Family Dynamics and Structure Essay

Family Essay on Violence and Abuse

Violence within the family has occurred since Cain slew Abel. Infanticide is a common way people have worked to insure they had sons instead of daughters. Parricide has been done either as a means to gain financial or emotional independence or as retribution against earlier child abuse done to the murderer, as is some elder abuse. The transmission of victimization doesn't always return to the instigator, abused people often go on to abuse others.

Because of their lack of physical stature and societal power, women are the most frequent targets of severe domestic abuse. Men can be abused too, but a woman is more likely to be hospitalized because of it. Men who are guilty of woman battering are far more likely to batter children than men who don't. In fact, sexually and physically abused people are far more likely to become alcoholics after the abuse according to studies. Though it was once believed that alcohol caused the abuse, further research is showing that it is more often occurs as a coping mechanism afterwards. It is also used as a scapegoat in battering and sexual abuse. In most cases, it is obvious that the abuser has more control over their actions than they want to admit, due to the fact that they are very careful not to leave physical marks on their victims in places where they can be readily seen. The same has been found with most sexual abusers, who claim that they cannot control their urges.

Victims of rape, incest, battering and other forms on intimate abuse often go uncorrected due to victim blaming. After all, who would attack an elderly parent who had been a loving one? What parent would hit a good child? What spouse would harm their better half without a very good reason? No one deserves to be abused, though. When it is all boiled down, abuse is purely a matter of having power over another person.