What is vicarious violence?
Gender violence is one of the blights that remain in force in today's society. So far this year at least seven women have lost their lives at the hands of their partners , the first one a few hours after starting 2017.
Abuse and domestic violence wreak havoc on the aggressed person both physically and mentally, be it woman or man. But the violence does not only affect the members of the couple.
When there are children involved, they suffer both from the observation of mistreatment of their loved ones and, in many cases, from direct or indirect violence against them. Some of them are even assaulted physically or psychologically for the purpose of harming the other component of the relationship. What these children are suffering is called vicarious violence .
What does 'vicar' mean?
The vicarious concept refers to the substitution or replacement of an individual by another in the exercise of a function or in the experience of a situation. An easy-to-understand example can be contemplated in vicarious learning, in which one learns from the observation of the acts carried out by other people and their consequences.
Understanding the concept, it is understood that vicarious violence will be defined as situations in which is going to carry out some kind of aggression on one person or replacing another, which would be the real goal , or collaterally.
Vicarious violence: what it is and why it is carried out
Vicarious violence is a type of intrafamily violence that includes all that behavior carried out in a conscious manner to generate harm to another person, acting secondarily to the main one. Said violence is a form of child abuse that can range from the visualization and witnessing by the minor of assaults by one of his relatives to another or by the suffering of direct aggressions as a method to cause him harm.
In many cases the son or daughter is used instrumentally with the objective of harming the real objective of violence , the couple. The individual who exercises abuse takes advantage of the fragility of the minors, harming and damaging their physical or psychological integrity in order to harm their partner psychologically, awakening in them suffering, pain and guilt by not being able to defend their loved ones. the victim.
Vicarious violence or the threat of it is also used as a mechanism of coercion and control towards the adult victim: before the knowledge of what the aggressor is capable the spouse or the minor is forced to yield to the pretensions and wishes of the victim. another and also in the fear of minors being attacked, the adult victim has fewer options to report, seek help or do something that puts them at risk.
This type of domestic violence can occur in multiple ways, both at the level of psychological abuse, deprivation of basic needs, physical abuse and even sexual abuse. In some cases, this type of violence can lead to the death of the child , whether in the form of homicide or premeditated murder.
Profile of the aggressor
Although the trigger of the aggressions can be very different depending on the case, in many cases behind the vicarious violence can be found a deep sense of inferiority and lack of self-worth , which generate in the abuser a frustration that is aggressively discharged through violence on others. As with other forms of domestic violence, it is usually men between twenty and fifty years of age, although there are also cases in which the aggressor is a woman.
Most of the aggressor tends to seek dominance and the exercise of power through the submission of both his partner and the infants, feeling an authoritarian figure and enjoying obedience and control of the situation with which they try to compensate your insecurities. Sometimes violent behaviors can be aggravated or triggered during drunkenness or alterations of consciousness.
Effects on the minor
The suffering of this type of violence will generate on the minor a series of physical and psychological effects that will mark in depth the vast majority of vital areas, causing a series of serious damage in their development.
First of all, one of the most immediate effects can be observed when the abuse occurs at a physical level. Assaults that the child may suffer can result in severe injuries that may require hospitalization and may even lead to a disability (depending on the areas that are injured) or even death.
At a psychological level, self-esteem and self-concept can be severely damaged.As a general rule, there is a deterioration in the attention and concentration capacity, a drop in academic performance and a high level of demotivation. The occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorders, with reminiscences of aggressions, avoidance of situations reminiscent of abuse, and a high level of physiological activation is frequent. It is not surprising that anxiety or mood disorders such as depression also appear. Fear and anhedonia are frequent symptoms that can even warn the social environment that the child is suffering some type of abuse. Suicide attempts at some point in the life cycle, including childhood, are not strange.
On an emotional level the acquisition of social skills, the appearance of empathy and problems of self-control are very difficult. . In this way, the appearance in the future of different psychotic-type disorders or antisocial, aggressive and psychopathic behaviors is also favored.
At the social level, these minors tend to develop attitudes of great distrust in their interpersonal relationships, resulting in a more complex affective bonding with third parties. All this results from the violation and abuse to which they have been subjected, especially aggravated by the fact that the aggressor or aggressor is a significant and close figure. The fact that there is an affective bond makes it more complicated for them to denounce or take other types of actions. It is also possible that the mistreatments visualized or suffered are dissociated from the rest of the experience, maintaining a relatively normal social life outside the home as a compensation mechanism. It is not uncommon for overprotective attitudes to develop with the most significant people in order to prevent them from suffering the same suffering as them.
Finally, the vicarious violence to which they have been subjected can cause affected children to acquire the behavioral patterns that they have been able to observe, generating a vicarious apprenticeship of the situation in which they can eventually replicate the mistreatment by being accustomed to them and consider violence in the family and the couple as a normal behavior.
Treatment
The treatment of this phenomenon must be approached from a multidisciplinary perspective, in which social, health, educational, administrative and judicial services work together. For this purpose, several protocols for action have been carried out in cases of child abuse in the family.
The legislation in force must guarantee the child who suffers or witnesses abuses the right to provide assistance services that they attend to the needs derived from the situation of violence, being in both cases a victim of domestic violence and requiring the prevention of new situations that may cause physical or psychological damage. In this aspect, the detection and reporting of cases of abuse is fundamental, which is why different observation protocols have been established in institutions such as hospitals and schools.
At a psychological level it is necessary to work from the psychological point of view with the victims of aggression, both with the affected children and with the adults, regardless of whether they have been witnesses or have suffered assaults. The need to give an explanation to the situation will produce a deep frustration that they must be able to express, and it is necessary to work in addition with the cognitions and emotions caused by the mistreatment.
Collaborate in the processing of the situation suffered, favor and promote a realistic self-concept, avoid behavioral avoidance and eliminate typical self-blame of a large number of victims are common therapeutic objectives, which must be undertaken by validating the sensations of the individuals and accepting them unconditionally.
With regard to the abuser or abuser, regardless of the legal consequences of their actions and the preventive measures imposed (such as the restraining order) various rehabilitation therapies have been created that aim to modify their abusive behaviors and improve the management of frustration, through behavior modification techniques and other cognitive and emotional techniques.
Bibliographic references:
- Deu del Olmo, M.I. (2016). Sons and daughters victims of gender violence in the City of Ceuta. Granada: University of Granada. [//hdl.handle.net/10481/43005]
- Holt, S .; Buckley, H. & Whelan, S. (2008). The impact of exposure to domestic violence on children and young people. A review of the literature. Child Abuse & Neglect, 32, 798-810.
- Save The Children (2006). Attention to children victims of gender violence. Analysis of the attention to the sons and daughters of women victims of gender violence in the system of protection of women. Madrid: Save the Children Spain.
- Sepúlveda, A. (2006). Gender violence as a cause of child abuse. Notebooks of Forensic Medicine, 12, (43-44), 149-164.
- Vaccaro, S. (2015). Vicarious violence: The sons and daughters victims of violence against their mothers.
