Domestic Violence

When women experience domestic violence they often feel responsible for what is happening to them, this is not helped by society and by health professionals who often act as though the victim is to blame for what has happened to them.

As recently as 1992 American psychologists were still of the opinion that women who were abused had a pathological need to be battered. This attitude is also evident in the UK where many GPs will provide tranquilisers and anti-depressants to women who are experiencing abuse rather than help her deal with the abuse itself.

Society is also responsible for blaming the victim and the attitude of many church goers is that a woman who is battered has done something to deserve it. In the late eighteenth century it was legal for a man to beat his wife providing that the stick he used was no thicker than his thumb, which is where the rule of thumb comes from - in view of this perhaps it should come as no surprise when a victim is blamed for an abuser’s actions.

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