Domestic Violence Issue - Essay Example

Domestic Violence Domestic Violence is a violence that is caused by a person who is in relation and have domestic adjustments with the victim. It is defined as the violence between the people or the relatives who are living together under one roof. Domestic violence also occurs when people who were previously living together but separated because of some reason still suffer violence at the hands of the partner or relative.( Buzawa 2002, 13). The violence that takes place between a man and woman dating each other is also called as domestic violence. However, studies have shown that women are more prone to violence, physical and mental injuries at the hands of men because of their weakness and helplessness. The question is, is there any end to it and if yes, then how? Throughout the world, women are victims of the frustration, anger and violent tendencies of men. The study by The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) showed that 85% of the one million cases that were reported for domestic violence were against women ( Buzawa 2002, 13). A study by Buchan and Edwards in the year 1991 found that 52% of domestic violence takes place even before marriage, when the couples are dating (Lockton and Ward 1997, 55). Women are the centre of the house when it comes to bringing up children, maintaining the house chores, taking care of the household responsibilities and still they suffer the injustice and the violence. When it comes to domestic violence, women experience more shameful treatment, major and minor injuries and fear of attack from their male partners. Domestic violence is not just dangerous for physical aspect but it also plays a major role in emotional and psychological health of the family members. The fear of domestic violence creates shame, despair and hopelessness among the children. They see their mothers getting beaten, verbally abused and sexually abused by their father and they know that they cannot do anything. Sometimes, if the mother is not able to protect her children, the children also become the victim of the beatings and the abuses. The domestic violence are of different forms. The question is, is it a result of an impulsive behavior or a planned manipulation? The studies have shown that people have certain behavior patterns when they become violent. It is seen that domestic violence, in most cases, is not an individual act. It is a continuous, regular and habitual behavior by men to manipulate and control the people around them, and particularly women( Buzawa 2002, 13). The manipulation can be by direct physical presence, threatening through phone, letters or also can take a form of stalking. The threat can stop the family members from going out and leading a normal life. This is the reason that The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control has urged that not just the direct physical injuries but also sexual abuse, emotional torture and threat of physical injury should be considered as a part of domestic violence and should be considered when making the laws against domestic violence ( Buzawa 2002, 13). The solution to domestic violence does not seem very easy. The picture is grim. Does it help to leave the person and start a new life? People who suffer domestic violence suffers it at the hands of their husband, lovers, partners and ex-partners. A survey in the year 1993 showed that 29% of women reported violence at the hands of their ex-partner (Lockton and Ward 1997, 2). Dobash and Dobash have said that males have used violence against their wives from centuries and this is to keep control on their wives and also to emphasize importance of their manliness. But the question is, are women really ready to take a strong step and come out of the relationship? Women are emotional beings. They are dominated by the worries about their children, their social status, financial situation and the fear of treatment they will get in the society as a woman who left her husband. Studies have shown that women take a step to leave the violent relationship only when they finally realize that staying in the relationship will either kill them or drive them to suicide (Lockton and Ward 1997, 2). It was seen that the children can also be the reason for them to leave. When alone, they somehow find strength to suffer the violence the injuries by hoping that someday it will end. But when it comes to threat to her children, she cannot bear it. The reason that was given by women suffering from domestic violence for finally leaving the relationship was the physical helplessness like injuries during pregnancy, hopelessness of the situation, injuries to children and threat to life. So it is only when things really get out of hands and they realize that remaining in the relationship might lead to their death do women take the step of leaving. The financial situation and the financial dependency of females on males does not give an open choice to women to live independently. Shame and fear also stops women from taking a legal step against their partners (Summers and Hoffman 2002. 27) . Women are quite helpless emotionally to take the bold step of fighting against the violence caused by their husband. It has been clear that unless and until the domestic violence comes out in public, there is no end to it. Men know that their wives are not going to do anything about it and so they take advantage of their situation and despair. The thought of the future, security and the education of children are also some of the aspects that keep a woman from getting out of this sort of poisonous relationships. Why are women so helpless? Are they brought up in such a way that they believe that they are inferior sex and so are destined to suffer the violence and injustice at the hands of the men? The feminists have a very clear and a strong view as far as men’s and women’s psychology is concerned. There is a belief among the Russian and the American men that men should enjoy more power in social, economic and political domains (Summers and Hoffman 2002. 105). This sort of dominant psychology leads men to dominate women at different levels. The feminists, in fact, have designed program to create awareness against domestic violence which help the women to understand that they don’t have to suffer a violence just because they are physically weak or are dependent on their husbands for financial support (Summers and Hoffman 2002. 105). Even though she is a non-earning member of the family, she has every right to live a respectable, healthy and happy married life. There are many measures taken by legal and government systems to work against domestic violence and make strict laws against the offenders. In 1994, President Clinton signed an act on domestic violence against women, promising shelter, financial support and protection to the women who are victims of domestic violence (Summers and Hoffman 2002. 105). In 1990, the world conference of United Nations also discussed the problem and urged nations to understand that domestic violence is equal to human rights violation and to create resources which can help to prevent the domestic violence. In the year 1998, U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright in co-ordination with Agency of International Development and President Clinton made efforts to make domestic violence a global issue and decided to make preventions against it(Summers and Hoffman 2002. 105). However, there are many obstacles when dealing with the issue of domestic violence. ‘Domestic’ violence is considered by the society as ‘none of my business’. If people realize that there is fight, beating or screaming occurring in the house nearby, they might feel sorry but they do not go to their house and try to stop it (Davis 1998, 3). This is because the severity of the domestic violence cannot be understood properly unless it happens to self or to someone close to us. However, people cannot be blamed for it. The picture shown by the family suffering domestic violence about their bonding with each other is very confusing. If you see a couple in the family screaming, fighting and beating each other at night and go together happily to a movie or a park the next day, what would you think? You would obviously think that they are conflicted family and so you won’t make any efforts to go and help the victim. So people are not responsible for not connsidering it their duty to go to the victim and help her when the violence is happening. Women are responsible for creating a wrong picture about their family. Women from lower class are used to shouting loudly and letting people know that she is suffering. However, women who are from higher class and stay in wealthy and educated society suffers the domestic violence silently. Her education and her financial situation becomes quite useless when suffering the violence. The couples also create a different picture and facets in front of people and keep on suffering for years together just because they are ashamed of coming out in public with their sufferings. So what steps can government and the Social welfare organizations take to help women come out of it? Or rather, a right question would be, are women ready to take the help provided by the government and the humans rights workers? Are they prepared to take things out of closet and make them public? Is she ready to be conscious about her rights rather than being conscious about her social status when she makes her suffering public? Richard Davis has rightly said that no government, social organization, lawyer or a relative can help a woman to take a step against the offender unless the woman helps herself to come out of it (Davis 1998, 8). Domestic violence is not similar to the other crimes. It is consistent, regular and manipulative. It harms the children and the family in long run as it creates a bad impact on their psychology ( Davis 1998. 24). Moreover, it also becomes difficult for the police officers to understand the seriousness of the situation when they report to the call for help and find no physical injuries to the victim. It has been found that the current laws are not sufficient to deal with the domestic violence issues. The study has revealed that 40% of the homicides are caused due to domestic violence. The surprising thing is, in half of the cases the police were called for help some four to five years prior to the homicides ( Davis 1998. 24). These findings show that domestic violence needs to be dealt with not as a one time but a constant threat to the victim. The solution lies with the women, and in some cases men, who are the victims of the domestic violence. The police can help but not always. Domestic violence is an on going crime and so needs a different treatment and laws that can prevent it. There is always a need of psychological counseling to the offenders because violent behavior is a result of some psychological and emotional maladjustment. If counseling does not work, then a woman should not think twice before taking a help of government programs created especially for the victims of domestic violence. They should not be ashamed of what people say and take a bold step towards the freedom from the violence keeping in mind the future and the long run effects of the violence on the family’s psychological and emotional development. She should understand that only she can help herself out of the injustice and the domestic violence and no one else. References: Davis, Richard. Domestic violence: facts and fallacies. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998 Summers, Randal and Hoffman, Allan. Domestic violence: a global view. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002 Buzawa, Carl. Domestic violence: the criminal justice response. SAGE, 2002 Lockton, Deborah and Ward Richard. Domestic violence. Routledge, 1997 Read More