What is it and its forms?
What is it?
Men’s violence against women is a form of gender-based discrimination and is internationally recognized as a violation of human rights.
“Violence against women means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of freedom”.
(Article 1 of the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women.)
Widespread and Global
Men’s violence against women is one of the most serious and widespread forms of violence, not only because of its epidemic scale, but also because of the social costs it entails and its consequences for people’s lives, material circumstances and health.
According to the World Health Organization, 840 million women – one in three worldwide – have experienced some form of violence.
Istat, Italy’s National Institute of Statistics, reports a similar picture in Italy, where 31.9% of women aged 16 to 75 have experienced violence.
A Systemic Phenomenon
Violence affects every country in the world and cuts across all social backgrounds. It occurs regardless of social class, education or income level, nationality, religion, sexuality, age or place of origin.
Particularly in intimate relationships, violence is closely linked to unequal power relations and to social norms, expectations and stereotypes associated with gender roles, both historically and today.
Forms of violence
Men’s violence against women takes many forms. They may occur on their own, but more often several forms of violence happen at the same time.
Domestic violence
Any form of physical assault, psychological, emotional, economic or sexual abuse, or stalking, carried out or attempted within a current or former intimate relationship.
Physical violence
Any act intended to cause physical harm, using different means such as hands, feet or objects. Examples include slapping, kicking, punching, biting, twisting an arm, hitting someone on the head, violent shaking, burning, strangulation and suffocation.
It also includes any physical contact intended to frighten a woman and put her in a position of submission and control.
Psychological abuse
Intimidating, threatening, harassing or degrading behavior, as well as tactics used by the abuser to isolate the woman.
This can include blackmail, verbal insults, blaming her in public or in private, constant ridicule and belittling, public or private denigration and humiliation, rejection, isolation, terror, deprivation and restrictions on her ability to express herself. In some cases, psychological abuse is so severe that it amounts to a form of brainwashing.
Economic abuse
Behavior intended to prevent or undermine a partner’s financial independence in order to control her.
This may include pressuring her to leave her job or preventing her from looking for work; restricting her access to household money; taking her belongings or wages; preventing her from opening or managing her own bank account; keeping her in the dark about transactions on a joint account; or pressuring her to take out loans or enter into other financial commitments in her own name.
Sexual violence
Sexual violence includes sexual harassment; sexual assault involving force or threats; forcing a woman to have sex with other people, watch pornography or engage in prostitution; and forcing her to perform or endure sexual acts she does not want.
Stalking
Behavior intended to control and restrict a woman’s freedom that becomes a form of persistent harassment or persecution.
The word “stalking” literally means “to pursue”. It refers to a pattern of behavior that may include repeated, unwanted communications through any channel; following or spying on someone; monitoring her home or workplace; deliberately approaching her in public; or other actions intended to frighten or intimidate her.
Children witnessing domestic abuse
This refers to children experiencing and/or witnessing any form of abuse within the family, including physical, verbal, psychological, sexual or economic violence against a parent or another adult or child who is significant in their lives.
It also includes violence by children against other children or family members, abandonment, and abuse of family pets. A child may experience such violence directly (when it happens within their field of perception), indirectly (when they become aware of it), or through its effects.
(CISMAI — Italian Coordinating Body for Services Addressing Child Maltreatment and Abuse, 2003.)
Digital violence
Gender-based violence perpetrated online, including cyberbullying, cyberstalking and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images.