In 2009, the effect of spousal violence on the economy of Canada was estimated to be at $7.4 billion (Zhang, Hoddenbagh, McDonald, & Scrim, 2012), this means that Canada spent about $7.4 billion only on issues related to spousal violence. In addition, families going through Intimate Partner Violence are always in a very chaotic state. Victims and the family members of the victims experiencing IPV may suffer from a range of medical and social problems, including depression, anxiety, and lack of trust in others. “Women exposed to physical and psychological IPV [have] a higher incidence of depressive and anxiety symptoms, and PTSD” (Pico-Alfonso et al., 2006, p. 608) and “for both men and women, physical IPV victimization [is] associated with increased risk of current poor health; depressive symptoms; substance use; and developing a chronic disease, chronic mental illness, and injury.”(Coker et al., 2002, p. 260). Various health risk behaviors have also been related with IPV, including heavy drinking, binge drinking, recreational drug use, and HIV risk factors (Breiding et al., 2008). Sexual violence by an intimate partner causes more physical, mental, and social stress on the female victims. It weakens a woman’s trust in others and in what should be a pleasant intimate act between …show more content…
There has been “concurrent and longitudinal negative associations of IPV with employment stability; women who experienced violence were more likely to be experiencing unstable employment concurrently” (Crowne et al., 2011). The pain and abuse caused by IPV makes it difficult for victims to concentrate at work, and hold a stable employment. Victims are not physically capable to work consistently due to the physical pain and psychological grief. Moreover, depression caused by Intimate Partner Violence is a key mediator in the negative association between IPV and employment stability (Crowne et al.,