Running Head:GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Gender Based Violence



Gender Based Violence

Introduction

Gender Based Violence toward women is a pervasive social problem. It includes spousal abuse, rape and physical abuse. Most women also experience insidious and pervasive subtle Gender Based Violence to some degree, and women of color experience that kind of Gender Based Violence to higher degrees. This kind of abuse may not be overtly violent or threatening to bodily well-being at the given moment, but it harms the person's sense of worth, value, and well-being. Gender Based Violence can be physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, or spiritual.

Unique Issues Gender Based Violence

Other Forms of Victimization

Another crucial issue in assessing and treating ethnic minorities who have experienced Gender Based Violence is the notion Wyatt (1990) presented. She suggested that other forms of victimization, such as discrimination, can complicate the impact of sexual abuse, which may complicate professionals' . Children experience betrayal when they discover that someone on whom they were vitally dependent has caused them, or wishes to cause them, harm; betrayal may occur when their parents or other important persons are unable or unwilling to protect them. Sexual development and relationship skills may be shaped in inappropriate and interpersonally dysfunctional ways. Survivors may feel stigmatized, different, tarnished, spoiled. They learn to keep secrets, which violate a person's ability to be congruent; secrets also interfere with one's abilities to be genuine, natural, and authentic.

Role of the State

The role of the state is important to the issue of family violence. In analyzing and comparing how states deal with family violence, the most important issues are the existence and administration of laws governing family relations and official commitment and capacity (or lack thereof) to protect people from violence. Relevant issues include whether there is a constitutional authority that guarantees the protection of law and whether this authority is used effectively to redress family violence, whether there are national laws or administrative sanctions that prohibit family violence, and whether the state has undertaken necessary measures to deal with family violence and the protection of victims. Examples would be the provision of social services, health care, or education campaigns.

In some societies, the state constitutes the sole authority to legislate, administer, and enforce family laws.

In other societies, family laws (also termed personal status laws) are derived from religious texts or customary practices. Here, religious or communal authorities administer family relations. In countries where family laws are community derived, there are two tiers of law: one encompassing state law, which excludes administration of family relations, and another that encompasses the community. Communalization of family laws and relations creates a distinctive challenge because it impedes victims and activists from using national legislation as leverage. The state either has created or accepted this two-tiered arrangement, and often has an interest in maintaining it, whether to avert intersectarian strife, placate communal authorities, or consolidate its own legitimacy among powerful constituencies interested in religious or communal autonomy.

While religious laws and beliefs, cultural customs, social traditions and norms, and communal institutions may constitute ...