Domestic Violence and Battered Woman Syndrome - Research Paper Example

Domestic Violence and Battered Woman Syndrome Domestic violence is a form of intimate partner violence (IPV) in which one of the couple in a relation and in most cases the man uses violence to intimidate his partner. There is limited literature about IPV in gay and lesbian relationships but the violence is less pronounced than in heterosexual couples (Best 86). However, regardless of the kind of relationship, the goal is to control, manipulate and intimidate the woman in the relationship by man. When this violence by the man on the woman is propagated for a long time with interventions, the woman starts suffering both mentally and physically which results into battered woman syndrome (BWS). The patterns of abuse usually follow a set way in which it starts with verbal abuse and complains (Bostock, Plumpton and Pratt 102). Some women do not these early signs of violence seriously but instead think that the man will change. Since IPV is a learned behavior and it is geared towards manipulating the other partner, chances are high that the violence keeps on escalating (Walker 45). To better understand the concept of domestic violence or IPV, it has been said that it is best described from the perspective of the battered or abused person. This is not however very easy because very few women who have encountered the brutal force of abuse are willing to open up about it. The current study shows that there has been an increased study of trauma and victimization of women in abusive relationships but that has not made it easier for victims to talk freely. These studies show that events in the early childhood of a battered woman interact with the traumatic experiences she undergoes in the abusive relationship to bring about the mental state that is polarized and helpless. Few psychologists have been able to isolate individual contributing factors from childhood as well as from abuse and then gauge their impacts on the psychological state of the battered woman (Belknap 56; Roberts 524; Silver 124). I conducted three interviews involving victims of IPV so that I could get to the bottom of the matter and understand what the victims go through. In the first interview, I talked to a straight couple that has been married for the last twelve years but their formative years were marred by IPV. Both the partners now can freely speak of what used to happen on those days which almost broke their marriage. The wife reveals that she almost killed her husband because he used to abuse her physically and emotionally to the point of treating her like nothing. The problems used to get worse when the husband was high on alcohol. It was the habit of the husband to indulge in drinking sprees with his friends after which he would come home drunk. After that, he would pick a fight or a quarrel with the wife out of nothing. The problem went on until the wife could not take it any longer and she sought for a divorce. After initiating the proceedings for the divorce, some calm and sober returned to the man and he promised to change. It was not exactly an instantaneous change but with time, the husband adopted less controlling behaviors and the couple got back together. The next interview I did was with children that had seen their father abuse their mother and had really suffered. All that they can remember is that their father was ever drunk and at those few times that he was sober, he used to be an angel. The mother was calm and often hard to anger besides being hardworking. The father on the other hand came from a dysfunctional family and was quite antisocial especially with other people not of his immediate family. When their parents were fighting and having their quarrels, these children got it rough. They (children) confess that the parents hardly talked to each other and instead they used the children as their go in between. Trouble used to arise when these children needed something from their parents. When they approached one of the parents, they would be send to the other parent and that game could be played forever. It was like the parents were avoiding their responsibilities although it was the father who was working and the mother was a housewife. Before getting married, the couple was working but the husband forced the wife to resign from work to take care of their children. After resigning from work, the problem of abuse became worse because the wife had no finances to support herself. The most interesting interview that I conducted was the one involving a gay couple that was still undergoing IPV and was trying to solve their problems. The ‘wife’ in the relationship was bold enough to agree to this interview although the other partner was not happy. Things were so bad such that the husband has confiscated all of his partner’s identification documents and bank documents. She was literally confined to the house and was not allowed to move out unless under the express authority of the husband. Those rare times that she was allowed out of the house was when she was being send to sell drugs on the streets. The abusive partner would agree with his customers on the drop point after which he would send his partner to carry out the errand. This was to protect himself in case things went wrong and a shooting occurred. For the battered partner, it was actually impossible to get out because he was literally dependant on the partner for everything and was controlling him like a puppet. While continuing with the interview, the abusive partner arrived and the first thing that came out his mouth was threats. After that, he calmed down and denied every allegation that his partner was putting forward. He was intoxicated and after sometime, he excused himself to go to sleep after which I left after learning the woes of the abused partner. BWS is increasingly becoming a problem although it was discovered and identified between late 1970’s and early 1980’s. This syndrome occurs in all levels of socioeconomic classes and it is quite prevalent even in the developed world. It has been deduced through research that men that saw their fathers abuse their mothers are more likely to engage in domestic violence themselves. There are other factors besides this one which affect the pattern in which IPV occurs such as personality traits and cultural influence. The interesting thing is that after a long sustained battering, the woman with BWS acquires a new personality which is and not limited to be withdrawn, lacking in enthusiasm, lost the will to live and can commit murder due to psychological depression. The biggest problem in the escalation of this problem of IPV is lack of reporting of the violent incidences by the women involved (Eckstein and McDonald 9). In the initial identification and characterization of BWS, challenges revolved around first identifying the clinical manifestation of the syndrome besides finding a politically correct name. One of the few names that were suggested was ‘learned helplessness’ which is the dominant trait of the syndrome but nonetheless was politically incorrect (Walker 67). Different specialists were also confounded by this problem and different names proposed and subsequently dropped. The learned helplessness trait became the hallmark of the syndrome but it was not politically correct. Opponents of the term argued that those women that had been in an abusive relationship could find it hard to stand once again on their feet since they were helpless in the first place. On the other hand, proponents of the term ‘learned helplessness’ reasoned that since this was the main trait of the syndrome, it therefore merited to be named after it. Ironically, it is this politically incorrect term ‘learned helplessness’ that was used in court cases to defend those women who faced murder cases for killing their abusive partners. In a paradoxical manner, the term was enough to convince jurors how battered women could become helpless to the point of killing their partners in self defense. In such cases, the defendants that sought the counsel and representation of an expert in the court cases often ended avoiding the hangman’s noose and hence winning their cases (Dutton 1198; Price and Natalie 234) However, what is now called BWS has come a long way since in the 1990’s feminists were up against the use of the syndrome to describe the psychological torture that women undergo through. Their reasoning was that the use of the term did not by any chance empower those suffering women and neither could it properly explain the psychological aftermath of the women who had been abused. The feminists thought that by using a model that was entrenched in clinical as well as the environmental settings in which the abused women lived would be more effective. In such an approach it would be like studying the problem using an ecological approach whereby the interaction between the clinical and environmental conditions are studied. This prompted more research into the syndrome and the results showed that there were some connections between PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and BWS. The connection was that these two syndromes shared three clinical manifestations which are emotional numbing and avoidance, high arousal and re-experiencing the trauma (Walker 23). In order for the abuser to have power on the other spouse, the first thing that they will do is to intimidate the spouse through actions. At this time, the abuser is just tasting the waters to see the reactions to his/her actions which will determine the next course of action. The most prominent form of intimidation is flashing weapons around and a display of machismo. Apparently, the abuser is trying to get a reason for engaging the other person into a physical confrontation which does not take place. In order to push the limits further, the abuser will occasionally break things intentionally and wait for retaliation. Since most of the partners receiving this kind of bullying are women, they will just sit and wait thinking that the problem will go away on its own. The man on the other hand will be thinking that the woman is intimidated and will want to take full advantage of the intimidated woman. Although the woman on her part looks overwhelmed and responsive, she will just endure and be the responsive and be the submissive wife she is supposed to be for the sake of the marriage. On the one hand, the abuser is keen on fully controlling the other partner; on the other hand the wife is positive that this is a temporary problem which will disappear (Bostock, Plumpton, and Pratt 106). After the initial signs of the intentions of the controlling partner to control and intimidate the battered partner, the abuser moves to the next phase of his plan which is to consolidate the small control he has. This involves doing such things as humiliation through name calling and improper conduct before their children or other people. After this, economic sanctions begin where the battered partner is forced to resign from work and stay at home. The rationale for forcing the partner to resign from work is for her to be isolated. Isolation is a calculated move to compound the problems of the battered partner and make them completely depended on them. Everything from daily allowance and how to live has to come from the direction of the abusive partner. With time, the battered partner somehow resigns to fate and just goes through the motions of life like a zombie. On the other hand, the abuser tries to justify his actions through jealousy or love by saying that they love their partners too much. When the abuser indulges into alcohol, problems become worse because he becomes physical and starts beating the wife for no apparent reason. The battered partner can withstand abuse from one end but when it becomes a two pronged attack, things can easily get out of hand. Psychological abuse is quite damaging to self perception and when physical abuse through beating begins, the controlled partner looks for a way to escape from the prison where they are caged in. This is the reason why there have been stories of women who have snapped and killed their husbands. These women usually see their only way to freedom is through killing their husbands. In order to achieve their goal, they time when the husband is drunk or violent and then hit him with something blunt (Belknap 76; Dutton 1232; Walker 68). Conclusion Domestic violence is a form of intimate partner violence (IPV) in which one of the couple in a relation and in most cases the man uses violence to intimidate his partner. After many episodes of IPV, Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS) results in which the woman is in a ‘learned helplessness’ state. In the formative years of the identification and characterization of this disorder, it was initially called the ‘learned helplessness’ which was considered to be politically incorrect. After further study of the condition, it was found that it shared three traits with PTSD which are emotional numbing and avoidance, high arousal and re-experiencing the trauma. Studies are still going on and BWS is a major problem within the US and the developed world. Works Cited Belknap, Joanne. The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2007. Print Best, Joel. Social Problems, W.W. New York: Norton & Co., 2008 Bostock, Jan., Plumpton, Maureen and Pratt, Rebekah. Domestic violence against women: Understanding social processes and women's experiences. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 19.2(2009): 95-110 Dutton Marry A. Understanding women's responses to domestic violence: A redefinition of battered woman syndrome. Hofstra Law Review, 21(1993): 1191- 1241 Eckstein, Daniel and McDonald, Leah. The Battered Woman Syndrome: Counseling Implications. Journal of Education & Sociology, 1(2010): 4-14 Johnson Michael, P. Patriarchal Terrorism and Common Couple Violence: Two Forms of Violence against Women. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57.2 (1995): 283-294 Price, Barbara R., and Natalie J. Sokoloff. The Criminal Justice System and Women: Offenders, Prisoners, Victims, and Workers. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Print. Roberts, Albert. Classification Typology and Assessment of Five Levels of Woman Battering. Journal of Family Violence, 21.8(2006): 521-527 Silver, Ira. Social Problems readings. Boston: W.W. Norton& Co., 2008 Walker, Lenore E. A. The Battered Woman Syndrome (3rd Ed). New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2009. Read More