity, anxiety, and depression, whereas others may react in “externalizing” ways, such as by feeling angry and behaving in an antisocial manner. Although some of the effects of violence may manifest themselves during childhood, others may not appear until adulthood. For example, abused girls are more likely than nonabused girls to have substance-abuse problems as adults.
Moreover, exposure to violence can increase violent behaviour in children. The American psychologist Albert Bandura showed that children often imitate violent behaviours, especially if those acts are committed by trusted adults (e.g., parents). Children also imitate violence shown on television and in other forms of media. Those exposed to greater amounts of media violence are more likely than other children to become violent adults. This is particularly true if the child identifies with the violent characters and if the child believes that media violence represents reality.
Because the tendency to behave violently develops during childhood, most prevention programs target young people. Many such programs are school-based, although some involve the family or the community. The most-successful violence-prevention programs are those that target all children, not just those who are considered to be at risk for violence. In addition, the most success has been found in school-based programs with committed and involved teachers and programs that include parent training.
A variety of programs have been developed to reduce or prevent violence in individuals who have already shown a tendency toward violence. For example, a number of prison-based programs attempt to reduce the likelihood of reoffending among violent and nonviolent criminals. Such programs often involve a variety of components. Violent offenders may receive training to improve parenting and other relationship skills. A mental-health component, such as substance abuse treatment, may be included. Job training is another common component of prison-based prevention programs. Occasionally, drugs such as antidepressants, beta blockers, or benzodiazepines may be used in addition to other methods. Overall, the most-successful programs for preventing violence are those that effect behavioural changes.
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