The issue of violence and abuse isn't an issue or problem that simply began or was created over night. This issue has existed for centuries. However, the views and opinions about this subject of society today and those of society two centuries ago, for instance, are considerably different and have changed significantly.
In a more historical context, “a man's right to use physical force to correct his wife was supported by legal, religious, cultural, political and economic structures of Western society.” (Johnson) Violence and abuse was seen as an action that wasn't wrong for a husband to execute on his wife. However, in today's Canadian society, using "physical force" or any type of abuse or violence on your partner is against the law, isn't morally right and the general Canadian population doesn't accept this kind of behavior from any citizen. It was only some three decades ago that the male partner violence against women or simply violence and abuse against one's intimate partner was really "discovered" and accepted as a social problem. Since then, many researchers have taken on the responsibility and “task of quantifying the extent, severity, and consequences of “marital” violence. Most define “marital” as including common law or cohabiting relationships.” (Brownridge, Halli)
However, it is only fairly recently that abuse and violence has been accepted as a severe and serious social problem. With these studies and the findings that were found, researchers have been able to define the different types of abuse and violence. In 1993, Canada signed the United Nation's Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, which gives a general meaning and is accepted by the international community. This definition of violence and abuse against women is:
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 liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. (Johnson)
This definition is very broad and wide and doesn't explain a considerable amount about how Canadian will act towards abuse and violence. This definition also doesn't simply to Canada, but to the world. It also only applies to women, who are abused. For researchers, who conduct studies on violence and abuse, this definition should be kept in mind. There are several definitions, involving abuse and violence, which were found and based on the researches on abuse and violence.
In Canada, researchers began to do studies on the subject of abuse and violence in intimate relationships only a few decades ago. There may be several different ways of observing and analyzing the violence and abuse towards one's partner or spouse, in an intimate relationship. The articles look mainly at one type qualitative research method, a clinical study, and at one quantitative research method, the surveys.
There is one article that concentrates on discussing the findings on a clinical study. In her article, Cessation of Assaults on Wives, the author, Holly Johnson, does concentrate on explaining and discussing the findings from her clinical study. As a sample, the author primarily draws her conclusions from women, who are living in shelters, because they experienced and encountered severe or extreme forms of abuse and violence at the hand of their intimate partner, and have limited financial or other types of resources to help them get away from the violence and abuse. One of the main conclusions that the author of this article is able to draw and explain to the readers is the fact that these women were isolated from other people, who would be able to help them in some way. Their current or former spouse or common law partner isolated these women to have full control and dominance, which is part of the masculine gender role of dominance and the feminine gender role of subversive.
Apart from this clinical study and this article, most of the other articles draw their conclusions from several different surveys, which were mainly conducted by Statistics Canada. One of these various surveys, conducted by Statistics Canada, is the Violence Against Women Survey (VAWS), which was done from February to June 1993. This survey was created to be able to discuss and explain many of the different aspects that were at fault in the previous surveys on this subject and problem, as well as to be able “to provide national data on all forms of sexual and non-sexual violence against women.” (Johnson, Sacco) This survey is the first survey of its kind and has society better understand abuse and violence, but it is a fairly complex survey, which was created to disucuss and address issues involving women's choice and decision to use shelters, to report to the police, to leave and then to go back to their violent partners.
