Characteristics of intimate partner violence

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies four types of intimate partner violence—physical violence, sexual violence, stalking, and psychological aggression.

There are personality traits that make the victim susceptible to remaining in an abusive relationship. Women who have experienced IPV obtained higher scores in schizoid, avoidant, self-destructive, schizotypal, borderline, and paranoid personality scales.

Situational couple violence

This is the most common form of intimate partner violence, particularly in the western world and among young couples, and involves women and men nearly equally. Among college students, Johnson found it to be perpetrated about 44% of the time by women and 56% of the time by men.

IPV is common.

Data from CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) indicate: About 1 in 4 women and nearly 1 in 10 men have experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime and reported some form of IPV-related impact.

Stalking is a form of mental assault, in which the perpetrator repeatedly, unwantedly, and disruptively breaks into the life-world of the victim, with whom they have no relationship (or no longer have).

Domestic violence

It encompasses all physical, sexual, emotional, economic and psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This is one of the most common forms of violence experienced by women globally.

Emotional or psychological abuse

Emotional abuse often coexists with other forms of abuse, and it is the most difficult to identify.

The overwhelming global burden of IPV is endured by women, and the most common perpetrators of violence against women are male intimate partners or ex-partners. However, women who are experiencing IPV often do not see themselves as abused. IPV has long-lasting, serious effects on a woman’s physical and mental health.

Violence can be broadly divided into three broad categories—direct violence, structural violence and cultural violence.

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.

Effects of violence

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. Other psychological symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, and mood swings (see bipolar disorder), are common in victims of violence.

Violence is defined by the World Health Organization in the WRVH as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment

There are many causes of violence including “frustration, exposure to violent media, violence in the home or neighbourhood and a tendency to see other people’s actions as hostile even when they’re not.

The causes of violence are multiple. The psychological literature usually divides these causes into four highly overlapping categories: (1) biological, (2) socialization, (3) cognitive, and (4) situational factors.