Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence

Familial issues, dark side: the domestic violence

If we say the word ’family’, most of us will think about an idyllic picture of a nuclear family: smiling mother and father with their child or children. Unfortunately, the situation is not so happy in every case. Centuries ago it was okay what means one of the biggest familial problem today: the domestic violence. Domestic violence and abuse can happen to anyone, yet the problem is often overlooked, excused, or denied. This is especially true when the abuse is psychological, rather than physical.
Until the end of the 18th century, wife-beating was a “lawful correction”. The phrase “Our women are like dogs – the more you beat them, the more they love you” was thought to be right. The family was seen as part of the private sphere, so many cases remained (and remain until now) unreported, leaving seriousness of the problem unknown. But it was natural – family, the basic living arrangement stood under the protection and control of the father. Those days, fathers had full power: mothers were at home, giving birth to children and raising them up, taking care of the household. But the father was the breadwinner, so he stood higher in the hierarchy.
With the emancipation of women, the situation has also changed. Although family problems are not easy to speak about, more and more cases come to light. Slowly, the governments began to handle the physical and mental battering in the family. Nowadays, it does not belong to the private life. But the statistics are still frightening. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) made a research in 2011 when approximately 40 000 women were asked, chosen randomly from the 27 European Union countries. According to this, every fifth woman was raised in a family, in which the mother was beaten. The most of the cases were committed by their partners (22%). In Hungary, a woman is killed every week by her husband or companion.
According to this, it is easy to see...

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