Education, study and knowledge

What is vicarious violence? Causes and symptoms

click fraud protection

The mistreatment and domestic violence they wreak havoc on the person attacked both physically and mentally, be it a woman or a man. But violence does not affect only the members of the couple.

When there are children involved, they suffer both from the observation of the mistreatment of their loved ones and, in many cases, from direct or indirect violence applied against them. Some of them are even physically or psychologically assaulted with 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 seen in the vicarious learning, in which you learn from the observation of the acts carried out by other people and their consequences.

Once the concept is understood, it is understood that vicarious violence will be defined as situations in which

instagram story viewer
some type of aggression is going to be carried out on a person or in substitution of another, which would be the true objective, or collaterally. Motivation is usually associated with revenge.

In practice, this occurs above all in the family context, and that is why in general terms it is considered to be a form of intrafamily violence. Especially serious are the cases of those who harm their sons or daughters to harm an ex, phenomenon that has even led to scandals such as the murder of children at the hands of their father or mother.

On the other hand, the erroneous belief that vicarious violence is a form of sexist violence is widespread or that it is only carried out by men who harm their son or daughter to harm the mother. This is not the case: by definition, vicarious violence does not understand the sexes, beyond the fact that statistically it may have greater representation in one sector of the population or another.

It is clear that gender violence is one of the scourges that are still valid in today's society, but it is not entirely clear that the parents are the main perpetrators when attacking their children with this vengeful purpose; information is lacking in this regard, and taking into account that people who spend most of their time with children tend to be women, vicarious violence could be more present in both men and women; neither hypothesis is far-fetched.

Vicarious violence: what it is and why it takes place

Vicarious violence is a type of domestic violence that includes all conduct carried out consciously to cause harm to another person, being exercised secondary to the principal. Such violence is normally a form of child abuse that can range from viewing and witnessing by the minor of aggressions by one of her family members to another or by the suffering of direct aggressions as a method to cause a damage.

In many cases, the son or daughter is used in an instrumental way with the aim of harming the true target of the violence, the couple. The individual who exercises abuse takes advantage of the fragility of minors by violating and undermining their physical or psychological integrity in order to psychologically damaging her partner, awakening in her suffering, pain and a sense of guilt by not being able to defend the people most dear to her victim.

Vicarious violence or the threat of it is also used as a coercion and control mechanism towards the adult victim: before the knowledge of what the aggressor is capable of, the spouse or minor is forced to give in to the claims and desires of the other and also in the face of 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 minor, whether in the form of murder or premeditated murder.

Vicarious violence

Profile of the aggressor

Although the trigger for the attacks may be very different depending on the case, in many cases behind 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 believed that it usually involves men of between twenty and fifty years of age, although there are also cases in which the aggressor is a woman.

For the most part, the aggressor tends to seek dominance and the exercise of power through the submission of both his partner and the other. infants, feeling an authoritarian figure and enjoying obedience and control of the situation with which they try to compensate for their insecurities. Violent behaviors can sometimes be aggravated or triggered during drunken states 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 are going to mark in depth the vast majority of vital areas, causing a series of serious damages in their development.

In the first place, one of the most immediate effects can be observed when the abuse occurs on a physical level. The aggressions that the minor may suffer can entail severe injuries that may require hospitalization and may even lead to disability (depending on the areas that are injured) or even to the death.

On a psychological level the self-esteem and the selfconcept they can be severely damaged. As a general rule, a deterioration in attention and concentration capacity, a drop in academic performance and a high level of demotivation are observed. The appearance of post-traumatic stress disorder, reminiscent of assaults, avoidance of situations reminiscent of abuse and a high level of physiological activation. It is not uncommon for anxiety or mood disorders such as depression to also appear. Fear and anhedonia They are frequent symptoms that can even warn the social environment that the minor is suffering some type of abuse. Suicide attempts at some point in the life cycle, including childhood, are not uncommon.

On an emotional level the acquisition of social skills, the appearance of empathy and self-control problems are greatly hindered. In this way, the appearance in the future of different psychotic disorders or antisocial, aggressive and aggressive behaviors is also favored. psychopathic.

At the social level, these minors tend to develop attitudes of great distrust in their interpersonal relationships, making affective bonding with third parties more complex. All this results from the violation and abuse to which they have been subjected, especially aggravated by the fact that the aggressor is a significant and close figure. The fact that there is an affective bond makes it more difficult for them to report or take other types of actions. It is also possible that the mistreatment visualized or suffered is dissociated from the rest of the experience, maintaining a relatively normal social life outside the home as a mechanism of compensation. It is not uncommon for overprotective attitudes to develop with the most significant people in order to prevent them from suffering the same condition as them.

Lastly, the vicarious violence to which they have been subjected may cause affected minors to acquire the patterns of behavior that they have been able to observe, generating a vicarious learning of the situation in which in the long run they can replicate mistreatment by being used to it and consider violence in the family and the partner as a normal behavior.

Treatment

The treatment of this phenomenon must be approached from a multidisciplinary perspective, in that both social, health, educational, administrative and judicial services work in a joint. For this purpose, several action protocols have been carried out in cases of child abuse in the family environment.

Current legislation must guarantee the right to the provision of care services to the minor who suffers or witnesses abuse that attend to the needs derived from the situation of violence, being in both cases the victim of domestic violence and requiring the prevention of new situations that may cause physical or psychic. In this regard, it is essential to detect and report cases of abuse, which is why the which different observation protocols have been established in institutions such as hospitals and schools.

On a psychological level, it is necessary to work from psychology with the victims of aggressions, both with the minors affected as with adults, regardless of whether they have witnessed or have also suffered assaults. The need to give an explanation to the situation will produce a deep frustration that must be capable of expressing, being necessary also to work with the cognitions and emotions caused by the bad deals.

Collaborate in the processing of the situation suffered, encourage 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 feelings of the individuals and accepting them unconditionally.

Regarding the abuser or abuser, apart from the legal consequences of their actions and the preventive measures imposed (such as the restraining order), various therapies have been created of rehabilitation that aim to modify their abusive behaviors and improve the management of frustration, through behavior modification techniques and other techniques of a cognitive and emotional nature.

Teachs.ru

Psychologist Maria José Rebora Casella

I am a Clinical Psychologist and Mental Health Auditor. I have worked for almost 20 years in the ...

Read more

4 Parenting keys to prevent Addictions in children

"Should I let him go out with friends, or tell him to stay home?" As children approach adolescenc...

Read more

Psychologist Paula Svec Astorga

Clinical psychologist, graduate in Neuropsychology.Clinical psychologist with a cognitive-behavio...

Read more

instagram viewer