Domestic Violence - Research Paper Example

Domestic Violence Introduction The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV, 2011) defines domestic violence as ‘the willful intimidation, physical assault, sexual assault, battery and/or any other abusive behavior perpetrated by an intimate partner against another’. It is a serious violation of human rights and a major public health and criminal justice issue that requires much attention. Studies show that one in every four women has experience domestic violence in her lifetime and that 85% women are physically assaulted by an intimate partner each year. Women are thus the most affected by domestic violence as compared to their male counterparts. Due to the fact that most violence occur behind closed doors and unwillingness by victims to report to the authorities, it is difficult to measure the extent of intimate partner violence. However, it is worth noting that most women victims report the violence to have been perpetrated by a known assailant while most men are assaulted by a stranger. For the purpose of this study, an intimate partner refers to a current or former spouse, dating partner, girlfriend, and boyfriend or family members. Domestic violence results in physical injuries, mental illness and even death. The paper will discuss the importance of carrying out research on domestic violence. This is to ascertain the prevalence, nature and extent of the violence in order to develop effective strategies to deal with the menace. It will then discuss the opinions of various authors regarding the issue; the causes, effects, and the solutions they have suggested over time; whether they are effective in eliminating the vice and the current trends in domestic violence research. It will then explore previous research carried out regarding the issue, what the findings were, their interpretation and relevance in developing suitable interventions. Conclusions will then be made as well as recommendations for future research areas and interventions. Problem Statement Domestic violence is a serious problem in society and a common cause of injuries, depression and death making it a major public health and criminal justice concern in the United States. It occurs to all people despite age, gender, religion, and race but why are women and children the ones who are most victimized? Homes are supposed to be a safe place to live in but instead they have become breeding grounds for intimate partner violence. Children expect to be taken care of by the caretakers whom they trust but the same people assault them physically, sexually, and emotionally (Saisan et al. 2009). The bureau of justice statistics indicates that 85% of women are physically assaulted annually by an intimate partner. 30-60% of perpetrators also abuse children and nearly 7.8 million women are raped at some point in their lives by an intimate partner. 81% are stalked while 31% are sexually assaulted by intimate partner. This proves that most women and children are assaulted by known persons who are close to them (NCADV, 2011). It is therefore important to explore the prevalence, nature and extent of intimate partner violence in order to determine effective interventions to curb the vice. Establishing why women and children are more vulnerable to domestic violence is essential so as to create awareness thus ensure risk factors are avoided. Men are known to exercise power and domination over women in all spheres of life and this is seen as the cause of violence. Jaffe (2006) argues that some customs or cultures permit men to be violent against women as a sign of respect in society thus the high numbers of women victims. Studies also reveal that perpetrators of intimate violence also assault children in the process hence the need to address the issue adequately as a correlation between abuse as a child and abuser as an adult has also been established by various researchers. If the vice is not controlled, then there is bound to be a public health crisis due to physical injuries, psychological disorders, unwanted pregnancies, emotional problems and death. The interventions put in place by the criminal justice system don’t seem to be solving the problem as it continues to persist. Training is needed for criminal justice employees and health professionals on how to handle the victims and perpetrators in a way that does not exceed the problem but minimize or eliminate it completely. However, domestic violence is private in nature hence need to interview people and advice them on available interventions and how protect themselves from an abusive relationship. If proper strategies are not formulated and properly implemented, more deaths are bound to occur. Literature Review The centers for disease control and prevention (2009) defines domestic violence as the actual or threatened physical, sexual, emotional or psychological abuse directed towards a partner in an intimate relationship. It takes the form of sexual, emotional, physical assault, stalking and threat of physical or sexual assault. Sexual assault involves canal knowledge of a partner without consent and may be complete or attempted rape. Emotional violence is the use of threats to intimidate a partner; a perpetrator exercises control over the victim by denying her financial assistance, isolation or coercion. Stalking on the other hand, involves causing fear in a person by conducting oneself in unacceptable way such as physical proximity to a person repeatedly and sending threat messages to him/her. Physical violence is infliction of injuries to a person by shoving, hitting among others (Institute of Public Law, 2006). According to Barnett et al (2011), domestic violence has been in existence for a long time but it is only recently that it was discovered to be a health issue and a social problem in society. The rise of feminist groups among other organizations has also created awareness especially for rural population who weren’t enlightened on their rights. This has enabled many women to come forward and report incidences of violence hence the increased number of cases in the criminal justice system. Most of the victims of intimate partner violence are women. However, recent studies indicate that men are equally victimized as women (Dutton & Convol, 2006). The reason why the number of male victims is low as compared to women is due to the status given to men in society. They are supposed to be powerful than women hence any violent acts perpetrated against them by a female go unreported due to shame and fear of losing respect among the peers. This position should not be supported as most research studies indicate that the number of women is much more than women victims. Besides, men can defend themselves against women perpetrators hence most of the violence against men is by an unknown assailant rather than an intimate partner. There are many factors that make women and children vulnerable to intimate partner violence than their male counterparts. Cultural practices and beliefs have often led to prevalence of domestic violence. A research study by WHO to determine prevalence of intimate partner violence found out that most violence occurs in rural areas than urban areas (Garcia-Moreno et al. 2006). This is because rural women are not enlightened and many cultural practices exist that undermine women. In most societies, men are endowed with all resources thus making it difficult for women to be self reliant. They thus depend on the men for survival hence vulnerable to violence. Children on the other hand, depend on mothers thus making them vulnerable to parental abuse. A man who earns less than a woman may result to violence in order to maintain his power and dominion over the woman. Furthermore, the interventions put in place to deal with this problem are ineffective. Domestic violence is considered a family issue hence couples are given an opportunity to change. Moreover, family relations are protected by law making it hard for women who may want to get out of the relationship (Barnett et al. 2011). The tolerance of violence by the society also contributes to its prevalence. People especially the children learn abusive behavior from the society. Studies show a correlation between child as witnesses to domestic violence and eventual abuser as an adult or youth. Women are also depicted as sex objects in movies and video games making them potential victims of violence. Some communities also punish the widows subjecting them to violence. For example, in Ghana widows are secluded and poured pepper on their eyes (Barnett et al. 2011). A correlation between level of education and violence was found by Chaudhary, Girdhar & Soni (2009). In their study of Indian households, they found out that 47% of women of educated husbands did not report any violence. 58% of the educated women also did not report violence. This was supported by Pruitt (2008), who argues that educated women know their rights hence not easy to victimize them as opposed to the uneducated who have no knowledge of the laws and how to apply them for their defense. Drug and alcohol abuse are also known to aggravate domestic violence. Though not considered a direct cause of domestic violence, it leads to uncontrollable behavior hence violence. To determine the prevalence of intimate partner violence, the WHO carried out a multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence. This study was prompted by the fact that violence against women continues to raise despite various interventions hence the need to establish prevalence of different forms of violence and design effective interventions. The sample was selected from 15 sites in 10 countries. 1500 women per site were interviewed by use of a standardized questionnaire. To make the sample representative and comparable, one woman was randomly selected from a cluster of households and each country had sample from two contrasting settings. The study was carried out between 2000 and 2003 and consisted of women aged 15-49 regardless of whether they were in an intimate relationship. The items tested were physical violence, sexual and emotional violence but it was difficult to measure emotional violence due to scales used. The interviews were done in local languages for cultural diversity. The structured standardized questionnaire was pre-tested in five countries and piloted in all countries and was based on conflict tactic scales measurements (Garcia-Moreno et al. 2006). The study found out that sexual violence was less prevalent than physical violence. Those countries that reported physical violence also reported sexual violence but some countries reported less prevalence of physical violence than sexual violence. It also observed that severe physical violence was more prevalent than moderate violence. In all sites, women who suffered violence also experienced controlling behavior from men. Most of the women (60%) were abused by a partner and less than a 1/3 by a stranger. In all settings, it is evident that violence against women is perpetrated by known persons rather than strangers and that most severe violence occurred in rural areas. Physical violence was always accompanied by sexual violence but cultural differences account for prevalence of sexual violence alone in some sites such as Bangladesh and Thailand. Age may contribute to variations in research; the legal age for a child in some countries is below twelve while in others it is below eighteen. Other factors that may affect the research are; recall bias, lack of proper definition of terms, lack of representative sample. Some samples can’t be generalizes to whole population due to different population characteristics. Barnett et al (2011), highlights some issues related to domestic violence research. Lack of proper consistent definition makes the results invalid and unreliable. This may hinder formulation of effective preventions and interventions. Samples selected by various researchers don’t have similar characteristics hence are not comparable; some obtain data from police reports, hospitals, agencies or from special groups and all these are dynamic. Some samples are small thus cannot be generalized. He also notes that longitudinal studies have a high drop out rate for participants and age varies over time hence not reliable. Furthermore, there is no standard measure of intimate violence; different researchers use different scales. Several interventions put in place do not seem to have any effect on prevalence of domestic violence. The implication of the research study therefore is that the government should formulate ways to help women fight against the vice such as training them on boxing skills. Health practitioners also need ample training on how to handle victims and perpetrators to ensure effective treatment (Barnett et al. 2006). Application of cultural sensitive techniques is inevitable. Practitioners should know cultural beliefs and practices of those involved in order to assist them; they feel comfortable dealing with someone with same culture. The society as a whole should learn how to minimize the violence by uprooting outdated cultures of male dominance. The criminal justice system can also train its staff on how to deal with victims and perpetrators and develop new strategies other than mandatory arrests. If proper interventions are not put in place then health care costs will continue rising, lost productivity due to poor health, loss of job or hours worked hence lost income for families among others. Findings The research found out that women are more likely to be victimized than men and by a known person. 60% of those interviewed had been assaulted by a partner since age 15. Most women (more than half) experience physical violence or both physical and sexual violence. Violence against women is lower in industrialized nations than developing nations (Garcia-Moreno et al, 2006). Most male perpetrators exercise their power over women. Discussion Intimate partner violence is more likely to be perpetrated against women and children than men.1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner annually (NCADV, 2011). Garcia-Moreno et al (2006) also acknowledges that less than 1/3 of women victims were abused by a stranger. This can be attributed to the time spent with family rather than strangers. This leads to trust between family members hence ignoring warning signs of violence. Some refuse to accept they are being violated and see it as a norm especially where culture supports violence. Beating a wife is seen as a sign of respect and power. Women are supposed to be submissive to their husbands hence marital rape is not considered a crime as men have conjugal rights. Traditionally, men were the house heads and inheritors of property. Women had a subordinate role and did own property thus were economically disadvantaged. Even today, women are not economically empowered hence are dominated by men making them vulnerable to abuse. They lack education, knowledge on social services available, and their rights and this explains why rural women are more victimized than urban areas. Violence is also low in industrialized nations due to awareness of the issue and available remedies. Children are vulnerable to abuse due to their trusting nature in their caretakers who take advantage of them. The solution to this problem would be to empower women economically and educate the society on the dangers of continued domestic violence. Counselors need training on how to carry out therapy for victims and perpetrators and on kind of treatment needed. Cultural sensitive interventions are also essential due to diversity. The implication of the findings is that gender-based violence is real and needs to be addressed adequately by formulating better policies, thorough training of medical, counselors and criminal justice personnel. Conclusion Domestic violence is a serious problem in the society and mostly affects women and the children. Despite various research studies carried out by government and non-governmental organizations regarding domestic violence, there still lacks a proper explanation as to why domestic violence is so prevalent in the society and why interventions do not remedy the problem. Women and children continue to suffer in their homes by violence perpetrated by an intimate partner or family members hence the need to assess the extent of the violence and suitable interventions to minimize or eliminate it. The research used a multi-country study to determine the prevalence of intimate partner violence. Samples were selected from each country and a structured standardized questionnaire given to participants to fill. To test reliability, the questionnaire was pre-tested and then pilot tested. Conflict Tactic Scales were used to measure the variables. There were no much variations across countries; in all countries women are the most victims by an intimate partner and more prevalence is in rural and developing countries than the industrialized and urban areas. The solution to the problem is women empowerment through education, cultural sensitive intervention techniques and training for practitioners. References Barnett, O., Miller-Perrin, C., Perrin, R. (2011). Family Violence Across the Lifespan: An Introduction. 3ed. California: Sage Publications, Inc. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2009) “Intimate Partner Violence can lead to Serious Injury”. Retrieved 4 September, 2011, from http://www.cdc.gov/injury Dutton, D. & Convol, K. (2006) “Transforming a Flawed Policy: A Call to Revive Psychology and Science in Domestic Violence Research and Practice”. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 11: 457-483. Garcia-Moreno, C., Jansen, H., Ellsberg, M., Watts, C. (2006). “Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence”. Retrieved September 5, 2011, from http://www.who.int/entity/gender/violence/who-multicountry-study/media-corner/prevalence-intimatepartner-WHOStudy.pdf. Institute of Public Law (2006) “Domestic Violence Benchbook: Overview of Domestic Violence”. Judicial Education Center. Retrieved 4 September, 2011, From http://www.jec.unm.edu/resources/benchbook/dv/ch-1.htm. Jaffe, J. (2006) “Domestic Violence and Abuse: types, Signs, Symptoms, Causes and Effects”, The American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ND). “Domestic Violence Facts”. Retrieved September 5, 2011 from http://www.ncadv.org/files/DomesticViolenceFactSheet (National).pdf. Pruitt, L. (2008) “Place Matters: Domestic Violence and Rural Difference”. Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender and Society, 23(2): 347-416. Saisan, J.,Smith,M. & Segal, J. (2009) “Child Abuse and Neglect: Recognizing and Preventing Child Abuse”Retrieved on September 5, 2011, from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/child-abuse-physical-emotional-sexual-neglect.htm Read More