Family, Youth and Community Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Family, Youth and Community - Essay Example The term ‘domestic’ can comprise of a number of relationships and it is evident that the wider is the range of relationships included in its definition the higher are the result of domestic violence research. The term domestic is defined as the people living in a single household by some authorities like Police departments. This definition includes the relationships between siblings, parents and children, married couples and so on. The other school of thought classifies relationships as domestic which exist between intimate couples only. This definition may involve the relationships that exist between couples at early stages of their relationship when misunderstanding and violent situations occur due to inappropriate or insufficient knowledge about each other. Violence, in the same manner, ha a number of possible definitions and the scope of its definitions differ greatly from person to person and organization to organization. The research data available, keeping this vi ew in mind, may differ significantly. Some researchers believe that any kind of physical and attempted assault is termed as violence regardless of the causes and reasons of it. Whereas, others believe that the acts with an intention of the person to harm are termed as violent (Gelles, 1997). It should also be noted that violence is not associated with the physical assault only. The psychological distress, bullying, emotional abuse and other such activities which harm the individuals’ mental and psychological state are also termed as violent. Such acts cause a great harm to the individuals but the effects are usually not visible (Straus and Sweet, 1992). Reasons of Domestic Violence The main reason behind the increasing trends of domestic violence is that people follow the generational cycle of domestic violence and are exposed to these instances in every phase of their life. The acceptability of this trend and the gender bias form the foundations of such behaviors. Family env ironment, low self-esteem and substance abuse are found to be the sources of encouraging domestic violence and aggressive behaviors. Media plays an important role in our lives today. The new trend on the popular media of portraying murders and sexual harassment has created another major area for the concerned people to research, analyze and take necessary steps to stop the harmful effects. More and more people are now exposed to murders, aggressive behaviours and rape scenes via media. This heavy exposure has led to the visibility of these crimes to a large public which was never apparent to them in past and especially in their routine life. This heavy exposure to rape scenes and sexual harassments are creating new difficulties in the form of increased sexual violence. The use of violent exposure, blood, aggression and sexual harassment has been increased in the music videos, movies, dramas and so on. The media, in this context, is harming the psychological wellbeing of people. In o rder to understand the effect of this sexual exposure and sexual violence against women a number of studies have been carried out. For instance, a study reveals that college men’s perceptions and beliefs are strengthened as they learn from the sexually unrestrained magazines that women tend to get pleasure from forced sex (Malamuth & Check, 1985). Check (1984) studies the behaviours and attitudes of Canadian male samples frequently exposed to