Study: Guns should be considered psychological tool in intimate partner violence cases

By Christen Smith

A study published in the January edition of the Journal of Women’s Health concludes healthcare providers should look beyond physical injuries when considering the impact of gun use in cases of intimate partner violence.
Instead, says Dr. Susan Sorenson, professor of social policy at the University of Pennsylvania, guns should be viewed as tools of intimidation and psychological control, thus perpetuating the cycle of abuse.
Sorenson analyzed domestic violence incident reports collected by law enforcement officers in Philadelphia over the course of a year to determine how often an offender threatened a victim with a gun — and what impact it had on the victim.
The results showed guns were involved in 1.6 percent of the 35,413 incidents Philadelphia police responded to in 2013. Of those cases, Sorenson determined victims were less likely to display physical injuries, but more likely to be frightened. Similarly, offenders brandishing guns — as opposed to other types of weapons — were less likely to have assaulted the victim. In 70 percent of the cases, the victims reported only being “threatened” with the gun.
“Medicine and public health focus primarily on physical injuries (both fatal and nonfatal) to document the nature and scope of gun violence,” Sorenson wrote. “Such

Source: Guns.com