Cycle of Violence

The Cycle of Violence Many issues of domestic violence relate to the three stages of the Cycle of Violence: tension building, explosion, and the honeymoon phase. All of them are related to some form of abuse, which could include: verbal, psychological, emotional, financial, physical, sexual or spiritual abuse. Many times, the cycle repeats, without anything ever being done, because the person who is being hurt, forgives the batterer every time. This is due to denial, as the victim believes that it was all just a mistake and that it will never happen again Tension building is the stage at which it starts. It all starts off with there being minor incidents of either physical or emotional abuse, and the victim feels tension growing. This is usually the longest stage and even though the victim tries and controls the situation so no violence will occur, they cannot, and the victim feels as if they are “walking on eggshells”. The 2nd phase of the cycle of violence, explosion, is the actual form of delinquency, which could be verbal, psychological, emotional, financial, physical, sexual or spiritual. Verbal abuse can relate to yelling, complaining, and criticizing. Psychological abuse can be where you dismiss your reality or making up rules that you “should have known”. Emotional abuse relates to ignoring feelings, manipulation with lies, and threatening to leave. Financial abuse means that the victim is withholding funds, taking paychecks, and demanding money. Physical abuse is hitting the other person, laying your hands on them, or hurting them in any way. Sexual abuse is calling the person names like a “whore” or a “bitch” and forcing unwanted sexual acts. Spiritual abuse relates to demeaning those person beliefs, and wearing down their spiritual beliefs until their gone. All of these are considered abuse and leads to the 3rd stage which is the honeymoon phase. In the honeymoon phase, the abuser becomes apologetic to the victim and promises that he will never