Family violence has existed since the conception of the family unit.
hundreds of years were viewed as less than human, property, in place to serve at the .
pleasure of their husband. Woman who grew up in homes where their mothers were .
beaten or hit accepted it as their role as wife and most often married men who also .
abused them. Women in the early nineteen hundreds believed that being abused or used .
as a punching bag was just one of their duties as a wife. Many women believed that they .
deserved to be hit, they did something wrong and they needed physical punishment. Men .
who grew up in homes where their fathers beat their mothers continued the abuse in their .
own marriages and in most cases also abused their children.
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The history of spousal abuse dates back hundreds of years and has just recently .
been recognized as a serious problem. There are many reasons why men abuse their .
wives and why wives allow themselves to be abused. One contributing factor among men .
in domestic violence cases is alcohol and/or substance abuse. A man may come home .
from work after stopping at the bar for a few drinks and think that the house is not clean .
enough or the kids are too loud, his only solution in his drunken stupor is to beat his wife. .
Women, who may have grown up in this type of environment, marry into it and .
accept it from their own husbands. They believe that it's their husband's way of showing .
he loves them. Women such as these suffer from low self-esteem, no job, and no friends. .
Up until recently, the descriptions above were socially accepted as the man's way of .
keeping his wife in line.
Facts:.
There are many staggering statistics pertaining to domestic violence, too many to .
list them all. A woman is beaten every nine seconds in the United States. Domestic .
violence is the most under reported crime in the country, with the actual incidence 10 .
times higher than is reported. By the most conservative estimate, each year 1 million .
