Are We Doing enough about Domestic Violence - Assignment Example

Thursday, March 29, 2007 "Are we doing enough about domestic violence or is it over exaggerated" Domestic violence is a that has been discussed everywhere from classrooms to courtrooms and newspapers to dinner tables. Domestic violence is an issue that is looked at with two major points of view. You have the sympathizers who believe that domestic violence is wrong and should be abolished or at least harsher laws and programs be created to help the battered victim. Then you have people who say that domestic violence is just a way to get publicity on a state or national level and government programs for lazy individuals also it's a way to get innocent guys into a lot of trouble.

The results of domestic violence has changed a lot in someway since the 1960's, at the time if a woman called the police and they did come they would only make the man walk around the block or to the gas station, which left problems for the wife or girlfriend. Domestic violence is not just a female problem; in around 1989 a man for the sake of argument lets call him Jake got into a physical altercation with his girlfriend of several years. She raised a knife to Jake's throat and raped him, afterwards Jake went to the police precinct and explained to them about what had just happened, the police laughed at him and later on that week Jake was killed by his girlfriend.

Domestic violence is a high-risk killer when ignored and acknowledged. People tend to hide abuse both men and woman for different reasons out of love, fear, or even guilt if there are children involved. A person would have to jump through hoops of fire to get proper help for a new life like police reports, pictures, witnesses, etc. and that still might not work until they hurt the person that's hurting them. On the other hand you have your fame chasers and custody winners who use domestic violence as an excuses to get what they want.

A prime example of this is there was an episode of Law & Order S.V.U. on television where a woman was going through a real serious custody battle with her ex-husband over there fourteen year old daughter. The woman was planning on leaving the state they lived in and her ex-husband found out, he showed up to her house in the middle of the night to question her, while there he grabbed her leaving bruises. Afterwards she filed raped charges on the man. Through out the episode the man denied raping his ex-wife but because of the bruising on her arms and his admitting being at her house without permission he was put in jail.

When it was time for him to go to court he made bail and came after his ex-wife lighting her on fire, she later died and afterwards it was found out that the man really did not rape her. She had sexual relations with another man the night of the supposed rape proving that she was just working the system to make sure that her ex-husband would never get custody of their daughter even when she knew there was a high possibility that she wouldn't live. In my opinion we don't do enough for domestic violence and it should not be a thing that the bad spoil the good.

I think we should fight for the victim on both sidesMan or woman, accuser or accused because who are we to say that domestic violence is just hype. I think each case should be given it's own amount of attention and respect because no one can give back a life or missing years spent in prison.