Public was forced to go against the violence

Violence against women is now well recognised as a public health problem and human rights violation of worldwide significance. It is an important risk factor for women’s ill health, with far reaching consequences for both their physical and mental health.¹ There is a need to understand better the magnitude and nature of the different forms of violence against women. Clear definitions are needed to be able to compare information across studies and to generate a knowledge base that will allow us to identify the various and overlapping ways in which violence against women occurs and what actions may serve to prevent it and respond to its consequences.

Violent acts—irrespective of whether they are self directed, interpersonal, or collective—are commonly categorised as physical, sexual, or psychological. Deprivation and neglect can be considered as forms of psychological abuse. However, these different forms often interact with each other, and form a complex pattern of behaviour where psychological violence is combined with physical and/or sexual abuse for some settings. Coker and colleagues found that women who experienced both physical and sexual violence scored higher on scales measuring ill health than did women who experienced physical violence alone. They conclude that sexual violence might be a marker of more severe violence and perhaps also of violence escalation.