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In Canada, 85% of victims of police-reported intimate partner violence are female (Pascale Beaupré, 2015). Intimate partner violence is a serious and ongoing problem that affects many people, especially women. Intimate partner violence (IPV) can take many forms, such as physical violence, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, and financial abuse. It is defined as violence committed within an intimate relationship, which includes victims aged 15-89 (Statistics Canada, 2015). According to data collected by Statistics Canada in 2013, police-reported rates of IPV are generally higher in the territories than in the provinces. Studies show that there are several risk factors that are commonly …show more content…
Amy Barasch reviewed a book by Molly Dragiewicz, which views intimate partner violence as inherently gendered. Quoting the sociologist Claire Renzetti in the book, she explained that “feminist perspectives on violence against intimates are characterized by an insistence that gender is one important factor that must be considered as part of a ‘truly integrated, multidimensional theory of domestic-violence causation.” (Barasch, 2012). Statistics and research has shown that intimate partner violence is overwhelmingly committed by men against women in an effort to obtain power and control over another using a variety of tactics explained previously (physical, emotional abuse, etc) (Barasch, 2012). A study by Brancaglioni and Fonseca (2016) amongst adolescences revealed that …show more content…
Alcohol consumption on its own may not explain the prevalence of IPV, but the environmental and sociocultural factors that affect alcohol consumption need to be taken into account. Individual and cultural beliefs that alcohol causes aggression may lead to individuals consuming it to inflict IPV, or as a justification for inflicting violence on their partner (Gebara, et al., 2015). The relation between substance abuse and IPV applies to both sexes, where there is an increased risk of having a substance abuse disorder in both victims and perpetrator (Afifi et al. 2012). Kelley, Lewis, & Mason (2015) studied alcohol use and IPV among lesbian women, and in their study it was shown that alcohol use among lesbians are consistently higher compared to heterosexual women. One reason this might be is because many of them typically meet at settings where alcohol consumption is prevalent, such as gay bars and nightclubs, which may be partly caused by societies’ non-acceptance of same-sex courtship in public places. This consistently shows how discrimination affects minorities negatively and contributes to the culture of IPV. Heterosexual and bisexual women who binge drink were more likely to experience physical or sexual violence in their relationships (Goldberg and Meyer,