As part of the task of identifying violence that occurs in different areas of life in time, it is important to recognize how mistreatment and abuse differ.
The numbers of cases of abuse, assault, rape and harassment in society continue to be alarming and it is impossible not to be familiar with these terms, either from what we hear or read about the cases in the news, from acquaintances or friends.
But… do we know what they mean and what their differences are? We may not be completely clear, so here are some of the main differences.
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Abuse
Make reference to the existence of an over-limitation with respect to something or someonethe subject who carries it out taking advantage of an element, attribute or specific situation that he possesses or has been given to him to perform an act or achieve something that does not correspond to him.
In the interpersonal context, abuse of a person involves the use of harm to them by some means.
Types of abuse:
- Emotional: It can include insults, derogatory comments, humiliation and other actions aimed at lowering the victim’s self-esteem.
- Psychological: It may include the use of threats, mind games or psychological manipulations, tactics to convince the victim that they are crazy and make them doubt their reality.
- Economic: may include control of money, bank accounts, and assets and property belonging to the family; prevent the victim from working, interfere with his or her work to the point where he or she loses his or her employment; and other actions aimed at creating a situation of financial dependence in the relationship.
- Sexual: It may include forcing the victim to engage in non-consensual sexual acts, depriving the victim of sexual contact, and other actions that violate the victim’s right to express his or her sexuality.
Abuse
The American Medical Association (AMA), in 1987, defined abuse as: “any act or omission as a result of which there is harm or risk of harm to the health or well-being of the person”.
Suffering abuse is one of the worst experiences that a human being can go through, since not only can they suffer consequences on a physical level, but the psychological consequences for these can be devastating and last a long time, even being insurmountable throughout life. .
In this context, the abusers They tend to be intolerant, authoritarian, psychologically inflexible, cruel, aggressive, and insensitive people. But what stands out most is that They tend to be nice at first, are blackmailers, and are easily offended.
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Types of abuse:
- Physical: this abuse usually produces a physical injury as a result of punishment unique or repeated that may vary in its magnitude or intensity.
- Verbal, emotional or psychological: There is no physical contact here, however, the consequences can be longer lasting than those caused by pushing or hitting, for example. It can appear together with physical abuse, and is characterized by being a type of emotional violence in which, among others, control of the victim’s social networks, telephone, schedule and friends. Constant criticism is used, telling you what to do and use, among other actions.
- Child abuse: It can be physical or psychological. Its main characteristic is that the person who is a victim is highly vulnerable. Although the severity of the consequences varies greatly, It is one of the psychological phenomena that most causes problems of low self-esteem and avoidant attachment.
- Digital abuse or cyberbullying: It is more common in adolescence and is characterized because it is carried out through the digital world and on social networks. This type of abuse manifests itself when a perpetrator sends negative emails or messages to networks.s, insulting or even threatening to the victim, uses the abused person’s account without permission, puts the victim in their status updates or talks about them, trying to discredit them.
- Institutional abuse: through laws, regulations, procedures or actions and may cause negligence and discomfort to individuals or groups of individuals.
Differences between abuse and mistreatment
Terminology
It is frequent that When we talk about abuse the first thing we think about is sexual violence. The victimizer abuses and uses for their benefitand at the expense of the other, their greater physical strength, their age, their power, the existence of an emotional bond, of emotions such as fear or fear or simply to feel superior to the victim.
Besides, When we talk about abuse we refer to the existence of physical and psychological violence, which includes beatings, insults and humiliation.
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Can
Although both terms refer to the presence of some type of violence or harm caused to someone or something, The concept of abuse includes the notion that there is an element that causes a relationship of inequality to exist between both subjects.
Here there are various factors that are involved from physical strength, age and experience, class or social position, position in the power hierarchy or simply the ability to lie, manipulate or coerce within an emotional bond between the two. The abusive party takes advantage of said inequality to harm the abused party.
Intentionality
In situations of mistreatment and abuse we can find that the aggressor intends to harm the attacked party. However, there are some types of abuse in which this is not necessary, such as due to ignorance of the needs of the affected party.
While it is sometimes possible that someone is unknowingly abusing, it is much more common for the abuse to be completely intentional.