My opinion

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Perception of abuse in human terms happens when a human wants to quit and move away from a situation but cannot quit and move away [1]. Perpetuation of violence in human terms happens when a human must quit and move away from the abusive situation but does not quit and move away from that abusive situation. The core thing is the conscious or subconscious perception within the human mind about the absence of freedom to quit [2]. Sometimes the situation is just an abusive person, or an abusive system, or an abusive gene, or an abusive matrix forcing the abused humans to go on existing in the abusive situations and preventing them from freely choosing to quit and cease existing in those abusive situations. Metaphorically, the CAGE questionnaire which was initially designed as a screening questionnaire to detect alcohol abuse and which in due course of time has expanded to detect almost any substance or non-substance abuse can now be evolved to screen for any situation that can be perceived as abuse and thus a "CAGE" for the perceiving human mind [3-8]. Although the innovative minds can even apply CAGE questionnaire to mandatory education or mandatory taxation when being mandatory denies the "CAGED" humans any freedom to quit, we will provide the example of CAGE questionnaire for domestic abuse, or intimate partner abuse, or elderly abuse, or child abuse [9-17].

• Have you ever felt that you should CUT DOWN your interaction with a particular person although you cannot control how often you interact with that particular person?

• Have people ever ANNOYED a particular person by criticizing how that particular person interacts with you although that particular person cannot control how that particular person interacts with you?

• Has a particular person ever felt bad or GUILTY about how that particular person interacts with you although that particular person cannot control how that particular person interacts with you?

• Have you ever recognized that avoiding interaction with a particular person is the first thing on your mind in the morning (your EYE-OPENER) although you cannot avoid interacting with that particular person as day moves along?

(as adapted from Ewing’s CAGE questionnaire [3] being in public domain [4])

In the above modification of CAGE questionnaire, "a/that particular person" can be replaced with "your intimate partner living in the same household" to detect domestic abuse, with "your intimate partner NOT living in the same household" to detect intimate partner abuse, with "your children/caregivers/caretakers" to detect elderly abuse, and with "your parents/caregivers/caretakers" to detect child abuse. Similarly, for ingenuous innovative minds, "a/that particular person" can be replaced with "a/that particular situation" to explore "mandatory education" and/or "mandatory taxation" and/or other system-based situations being detected as abuse by those ingenuous innovative minds. Although scoring four out of four on these CAGE questions may detect the strength of abuse consciously or subconsciously perceived by the abused human minds, even scoring one out of four may provide insight into the early stages of detectable abuse being perceived by the abused human minds.     

To further delve into the thinking process of married people (n=100; 60% males; 59% aged 30-44 years) in India, these personally bought targeted responses [18] with SurveyMonkey audience were ironically completed by married people in India between 0300-0530 hours (late at night or toward morning) on a weekday for the following questions:

1. In your view, is domestic abuse an umbrella that covers intimate partner abuse, elderly abuse and child abuse? Yes/No

2. In your view, what all behaviors represent domestic abuse?

3. In your view, what all behaviors represent intimate partner abuse?

4. In your view, what all behaviors represent elderly abuse?

5. In your view, what all behaviors represent child abuse?

6. In your view, how does domestic abuse differ from intimate partner abuse, elderly abuse and child abuse?

7. In your view, what is the most important cause for any form of abuse?

Only 13% said that domestic abuse does NOT cover intimate partner abuse, elderly abuse and child abuse but only 5% reported somewhat understanding of how domestic abuse differ from intimate partner abuse, elderly abuse and child abuse. Only 7% said that domestic abuse happens at home/household while only 15% said that domestic abuse happens between partners. As many as 24%, 16% and 15% seemed disinterested to the survey questions by inappropriately responding to what behaviors constitutes intimate partner abuse, elderly abuse and child abuse respectively. However, none of the respondents said that the cause of abuse is the inability of the abused to call it quits on the abusive person or the abusive situation.

Summarily, unless the general population understands that the abuse originates when the abused feels “CAGED” because they cannot call it quits on the abusive person/situation, the abused populations will continue to suffer knowingly or unknowingly at the hands of abusive populations/systems.

Reference(s)

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1. Twitter. https://twitter.com/andgandg/status/1 388457001437614091
2. The Most Basic Freedom Is Freedom to Quit. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/201304/the-most-basic-freedom-is-freedo m-quit
3. Detecting alcoholism. The CAGE questionnaire. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6471323/
4. CAGE Questionnaire. https://p ubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/AssessingAlcohol/InstrumentPDFs/16_CAGE.pdf
5. The CAGE questionnaire: validation of a new alcoholism screening instrument. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4416585/
6. Conjoint screening questionnaires for alcohol and other drug abuse: criterion validity in a primary care practice. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7778330/
7. The Rise of Electronic Distraction in Health Care is Addiction to Devices Contributing. https://doi.org/10.4172/2155-6148.1000e112
8. Universal CAGE-WANT Questionnaire: “Think & Fill in the Suspect, Self-Assess and Screen! You May Need Help For, What You Have Filled In!” https://www.iapsmupuk.o rg/journal/index.php/IJCH/article/view/457/457
9. What Is Domestic Abuse? https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/wh at-is-domestic-abuse
10. Domestic violence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_violen ce
11. Differentiating Between Domestic Violence and Abuse. https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/criminal-defens e/criminal-offense/differentiating-between-domestic-violence-abuse
12. Intimate partner violence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intimat e_partner_violence
13. Intimate Partner Violence. https://www.cdc.gov /violenceprevention/intimatepartnerviolence/index.html
14. Intimate Partner Violence Prevention. https:// violence.chop.edu/research-and-programs/intimate-partner-violence-prevention
15. Domestic or intimate partner violence. https://www.womenshea lth.gov/relationships-and-safety/domestic-violence
16. Intimate Partner Violence vs. Domestic Violence. https://ywcaspokane.org/w hat-is-intimate-partner-domestic-violence/
17. Domestic Violence and Child Abuse. https://violence.c hop.edu/types-violence/domestic-violence-and-child-abuse
18. Buying Responses with SurveyMonkey Audience. https://help.surveymonk ey.com/articles/en_US/kb/SurveyMonkey-Audience

Source(s) of Funding

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NOT APPLICABLE

Competing Interests

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NOT APPLICABLE