There are various characteristics and psychological traits that describe an abuser, but nevertheless, we cannot generalize them to all violent men or violent women categorically, since mainly the type of harm that the abuser intends to exert will not always be the same and therefore their profiles and traits also differ.
Abusers do not have common socioeconomic, demographic or social traits, as they exist and we can find them anywhere in the world. The main characteristic that defines them is that they have acquired the habit of mistreating and consider it something “normal” when interacting with others. [1]
However, there are some other traits that are usually common in the profile of an abuser , since their social skills and emotional aspects are in one way or another affected by disorders originating above all in childhood.
Among the most common characteristics that are generally found in the different abusive traits are: lack of empathy, low self-esteem, narcissism, problems in relating effectively with others, impulsivity, depression and antisocial behaviors that go against and violate the rights of other people. [1]
Basically this shows us that they are people with problems to have healthy relationships with themselves and with other people, since their fundamental objective is to inflict damage and from this they really get satisfaction.
When we speak of abusive men or women, we may be referring to those who mistreat their partner, their family or those who are violent in general.
What is the abuser like and why does he have this behavior?
The abusers despite having problems to relate effectively with other people, this does not imply that it is difficult for them to adapt to the social nucleus since they really do this part well.
These people exercise the relationship of violence and power over those victims with whom they have a very close bond.
We are talking about an abuser who adapts well to society and that this allows him in a certain way to have a camouflage before others about his condition as an abuser and therefore the traits that we can mention about him speak about emotional conditions and psychological characteristics. [two]
Most common characteristic traits of an abuser
The following common characteristics of the abuser do not have to be fulfilled all and there may even be other traits that are not mentioned below.
- Depression : Unquestionably it is one of the most marked traits within these people, since they usually have a hidden state of depression and which they do not talk about or try to treat professionally.
- They are insecure : The abuser is characterized by being an insecure person in the different environments of his life, social, work, family and as a couple. In addition, he constantly tries to blame someone else for his own flaws and mistakes so that he does not have to face them. This he does in his attempt to strengthen his personality and weak self-esteem.
- Instability : The different traits of the abuser make him extremely unstable, since he can be affected by economic problems, alcoholism and drugs, family, social or relationship problems; that can trigger violent behavior at any time.
- Childhood of affective rejection : Studies show that abusers have had experiences in their childhood in the family nucleus where they have been emotionally rejected. This caused severe problems in their adulthood since these actions even managed to create psychological disorders. [two]
- Narcissism : They are people completely closed to a single thought and it is their own. They do not give in to new ways of thinking and are blind to simply believing in their thinking.
The abuser usually graduates his levels of abuse, control and damage towards his victims, that is, he usually begins by exercising only psychological and mild abuse and then intensifies his actions until he can become a physical and even sexual abuser, since his objective will always be exercise full control over your targeted victim.
Profile and psychological traits of the man who is violent in the family
This is one of the profiles that infringes one of the least severe abuse, these are its characteristics:
This type of abuser only exercises violence within his home and with the circle of people that corresponds to his family.
The type of violence it carries out is not severe, which is why it is one of the aggressions with the fewest criminal implications. However, we must mention that the effects mainly impact on the emotional plane, since the aggressor plans obsessive control strategies over his victim, constantly exerting negative impacts on her and her emotional stability.
As we mentioned before, their psychological profile is the product of a dysfunctional home or family , from which the thoughts that validated the abuse were created in response to the different situations where they consider violence an adequate form of response. [two]
They often have addiction problems with alcohol or drugs. Actually their character most of the time tends to be hostile and in addition to this they also tend to constantly deal with depression.
The abuser gains power through their violent relationship, since it allows them to feel that they control their victim through the abuse and this also strengthens their unstable identity. [3]
We have shown you a profile of an abuser who has the lowest levels of criminal indices, however, then dysphoric / borderlinee are located in a medium level and then in a third level with the highest criminal indices, violent / antisocial.
These profiles are comparable in their characteristics, since they go from psychological, physical and sexual abuse.