Verbal Abuse in Domestic Violence

Verbal Abuse

The second abuse that occurs in domestic violence is verbal abuse. This abuse is used to make the victim feel worthless. This type of abuse can be more hurtful than physical abuse because a hit can last a second, minute, or an hour, but words can stay in the victims head forever.

Verbal abuse can be yelling, nagging, threatening, screaming, or blaming the victim for the abusers actions. The victims self esteem drops because the abuser is always saying how ugly, fat, dirty, and worthless he/she is constantly so the victim does not know any better. Even though verbal abuse is not hitting the victim, it is damaging to the victims mind.

Verbal abuse can be manipulative and controlling. It can be small subtle messages that are hurtful to the victim. After getting verbally abused, the victim feels as she does not have her own personality because someone is constantly telling her negative things and controlling the way she thinks.

An Expert's Voice

According to, a Sociolinguistic and gender studies expert, Jarmila Mildorf comments, “Among other forms of domestic violence, verbal abuse is often neglected because it hurts psychologically and emotionally rather than physically and thus remains ‘invisible” (Mildorf, 108). Verbal abuse hurts deeper than any other abuse because unlike all other abuses, this abuse can be mentally damaging.

A Further Explanation: In My Opinion

As we learned here, verbal abuse can be more hurtful than physical abuse. We may all be asking ourselves, how is that possible? Well, when a man hits a woman, it hurts very bad because the man is taking all his force and taking it out on the woman. The woman may cry, scream, or attempt to run away because it hurts so bad.

So how is it possible for words to hurt more than beating? I believe that when a man constantly tells the woman how worthless she is, it hurts more because her self-esteem is dropping by the second. Yes, it does hurt when he hits her, but words are kept in her head a lot longer than a punch in the face that lasts less than a couple minutes.

Mildorf, J. (2005). Words that Strike and Words that Comfort. Journal of Gender Studies, 107-122. Retrieved from http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713995715~db=all~order=page