Essay Sample - The Invisible Victims: Prevalence of Domestic Emotional Abuse among Men

When speaking about domestic violence the picture that comes to mind is that of a man physically abusing a woman. Domestic violence manifests itself in other forms other than physical abuse. Domestic abuse can also take other forms like emotional, psychological and sexual abuse. Recent statistics show that domestic abuse against men is also on the rise (Cook, 2009). This can be argued in two ways: that it always existed but only till recently men have been able to come out and report cases of abuse by their spouses without feeling victimized and that previously men were seen as the superior gender and the womens role was to be submissive but with the new age emancipation of women has provided them with a platform to dominate even in their relationships.

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In the case of domestic violence against women, most of them are advised to abandon their homes and seek a different environment to avoid physical and emotional harm. There are several ways in which victims of domestic violence are advised to handle abuse. Research done indicates that even in life threatening situations, spouses will choose to stay with abusive partners. Emotional abuse in men results into self-loath, lack of confidence, depression, drugs and substance and in suicide. Even with these effects, most men will still choose to stay in abusive relationships. This research seeks to understand the abuse process in order to find out why men still choose to stay in abusive relationships.

BackgroundDomestic violence has been prevalent over the years and more cases of men being violated are recorded on a daily basis as there is a record of 1 out of 7 men reportedly abused daily (Sacks, 2014). Domestic violence takes several forms namely physical psychological and emotional. This report focuses on emotional abuse against men. Domestic emotional abuse consists of the act of undermining the victims sense of self-worth through constant criticism, belittling, lack of appreciation of any efforts the victim puts in impressing the partner, constant insulting, inducing guilt. It also entails the comparison of the victim with other people in a bid to put off the victim as being inefficient, discouragement, attempts of manipulating victims relationship with other people and prohibiting the victim from being their true self (Gerdes, 2012).

Looking at the effects of both forms of violence, the wounds inflicted by emotional damage run deeper than those inflicted by physical abuse even though there are no scars to show. In most cases, verbal abuse accelerates to physical abuse. This research does not seek to diminish the impact of physical abuse, but states that emotional abuse has larger scale damage to the victims involved. Recent statistical research done in 2014 indicate that 40% of men worldwide experience any form of domestic violence from their spouses ranging from mild to full blown abuse (Sacks, 2014). According to a research conducted in 1980 only 11% of men admitted to some form of abuse from their spouse. Even though there is a massive growth of almost 30% abuse cases this figure is however considered as inaccurate because it is presumed that men are twice as much less likely to report cases of domestic abuse from their spouses.

Problem Statement

Given the effects of emotional abuse on men victims still choose to stay in their abusive relationships. In order to get to the root of the problem this research will explore these three questions.

Relevance of research

These questions are relevant because understanding the causes makes us understand the root of the problem and the underlying reasons why they stay. The forms of abuse help us to understand the severity of the situation and the extent to which the victims find the different forms of abuse tolerant. Causes of emotional abuse are the biggest factor that will enable us to understand the problem. These are factors, attributes or events leading to the onset of emotional abuse and its progressions. Finding out the effects of emotional abuse will aid us in understanding the severity of the situation that leads abusers to stay while also highlighting possible resolution action plans. The effects also highlight the severity of the situation in order to get an action plan or resolution on a short term and long term perspective.

All of the information relayed in this report will be as a product of research and data analysis. Research will be done in order to alienate each of the questions for exploration and deduce a working theory that answers the main question which is why men choose to stay in abusive relationships. Research methods employed include the use of questionnaires.

Research methods used are mostly needed to get information in order to deduce. Questionnaires, group focus and one on one interviews will be the main data collection methods. More data will be gathered from published articles, books, journals and articles on domestic violence. The service of certified counselors and psychologists will be required for guidance.

Literature ReviewVarious research has been conducted on domestic violence because of the need to find solutions to contain its growth. The main challenge faced in gathering this information from existing literature is that there are few articles, books and reports on violence against men. Research conducted a while back is considered as inaccurate because men were not able to freely admit to abuse from their spouses due to the gender superiority complex (Gadd, 2004). Most of the statistics were derived from research done by the Family Research Laboratory (FRL) and National Violence against Women Survey (NVAWS) due to the credibility of this institution. Other research was derived from reviewed articles and government based statistical reports.

According to Denise (Hines & Malley, 2001) in 1975 only 11% of men reported domestic abuse from their spouses and this figure rose to 40% according to different research conducted in 2014. In research conducted on the forms of abuse by Gadd (2004), 20% of men reported their partners controlling nature as the main form of abuse, 15% stated verbal abuse and diminishing, 30% stated acts of aggression for example isolation, ignorance, hostility and silent treatment as the main form of abuse. 35% of the men in the research claimed that there was constant verbal abuse with incidents of attempted physical harm to the men.

On research based on discovering the effects of emotional abuse, 35% of the men admitted to living in constant fear of their lives, 20% admitted to suffering depression and anxiety, 10% have considered suicide as an option to end of abuse, 5% have attempted suicide and failed while 30% experienced the feeling of loss of control of their lives and low self-esteem levels (Amberson & Umberson, 2008).

The research intentionally omitted review on the reasons as to why men still stay in abusive relationships in order to collect the raw data from the victims while using other forms of data collection. The information gathered from literature review was only meant to set a foundation for the research.

Limitations of existing reviewsThe peer-reviewed journals had several limitations, for example, research conducted by Glenn (Sacks, 2014) indicates that they conducted an interview by randomly calling 8,000 men and women and inquiring about personal safety concerns in their homes in a bid to gather data about domestic violence. The information gathered was limited because it is highly unlikely that a man or woman will confess to abuse to a stranger via phone. In addition to this, most men do not consider as a security concern, but as an internal marital problem.

Another limitation with existing research is that most of it was based on gathering statistical information from reports and articles in libraries. The information has been recycled over a long period of time. In order to get newer trends and have direct contact with the affected victims.

This research also includes information from recovered victims, an approach that has not been used in the reviewed articles. Most of the articles make comparisons between men and women abused while this research focuses entirely on abuse against men.

According to Glenn (Sacks, 2014)physical domestic violence amongst men is currently the most prevalent issue. I refute this and state that emotional abuse is more prevalent. This is because physical abuse is recorded when men seek treatment for abuse against partners while there is no readily available information about emotional abuse.

Methodology

This research will be conducted in different phases due to the different data collection means. First, there will be an extensive review of literature. The literature will be useful in enabling us to find issues that may have been overlooked as well as give guidance on the outline to follow throughout the data collection and analysis process.

Unit of analysisA sample size of 50 men will be used for the research. Five areas that had five different counselling centers were selected.10 from each of the areas close to each other in order to ease logistics purposes. Counselling centers were chosen because they were the easiest place to find the target group for the research. Having that our research was meant to find out why men stay in abusive relationships, and then it was only logical for research to be specifically focused on those who are undergoing the situation. Getting people located far apart would also result in a strain of economic resources and time.

Data collection and analysis methodQuestionnaires were to be distributed among those selected to fill them and dates set for interviews for those with one on one interviews. The help of psychologists and counselors based in the centers was required in order to conduct the interviews effectively. One on one interviews will also be recorded using voice recorders. After the collection of data, the next step would be to analyze the data.

A qualitative analysis is to be conducted on data collected. The qualitative analysis method was more significant because of the nature of research. The raw emotion, deductions and assumptions of the data collected cannot be measured using quantitative analysis methods.

Sampling methodsIn order to get accurate results, research will be done entirely on affected victims. 4 different counselling centers. The sample group consists of both men who are still undergoing abuse and those who managed to overcome abuse. The target group of the interviews was on those in the centers who had overcome their situation and are trying to assist others while questionnaire filling was done on a random basis among the people selected. The focus groups would be led by a counselor and recorded with the participants consent. The counselling centers conducted daily focus group meetings; therefore, there was no need to create new focus groups. The number of overall participants was limited to 50 because of the time constraint factor and also due to the fact that men are still not forthcoming with admitting to being emotionally abused.

Questionnaires: They will be distributed to 20 people; four people in each area. The questionnaires will be confidential as participants are required not to write names. In order to ease the collection process questionnaires will be filled and collected at the same time to avoid loss of questionnaires as...