Leslie Morgan Steiner: Why domestic violence victims don't leave. How Substance and Drug Abuse Can Lead to Domestic Violence. There are many Americans in the world who struggle with substance and drug abuse. We all may have found ourselves abusing a substance at one point or time in our lives. On an everyday basis people abuse substances like caffeine, herbal medicines, nicotine, alcoholic beverages, and even prescription drugs. All of these substances are legal and accepted into society (compared to illegal substances and drugs). Some of the more common illegal drugs and substances are cocaine, marijuana, LSD, ecstasy, heroin, crack, and GHB. When substance abusers fail to get treated, they risk incoherent thinking which can lead to violence and committing criminal acts of violence or abuse to friends, family, and loved ones.
The first thing into understanding a substance abuser, is to learn the reason why they use the drug? More commonly people use substances due to relief of pain, stress, alertness, relaxation, friends use it too, to escape reality, recreation, etc. The Key to End Domestic Violence. Domestic violence is a huge problem behind closed doors. Nothing pushes our buttons like our most intimate relationships. Everyone would agree that battering is bad for those on the receiving end.
Further, one of the great tragedies of domestic violence is that children who grow up in homes where it occurs are far more likely than others to resort to the behavior themselves, continuing the cycle of violence into the next generation. Nearly 90% of batterers saw violence in the household as kids, and many were victims of it themselves. Psychologist Steven Stosny, Ph.D., based in Germantown, Maryland, argues that battering also does terrible things to batterers themselves.
And that gives him powerful leverage to get batterers to stop. "Attachment means that you have an unconscious, automatic instinct to protect someone you're attached to. There is part of the abuser that doesn't want to be abusive, says Stosny. Stosny says that people believe they have an entitlement to feel good. What Causes Domestic Violence? Domestic violence may start when one partner feels the need to control and dominate the other. Abusers may feel this need to control their partner because of low self-esteem, extreme jealousy, difficulties in regulating anger and other strong emotions, or when they feel inferior to the other partner in education and socioeconomic background. Some men with very traditional beliefs may think they have the right to control women, and that women aren’t equal to men. This domination then takes the form of emotional, physical or sexual abuse. Studies suggest that violent behavior often is caused by an interaction of situational and individual factors.
That means that abusers learn violent behavior from their family, people in their community and other cultural influences as they grow up. Children who witness or are the victims of violence may learn to believe that violence is a reasonable way to resolve conflict between people. Office on Violence Against Women: Crimes of Focus: Domestic Violence. Hotlines | What is Domestic Violence? We define domestic violence as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner.
Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone. Physical Abuse: Hitting, slapping, shoving, grabbing, pinching, biting, hair pulling, etc are types of physical abuse. This type of abuse also includes denying a partner medical care or forcing alcohol and/or drug use upon him or her. Sexual Abuse: Coercing or attempting to coerce any sexual contact or behavior without consent. Emotional Abuse: Undermining an individual's sense of self-worth and/or self-esteem is abusive. - The Future of Children - Public health campaigns to eliminate health risks and to encourage healthy behaviors among particular segments of a population can serve as one type of model for domestic violence prevention strategies. Approaches within this model identify and address the underlying causes of this health problem and often also use positive messages about what constitutes healthier behavior to promote change to those healthier behaviors.3 Similarly, domestic violence prevention strategies must include some understanding of the underlying causes of domestic violence as well as a vision of what constitutes a healthy, nonviolent family.4 It is very difficult to identify the underlying causes of domestic violence; experts in the field do not agree as to what these causes are.
Biological Theory According to this theory, violent behavior is biological and organic and can be explained by genetics, biochemistry, and changes in brain development due to trauma. Individual Psychopathology Theory.