Newspapers reported acts of family violence which kill or maime. The public reacts to the detailed accounts with outrage, but remain ignorant to the real facts of what is happening in many homes across the nation. Few have a real understanding of what constitutes family violence, what causes family violence, and what society needs to do to help solve this social problem.
The words family violence conjure up images of wives being brutally beaten or children suffering physical injury at the hands of an adult. These acts are at the severe end of the spectrum of family violence. Violence and abuse are extremely difficult concepts to define. Offender's views differ from those of victims. Agents of social control (eg. police or social workers) may have different perceptions than participants. Many see force differently from violence. Is a spanking violent? Is it the same as punching, kicking, stabbing or shooting someone? Researchers believe that all violent acts from pushing and shoving to shooting and stabbing belong under a single definition of violence. The Alberta Department of Justice endorses the same belief.
Family violence has been traditionally viewed as a social or family problem. Some forms of physical and sexual abuse, fall under the jurisdiction of the Criminal Code. Physical abuse includes many degrees of physical violence such as pushing shoving, slapping, kicking, punching, hitting, spitting, pinching, pulling hair, choking, throwing things, hitting victims with an object and using or threatening to use a weapon. Sexual abuse is described as making victims do any sexual acts they do not want to do. There are other types of abuse, that occur in families, which can be as devastating as physical and sexual abuse, but are not punishable by the Criminal Code. These types include: .
emotional/psychological abuse, which can lead to anxiety and depression (eg. constant insults, ridiculing beliefs, race or religion, constant put downs, threats of suicide).