VICARY VIOLENCE: Definition, Examples, Types, Characteristics, Cases and Data

Gender-based violence is a social problem that continues to need adequate measures to combat it and that is of great concern. The mistreatment causes horrible consequences for the victims, both physically and psychologically, and the same happens with cases of intra-family violence. However, the people who suffer this type of sequelae and violence are not only members of the couple: sons and daughters are other major victims of the situation, either directly or hint. Infants are often harmed for the merely instrumental purpose of harming the other person, they are used and suffer what is known as vicarious violence and which we will talk about in depth in this article on Psychology-Online.

Index

1. What is vicarious violence?
2. Characteristics of vicarious violence
3. Types and examples of vicarious violence
4. Cases and data of vicarious violence

In psychological violence the coercion mechanisms that are used can be several, one of them is the

The author Sonia Vaccaro defined this type of violence as vicarious violence. The adjective vicarious would respond to the sense in which the place of another person or thing is taken, as a substitute; or as vicarious punishment, which has been suffered or carried out by one person instead of another. This type of violence can even kill children in order to harm the partner. It is a term not yet very widespread.

Here you will find 15 types of violence.

The main characteristics of vicarious violence are the following:

• The aggressor seeks to harm the victim through children or other people and objects to which it has attachment and affection. It is a type of intra-family violence that includes all conduct carried out in a conscious way to cause harm to another person, exercised secondary to the main one. It is also a type of child abuse.
• Another characteristic would be that this type of violence is used as a mechanism of coercion and control towards the adult victim.

The types of vicarious violence can manifest itself in different ways, from making the minor witness the aggressions to this being the one actively damaged physically or psychologically and instrumentalized. Sexual abuse of the minor, deprivation of basic needs and even death. This type of violence can also be carried out through things or objects, which would be another type.

Some examples of this type of violence that seeks to damage the things for which the woman feels affection or attachment, would be the following:

1. Direct damage to sons / daughters, pets, loved ones.
2. Posting erotic advertisements with your name with the intention of ridicule and "discredit" it her name.
3. Disfigure your face to damage her image with acid, for example.
4. Burns your clothes.
5. Threats with harm to loved ones.
6. It breaks precious objects for you.

Some cases and data of vicarious violence that can help us better understand what we are referring to would be the following:

• In 2011, Ruth and José, aged 6 and 2, were murdered by their father in Córdoba, who was convicted in 2013. This fact represented a before and after in the consciousness of the use of children as a way of exercising gender violence. However, it was not until 2015 when children were also considered direct victims of gender-based violence, since in this way access to the services associated with it could be guaranteed. question.
• La Paz Children's Hospital, a 27-year-old man with a history of gender violence jumped out the window with her one-year-old daughter from a fourth floor after arguing with your partner.
• According to the Ministry of Health, with data from until 2017, in the last decade, the number of minors Deaths due to gender violence amount to almost fifty, between four months and sixteen years of age. Of these, about 30 minors were murdered during the visitation regime or in the period corresponding to the male in joint custody
• According to the organization Save de ChildrenIn Spain, in 2014, 3,349 girls and boys were victims of abuse in the family environment.

We must continue working hard in the field of gender violence and protection of the victim and the children, the interest of the minor is something that must be fought for joint. Here you will find information about How to prevent gender violence.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Vicarious violence: definition, examples, types, characteristics, cases and data, we recommend that you enter our category of Social psychology.

• Cordero, G & López, C. & Guerrero, A. I. (2017). Another form of gender violence: The instrumentalization. "Where else does it hurt!" Social Work Documents (59), 170-189.
• Vaccaro, S. (2015). Vicarious violence: Sons and daughters victims of violence against their mothers. Feminist Tribune. Recovered from: https://tribunafeminista.elplural.com/2016/03/violencia-vicaria-las-hijas-y-los-hijos-victimas-de-la-violencia-contra-sus-madres/

Vicarious violence: definition, examples, types, characteristics, cases and data