Domestic violence - Counter measures

Domestic violence occurs when the abuser believes that abuse is an entitlement, acceptable, justified, or unlikely to be reported. It may produce intergenerational cycles of abuse in children and other family members, who may feel that such violence is acceptable or condoned. Very few people recognize themselves as abusers or victims because they may consider their experiences as family conflicts that got out of control.

Because of abuse, victims may experience physical disabilities, dysregulated aggression, chronic health problems, mental illness, limited finances, and poor ability to create healthy relationships. Victims may experience severe psychological disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Children who live in a household with violence often show psychological problems from an early age, such as avoidance, hypervigilance to threats, and dysregulated aggression which may contribute to vicarious traumatization.

A lot of researchers think that the best solution for domestic violence is to prevent people from becoming abusers in the first place. Additionally, children can potentially be directly trained to refrain from domestic violence in their schools and by their parents.

Solutions to domestic violence need to include both short and long-term strategies. Short-term strategies should be made up of assistance programs that defend the woman who has witnessed abuse or is currently being abused. They frequently focus on the critical period faced by the victim after he/she leaves the home and is provided with food, shelter and guidance. This is the period when the woman or man who is the victim of abuse is most vulnerable. It is the time that the victim seeks retribution from the abuser, or when she may be forced to go back to the house out of desperation. Long-term strategies are aimed at educating the public and empowering the victim to reinstate her life without violence. It also includes developing programs that creates atmosphere of anti-domestic violence in the community.

The victims of abuse need to be provided with emotional support through the following means:

Provision of self-help through support groups - Counseling centers in the field of domestic violence. These are non-residential centers that provides various services to victims of domestic violence such as: information, counseling, assistance, and so on Such centers have an active role in providing emotional, material, legal support (assistance social, economic, medical, legal), but also an active role in educating and increasing the degree awareness of local communities about the prevalence and implications of domestic violence. Such centers also provide a number of additional services in the field of social inclusion and integration into the labor market. The existence of these centers and their visibility at Community level ensure the access of victims of domestic violence to specialized services.

Strengthening self-confidence. Victims of domestic violence often experience sentiment the specific nonsense that is constantly at the mercy of another aggressive person. It is a traumatic experience that intensifies the feeling of impotence, personal insignificance and others inability to deal with situations. Domestic violence (both physical and verbal) determines a medium and long-term damage to self-esteem and self-esteem and generates stress, attitude timid, submissive, etc. All support programs are therefore required to try through all (re) build confidence and self-confidence the ability to define their own existence.

Helpline - special line of information and counseling on domestic violence. Establish a helpline telephone line dedicated to victims of domestic violence is considered a good one practice in 20 EU countries. Helpline services that work nonstop provides information, counseling, crisis intervention and service mobilization services specialized interventions and support of victims of domestic violence. The services of this genre must be gender-specialized and specialized for giving assistance, information and guidance to women.

Stopping violence and preventing other acts of violence. The goal of the services in this the immediate end of violence and the elimination of the risk of their resumption. This this involves both emergency interventions (in the case of acute violence episodes) and interventions on medium and long term for rehabilitation of victims' lives.