The impact of domestic violence on children from social work context - Dissertation Example

The worst thing that i found was that children were the innocent party that were scarred for life because of domestic violence either as a victim or as a witness to them. In either case, it has wide ramifications on the lives of children who have difficulty building relationship and most importantly, maintaining good relationship in their adult life if timely intervention is not sought. What have you read on the subject to date? Human behaviour is inherently linked to a cause and is considerably influenced by one’s past.

Indeed, social conditioning and environmental factors are key elements that influence one’s behaviour and actions within the precints of predefined social context and situation. Domestic violence is one of the most prevalent social crime that has huge social and psychological consequences on not only the victimes and observers but also the society at large. Laville (2012) says that more than 1 million women in UK suffer domestic violence every year. Research of Radford et al., (2011) reveal that only few cases of child abuse are reported while large number of cases go unnoticed.

They further assert that 12% of children below the age of 11 years and around 17.5% of 11-17 years of children are exposed to domestic violence in UK. Studies also show that domestic violence and abuse of children often occurs simultaneously and women along with children are forced to seek assistance from outside agencies (Girard, 2009; Powell & Murray, 2008; Payne et al., 2007). Domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse have all emerged as major social concern across the globe (Sousa et al., 2011). Scholars believe that family violence also results in high societel costs in terms of rehabilitation of women and children vis-a-vis safety, accomodation, emotional and financial support, legal cost etc.

(Macy et al., 2010; Harrison, 2008) What issues are emerging from the literature and existing research? The major issue that has emerged from literature and existing research is that without intervention, it could become a long vicious cycle of aggressive behaviour and violence amongst such children when they grow up (Overlein, 2010). Another very critical factor that has come out is lack of financial security of women within a relationship that forces them to stoically remain a victim for their and their children’s survival (Douglas & Walsh, 2010).

Researches also reveal that environmental factors like war, displacement, change in gender roles like working women etc. Also become important issues within intimate relationship that result in violence and abuse, both physical and emotional (Zannettino, 2012). Research Question / Hypothesis / Problem Statement What are the effects on children who witness domestic violence? Methodology The research methodology would be qualitative in nature but would also include elements of quantitative research for better and more accurate conclusions.

Qualitative research would help to evaluate trend and behavior within a family relationship (Wolcott, 1994). Most importantly, it would help analyze the varying environmental factors and issues that promote domestic violence and their long term and short term repercussions on children. The quantitative research, on the other hand, relies on statistical data to validate research hypothesis. It would serve as critical tool in evaluating the impact of domestic violence on children who are victims or have