What is Violence?
Violence is classified as the undertaking of behavior, activity, expression, or sentiment with the direct purpose of causing harm, facilitating damage, and inciting pain with regard to the individual or individuals considered to be victimized by such violence. Violence can be expressed either in speech or action, which entails a vast array of variations in which violence can take place.
Violence against Women:
Violence against women is a technical term, which collectively refers to violent acts directed and exclusively committed against women. As a classification of a violent act, violence against women is similar to a hate crime, because the actions are targeted towards a specific group and the victim’s gender is typically the primary motive.
The United Nations General Assembly, a leading organization aimed at educating and preventing violence against women, defines the discriminatory act as, “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
Violence against women can be perpetrated by assailants of either gender and can be delivered by family members or as a random act of violence. Furthermore, violence against women can be administered by a government agency or the “state.”
Types of Violence against Women:
Physical Violence against Women: This kind of violence against women refers to any action that constitutes physical abuse or assault. Physical violence against women, in a sustained manner, typically involves members of a family or those involved in a romantic partnership. Physical violence against women
Domestic Violence against Women: Women are more likely to be victimized by someone they are romantically involved with. This unfortunate occurrence, known as “Intimate Partner Violence” is grouped within the all-encompassing sphere of violence against women.
Serious violent crimes against women (particularly murder) are predominantly committed by the victim’s husband or boyfriend. That being said, numerous studies have shown that domestic violence against women is not always perpetrated as a physical act; domestic violence against women in a psychological or verbal fashion is also common.
Violence against Women and the impact on Society:
Violence against women, according to the World Health Organization, places an undue burden, in regards to health care services, with women who have been victimized. Those women who are victims of domestic violence or any form of violence, including emotional attacks, are more likely to need health care services, which are typically offered at a higher cost, compared to those women have not suffered from violence.
In addition to the cost of health care services, violence against women is a demeaning action that further discourages or impedes an individual from achieving their personal goals. Women have long fought their just rights; any violent action that is delivered based on gender or against women in a romantic relationship perpetuates the archaic and blasphemous notion that women are inferior to their male counterparts.
