1. Mònica Alujas Arbiol

2. Definition Domestic violence occurs when a family member, partner or ex-partner attempts to physically or psychologically dominate another. Domestic violence occurs in all cultures; people of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexes and classes can be perpetrators of domestic violence. Violence can be criminal and includes physical assault (hitting, pushing, shoving, etc.), sexual abuse (unwanted or forced sexual activity), and stalking. Although emotional, psychological and financial abuse are not criminal behaviors in some legal systems, they are forms of abuse and can lead to criminal violence.

3. Recent attention to domestic violence began in thewomen’s movement, particularly feminism and women’s rights, in the 1970s, as concern about wives being beaten by their husbands gained attention. Estimates are that only about a third of cases of domestic violence are actually reported in the United States and the United Kingdom. According to the centers for desease control, domestic violence is a serious, preventable public health problem affecting more than 32 million Americans, or more than 10% of the U.S. population and the Number of murders of women from Spain in 2003-2009 are 315.

5. Physical violence Physical violence is the intentional use of physical force with the potential for causing injury, harm, disability, or death, for example, hitting, shoving, biting, restraint, kicking, or use of a weapon.

6. Sexual violence Sexual violence is divided into three categories: 1. use of physical force to compel a person to engage in a sexual act against his or her will. 2. attempted or completed sex act involving a person who is unable to understand the nature or condition of the act. 3. abusive sexual contact.

7. Emotional abuse Emotional abuse can include humiliating the victim privately or publicly, controlling what the victim can and cannot do, withholding information from the victim, deliberately doing something to make the victim feel diminished or embarrassed, isolating the victim from friends and family, implicitly blackmailing the victim by harming others when the victim expresses independence or happiness, or denying the victim access to money or other basic resources and necessities.

8. Economic abuse Economic abuse is when the abuser has complete control over the victim's money and other economic resources.

9. Stalking Stalking generally refers to repeated behaviour that causes victims to feel a high level of fear.

10. Domestic violence occurs across the world, in various cultures, and affects people across society, irrespective of economic status. For example: Barbados (30%) Canada (29%) Egypt (34%) New Zealand (35%) Switzerland (21%) United States (22%) Some surveys in specific places report figures as high as 50-70% of women surveyed who were ever physically assaulted by an intimate partner.

11. Another controversy is the level of physical aggression in relationships of men versus women. For example, Martin S. Fiebert examined 219 studies on intimate partner violence and concluded that "women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners".