The lifetime prevalence of sexual violence ranged from 4.3 to 76.4%, physical violence ranged from 7.4 to 66.1%, and emotional violence ranged from 26.1 to 50.8%. 35% of women worldwide have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence.
Globally, 7% of women have been sexually assaulted by someone other than a partner. As many as 38% of murders of women are committed by intimate partners. Two hundred million women have experienced female genital mutilation.
The prevalence of gender-based violence in Africa, in particular, is due to nurtured patriarchy, cultural gender norms, poverty, war, and conflict. All these factors range from gender inequalities between men and women, social constructions of hegemonic masculinities, social perceptions of what it means to be a man, normalization of violence, and cultural practices.
Gender-Based violence refers to harmful acts directed at an individual based on gender. It is rooted in gender inequality, the abuse of power, and harmful norms.
Gender-based violence (GBV) severely violates human rights and is a life-threatening health and protection issue. It is often associated only with physical violence, neglecting other nonphysical forms.
Violence is a complex issue, and categorizing different types of violence can never be exact.
Types of violence according to UN WOMEN include;
1) Psychological violence.
2) Stalking.
3) Physical violence.
4) Forced marriages.
5) Sexual violence, including rape.
6) Female genital mutilation.
7) Forced abortion and forced sterilization.
8) Sexual harassment.
9) Aiding or abetting and attempting unacceptable justifications for crimes, including crimes committed in the name of so-called honor.
Using these as a basis, we shall distinguish five inter-related types of violence:
1) Physical violence – Physical violence includes beating, burning, kicking, punching, biting, maiming, killing, or using objects or weapons. Some classifications also include human trafficking and slavery in the category of physical violence because initial coercion is often experienced, and the people involved often become victims of further violence due to their enslavement.
Physical violence sends a clear message to the victim from the perpetrator: “I can do things to you that you do not want to happen.” Such violence demonstrates social power differences or may intend to promote particular demands, sometimes regularly, through coercion. Physical violence in intimate relationships, often referred to as domestic violence, continues to be widespread in every country.
2) Verbal violence (including hate speech) – Many cultures have sayings or expressions to the effect that words are harmless, and there is a long tradition that teaches us to ignore verbal attacks.
However, when these attacks become regular and systematic and purposefully target someone’s sensitive spots7, the object of the attacks is right to consider themselves victims of verbal abuse.
3) Psychological violence – Certain forms of violence take place using methods that cannot be placed in other categories and, therefore, can be said to achieve psychological violence in a ‘pure’ form. This includes isolation or confinement, withholding information, disinformation, and threatening behavior.
In the private sphere, psychological violence includes threatening conduct which lacks physical violence or verbal elements, for example, actions that refer to former acts of violence or purposeful ignorance and neglect of another person.
One typical example of such violence in the public sphere includes isolating young women or men who do not act according to traditional gender roles.
4) Sexual violence – It has become clear that sexual violence, like other forms of violence, is an abuse of power. The East and Southern African regions have high rates of sexual violence against women and girls. In seven countries, around 20 percent of those aged 15 to 24 years reported they had experienced sexual violence from an intimate partner.
Sexual violence against early adolescents aged 15 years and below is highest in the DRC, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zimbabwe conflict and post-conflict countries.
Sexual violence includes:
- Engaging in non-consensual vaginal, anal, or oral penetration with another person using any body part or object.
- Engaging in other non-consensual acts of a sexual nature with a person.
- Causing someone else to engage in non-consensual acts of a sexual nature with a third person.
Marital rape and attempted rape constitute sexual violence. Examples of sexual violence include; sexual harassment and abuse related to reproduction (e.g., forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilization, and female genital mutilation).
5) Socio-economic violence. – Socio-economic deprivation can make a victim more vulnerable to other forms of violence and can even be why other forms of violence are inflicted.
Global economic data clearly show that one of the consequences of globalization is the feminization of poverty11 (making women generally more economically vulnerable than men); however, economic vulnerability is a phenomenon that also exists on the personal level.
It has been recognized in many abusive relationships as a distinct phenomenon, which is why it deserves its category. However, even when the relationship is reversed, and a woman has a higher economic status in a relationship, this does not necessarily eliminate the threat of violence: conflicts about status and emasculation may arise, particularly in already abusive relationships.
Typical forms of socio-economic violence include:
- Taking away the victim’s earnings.
- Making them work in a family business without a salary.
- Making the victim unfit for work through targeted physical abuse.
There are also two other categories of violence: domestic violence and (sexual) harassment, which may be a combination of all five types of violence mentioned above.
Some forms of violence can be present simultaneously, particularly in abusive relationships. All forms can occur both in the private sphere (in families and intimate relationships) and in the public sphere, committed by (unknown) individuals in public space or by organizations, institutions, and states.
