Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence

Summary
The 2010 summary report titled “National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey” focused o identify various factors promoting intimate partner violence and the effects of such occurrences to the victims. The article breaks down the true burden presented intimate partner violence. Evidently, initial research on the impact of intimate partner violence reported that as the severity and frequency of violence increased, the health and well-being of the victims becomes increases in severity. However, the research considered the fact that intimate partner violence ranges from a single act of violence experienced in an isolated episode to multiple acts of violence stretched over a long period. The variation in length of time and severity presents a unique challenge – difficulty in effectively representing the nature and level of severity presented from one victim to the next in a straightforward fashion. To address this challenge effectively, the methodology in the research was designed to include questions and tools ranging on the drivers and the effects of the violence on both genders. The range and impact of intimate partner violence is effectively identified and addressed in the course of the research. Unique set of indicators and related tools were employed in measuring the impact of intimate partner violence. They were designed to not only represent, but also measure the range of direct impact experienced by varied victims of intimate partner violence. There were specific perpetrators employed in the assessment of intimate partner violence-related impact without taking into account the time when the impact occurred. However, this measurement of impact focused on the various forms presented in intimate partner violence such as physical violence, sexual violence, and stalking to control of reproductive health, coercive control, expressive aggression, and control of sexual health.
Methods and Strategies
NISVS employed a unique methodology in the assessment of the impact of intimate partner violence. The methodology sought to analyze whether the various perpetrators of intimate partner violence were concerned for safety, fearful, or had nightmares. It also extended to include their need for health attention because of the violence and the asssistance they might have receved when they contacted crisis hotline numbers. Lastly, the study sought to identify whether the victims needed any legal service, needed housing services, victim’s advocate services, or became pregnant and or contracted sexually transmitted infections from the ordeal. These questions formed an important section of the methodology as it investigated some of the factors undergirding intimate partner violence as well as the authorities and institutions that have been set to prevent and or handle cases of intimate partner violence.
Findings
The research found that close to 3 in every 10 women across the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, and stalking by an individual who can be classified as an intimate partner. Moreover, they have reported at least one of the measured impacts of the violence within a relationship setting. More than one in every five women reported they were concerned for their safety while 25% of the women reported that were fearful due to intimate partner violence. 22% of the women reported a minimum of one PSTD symptom because of the violence. Close to 15% of the women, reported injury and 10% of them reported that they had missed a minimum of one day because of the different types of intimate partner violence.
Amongst men, the research found out that ten percent had been stalked, treated violently, or raped by their partners. They reported that they had experienced a minimum of one of the measures being investigated in the research in a relationship setting. The research also uncovered how five percent of the men became fearful because of violence from an intimate partner experienced within a relationship setting. Four percent of the men reported injury and missing a minimum of one day of school or work because of the forms of intimate partner violence being investigated or other forms of similar violence.
Among the male victims, 13% missed a minimum of one day of school or work because of IPV, 15% reported concern for their safety, 34% experienced a minimum of one of the various impacts being measured in the research survey or other types of intimate partner violence within the relationship setting. 18.4% of the male victims reported concern for their safety and 16% reported a minimum of one PTSD symptom while 13% reported injuries because of the relationship.
Implications
The research found out that approximately 1 in 25 men and 1 in 7 women were injured from the different violence acts from an intimate partner such as stalking, physical violence, and or rape. This sad statistic calls for extensive investments in not only the research but also educating the public about the forms of intimate partner violence and the impact they have in both the short and the long terms. From the female who reported stalking, rape, and or physical violence perpetrated by an intimate partner, about eighty percent had experienced a minimum of one of the impacts that were being researched through the survey or other types of intimate partner violence within the relationship setting. Another seventy-two percent reported being fearful, while two-thirds experienced a minimum of one PTSD symptoms while the rest missed work, feared for their safety or had long-term injuries.
Some of the solutions to this problem include the need to address the beliefs and attitudes among the partners, which may trigger the violence. It is also important if the partners can be informed on the importance of having healthy and respectful relationships where differences are solved without the use of violence. The necessary support should be provided to the survivors as a way of facilitating recovery and minimizing the recurrence of the issue. This extends to include the provision of timely responses and care whilst holding the perpetrators accountable.


Works Cited
National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. 2010 Summary Report. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_report2010-a.pdf