"The spread of brutality in the society and its most horrific form leaping into the family institution shows that the society is inclined to move away from values such as reason, virtue and dignity and act on their instincts."
Recently, a day has passed without seeing the news of violence every time we turn on the television or turn the pages of the newspaper. Violence, which has no specific geography, education level, culture and age restrictions, has become a global problem. Studies carried out in many countries at different times report that despite the measures taken, violence has become an inevitable phenomenon and must be worked on. When violence is mentioned, the first victim groups that come to mind are women. It is not just a coincidence that the first group that comes to mind is women; A study conducted by Mehra (2004) reveals that 20-30% of the world's female population have been exposed to physical or sexual violence by their spouses or partners at any time in their lives for any reason. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) statistics on domestic violence against women in Turkey, regardless of whether the place of residence is rural or urban, in which geographical region they live, age group, employment status and welfare level, physical or mental abuse from the spouse or the person(s) It is reported that 41.9 percent of women who have experienced sexual violence and 13.7% of women have been exposed to this physical or sexual violence in the last 12 months. It should be kept in mind that a woman is exposed to physical violence by her husband/partner every 15 seconds and that violence has not only physical but also sexual, economic and psychological dimensions. In this article, about domestic violence against women, which is a subject that will be written and talked about a lot, only the “characteristics of women who are victims of violence” and more specifically the psychopathological symptoms observed in women who are victims of violence.
Research conducted with women who were victims of domestic violence explained the reasons for the apparent decrease in the living standards of these women with disability. psychological disorders such as s/injuries, sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, prenatal complications, dyspareunia, depression, suicide attempt, anxiety disorders, drug-alcohol-substance addiction, eating disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (Cobb et al. , 2006; Campbell, 2002). The act of violence justified on the basis of fault in housework, the masculine authority that the man has at home, attack on his rights and responsibilities or jealousy (Helvacıoğlu, 1997) is combined with all kinds of threats against the woman by the perpetrator of violence, combined with the whole life of the woman who is already a victim, physically, sexually, It is expected that they will continue by being exposed to elements of verbal or psychological violence. While all this is difficult enough, the same woman is asked to take care of the children, take care of the housework and even earn money to bring money to the house. Almost 25% of these women, whose social support searches are mostly unanswered, lose their lives (Şahin, 2018).
What are the general characteristics seen in women who continue their lives under all these conditions? : Negative self-perception, low self-esteem, high depressive symptoms (Offman & Matheson, 2004), low psychological well-being, interpersonal problems, anxiety disorders (Antony et al., 2005), flawed and guilty beliefs, and sleep disorders. Women exposed to violence especially tend to internalize the violence perpetrated by the other party and to attribute the cause of the violence to themselves. These individuals, who base this violence they experience as a result of their own behavior, usually try to hide their violence or try to rationalize it with various cognitive defense mechanisms without going into too much detail. This pushes them to live without revealing the feelings and thoughts they actually live or feel. One of the common characteristics of women who have been subjected to violence are low education level, lack of work experience, difficulty in working while caring for their children, lack of economic freedom, having children from the person subjected to violence, not wanting to leave the children without a father. He should not leave the environment in which he is subjected to violence for reasons such as fear of loneliness, low self-confidence, belief that his wife will change (Gordon et al., 2004). It should not be forgotten that domestic violence, which is too important to be explained briefly, is a preventable problem with necessary family policies, family unity in education and especially the importance of women in the family, deterrent penalties and appropriate legal regulations.
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