Abused Wives
“Every three minutes a woman is raped! Every fifteen seconds a woman is battered! Every six hours a woman is battered to death!” (Mckenzie, Cover) Research indicates that half the women in this country will experience some sort of violence, from a husband or boyfriend, in one form or another and more than one-third are battered repeatedly every year. (Wilson, pg. 8) Domestic violence is often dismissed as a problem that affects only a small group of women, however, as the facts show, the problem is not rare.The term “wife abuse” has many definitions: One of these is the use or threat of physical violence against a partner in a primary relationship. Physical violence is defined as an act that has the potential for physical injury to occur. According to this definition the abused person does not have to be married to the abuser to qualify as an abused victim.In most states, if a woman does not want to press charges against her husband/boyfriend, the case is dropped. Often a woman will not press charges because she is scared of further abuse and/or economic deprivation for her and her children. (Felder, Victor, pg.20) Wife abuse is not a “private matter”. Its presence undermines society. Furt
Thus, it was left up to state legislature to determine what was legal or illegal in regard to wife abuse. Throughout history men have been held responsible for their women and children. Unfortunately many people, including the police officers, believe this myth and hesitate to intervene. (2) Women provoke, want and/or enjoy the abuse they get. When police fail to arrest abusers they reinforce the idea in the abusers mind that he can get away with beating his wife, and may lead to an even worse form of physical violence that may result in death for the victim. If she sees her abuse as “just the way things are,” it probably won’t occur to her that she can take steps to end the violence. These include: (1) Violence is a private affair. Convicted wife abusers should be sentenced to jail and receive psychological treatment in order to prevent reoccurrence. 5)The Constitution of the United States did not address issues regarding spouse relations, except for the fourth amendment which secures the privacy of the home. (2) The nation became more aware of violence due to the civil strife of the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s and also due to the Vietnam War. They should be encouraged to arrest the abuser and file reports against him. At times reasonable force included death, and has typically included beatings, and deprivation of food and other resources. By 1910, 35 of 46 states granted divorce on the grounds of physical cruelty and many states made wife beating prosecutable as an illegal assault. In 1864, North Carolina overturned the “finger-switch rule”.
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