Understanding Domestic Abuse Across Generations.

Domestic violence is an umbrella term for a constellation of behaviors that inflict physical or emotional harm on members of a family or people living together as members of a family. Commonly used terms for domestic violence include domestic abuse, spousal battering, intimate partner violence, and family violence. Psychologists define domestic violence as behavior that involves violence or other forms of abuse from one person against others in domestic settings, and that frequently follows a pattern of increased escalation over time. Intimate partner violence refers to domestic violence against spouses or other partners of both genders in an intimate relationship (Lowe, Humphreys, & Williams, 2007). Domestic violence can include behaviors that result in physical, verbal, emotional, sexual, and economic abuse. Domestic abuse can range from subtly coercive forms to marital rape to disfigurement and ultimately to death.

Patterns of domestic abuse are often intergenerational, indicating that some of the behaviors are learned from observing abusive interactions between parents or other adults, or result from having been the target of domestic abuse or domestic violence while growing up (Black, et al., 2010; Lieberman, 2007). Indeed, the intergenerational transmission of domestic violence is believed to provide an avenue for therapeutic intervention as observed and learned behavior may be central to the dynamic of domestic violence (Bandura, et al., 1963). While providing therapy to those who commit domestic violence is important, the most pressing and immediate matter to address in a domestic violence situation is to ensure the safety of the victims. Following that, providing avenues for victims of domestic violence to rebuild their lives in safe and supportive environments is crucial to constraining the intergenerational transmission of domestic violence. This is precisely the work that The Second Step (http://www.thesecondstep.org/Home.aspx) and other organizations seeking to end domestic violence offers.

Domestic violence participants require attentive medical treatment including examination from family physicians and primary care providers as well as emergency room physicians. On the other hand, law enforcement should be held responsible in facilitating healthy intimate partnerships. Counseling is also a viable way of addressing domestic violence. Victim of abuse considers counseling as assessment of the extent, types, and presence of violence and abuse. Lethality assessment tools assist in the determination of best treatment courses for clients. It also includes helping such clients recognize the dangerous behaviors, as well as subtle relationship abuses. Studies about victims from attempted homicide related to domestic violence recognized that perpetrators had a capability of killing (Ergonen, Salacin, Karademir, & Musal, 2007). Most domestic violence victims focus on minimizing true severity of the situation. The other essential component in the equation is safety planning that allows victims to prepare for situations of danger as well as encounters of violence. The effectiveness scale depends on the decisions and the components diversely included in their perpetrators' decisions. Offenders use counseling as a way of minimizing future domestic violence risks.