Human history has always been characterized by violence, and people are still helplessly at its mercy today. Acts of violence often lead to trauma-related disorders - traumas experienced in childhood in particular have a serious impact.

An important contribution to combating this is to raise society's awareness of acts of violence and not to tacitly accept them. This applies in particular to abuse in the home.

Violence is not a private matter, no matter where it takes place. The question arises as to the actual social acceptance of assaults and how the criminal relevance of physical, sexual and psychological violence is assessed - this is particularly difficult in the case of psychological violence.

Psychologist Sonja Gehard attempts to clarify this and other questions in her academic work. In an empirical study, she examines how individuals assess their experiences of violence and how aware they are of whether or not they are criminal offenses.

Particular attention is paid to the consequences for mental health and the resulting everyday problems. .