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Example research essay topic: O J Simpson Violence Against Women - 2,178 words

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Domestic Violence In a 1998 survey by The Commonwealth Fund, three out of ten women reported that at some point they had been kicked, punched, choked or otherwise physically abused by a spouse or partner (Economic and Social council). In that same year, the U. S. Department of Justice calculated, 876, 000 women were battered, five times the rate of men.

The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that one out of every seven women visiting an emergency room has been physically or sexually abused by an intimate partner (Bradley, 32). Although domestic violence has been a fact of life in the U. S. for centuries, it only has appeared as a legal issue in the past three decades. Prior to that time, domestic violence was considered a family matter best handled privately; police policy, for example, discouraged arrest in domestic violence cases. Since the womens movement of the 1970 s, domestic violence has come to be recognized as a prevalent and serious social problem demanding the attention of the courts, police departments and social welfare agencies.

Despite the progress, however, domestic violence is still viewed as affecting primarily adults - typically a male perpetrator and a battered woman. Nevertheless, says the DOJ, victims report only half of all incidents to the police. The women say it is a private matter, fear reprisal or do not want to get the offender in trouble with the law. The abused women often feel shame and often are blamed, says Donna Norton of the National Workplace Resource Center, an advocacy group started by the Family violence Prevention Fund in 1995 (Gemignani).

Health consequences of domestic abuse are also well documented. The Commonwealth Fund found 22 percent of women who had experienced domestic abuse rated their health as fair or poor vs. 15 percent of non victims. Only 29 percent of victims had told their physicians about the abuse, the Fund observed (WIN News). Fewer than half of those who reported abuses were referred to a support service and only a quarter were referred to the police.

The survey also discovered that one out of three women with a history of violence or abuse had faced problems accessing health care in the past years. Victims complaints that they have been denied health insurance or charged exorbitant rates prompted Senator Paul Wellstone to introduce legislation that would ban insurance discrimination. He also suggested allowing workers time off to deal with problems arising from leaving a violent relationship, extend unemployment insurance to victims and ban employment discrimination against victims of domestic violence (Gemignani). One of the most difficult aspects when addressing the domestic violence is simply convincing the victims to seek help. Workplace of abused women is one of the best places for them to get help and counseling. Awareness programs that could be started by the companies create an atmosphere where victims of partner abuse feel comfortable confiding about safety concerns to HR, a manager, security or an employee assistance program before the violence escalates into a workplace confrontation (European Commission Survey Results).

Many psychologists consider work sites the premier places to raise awareness, because victims are away from their controlling and over-possessive abusers (Bradley). Dede Bartlett, vice president of corporate affairs of Philip Morris Companies Inc. , started a domestic violence program after the O. J. Simpson trial.

Bartlett tells of one incident the employee endured: while driving her children to school, her ex-husband tried to force their car off the road into a ditch. After she heard about the program started by the company, she realized that this was abuse, not just the aftermath of a messy divorce. The employee contacted Philip Morris EAP, which called the District Attorneys office. In addition, she gave a picture of the harasser to Philip Morris security personnel, who are trained to deal with such situations.

Security also monitored her telephone calls and mail. Philip Morris EAP also arranged for the woman and her children to get counseling. The ex-husband was ultimately put in jail and lost visitation rights (WIN News). The laws of all 50 U. S. states provide that domestic violence is a crime.

These laws have made it easier for victims to obtain protective or restraining court orders that prohibit offenders from having contact with them. Also, laws in most states allow police officers to arrest people suspected of committing domestic violence without the victim filing charges (Economic and Social Council). Before the 1980 s arrests were uncommon, in part because many victims were unwilling to press charges and also because many law enforcement officials were reluctant to make arrests. Instead, officers typically attempted to calm the violent parties down or restore order. In response to criticism by feminist activists and as a result of research indicating that arrests seemed to reduce subsequent violence, many cities changed their intervention policies. In 1994 Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act, which authorized more than $ 800 million in federal funds for state and local programs to combat domestic violence.

This law makes it a federal crime for a person to travel from one state to another in order to violate a restraining order. It also prohibits an individual who is subject to a restraining order from possessing firearms (Economic and Social Council). In addition to these shocking facts, the recent O. J.

Simpson murder case has directed the issue of domestic violence to the forefront of the publics attention. Although domestic violence has been addressed extensively by the media and academics since the 1970 s, it is the Simpson trial that has highlighted the issues of blame and ethnicity (Kozol, 1995). According to many academics and the popular press, American society traditionally has repressed the issue of domestic violence and ignored the needs of battered women. Meyers (1994) contends that news coverage of battering is socially distorted [and] rooted in assumptions, myths, and stereotypes that link it to individual and family pathology (p. 48). Many scholars and journalists agree that American patriarchal society has relieved men of much of the responsibility for their abusive acts while blaming victims and sometimes even condoning abuse.

In addition, domestic violence has been depicted as a private family matter, and therefore something not to be interfered with in the public sector. Such attitudes and depictions, although less prevalent today than twenty years ago, only serve to perpetuate myths and hinder efforts to eliminate the occurrence of abuse. The ethnicity of those involved in domestic violence is another one of society's concerns. The O. J. Simpson case has led Americans to expand their understanding of domestic violence from gender issues to include racial and ethnic issues.

According to Willis (1994), white Americans have a good black / bad black neurosis that affects how they perceive Simpson and other abusers (p. 8). Whites want friendly black heroes, such as Simpson, while fearing these heroes underlying aggression. Bring (1994) points out that black Americans seem particularly vexed by the O. J. Simpson affair because in the past black men have been falsely accused by whites; black Americans are caught between defending their ethnicity and condemning wife abuse (p. 11). Stereotypes of the issues presented by the media merit scientific investigation to determine how blaming the victim versus the abuser in an abusive incident interacts with the ethnicity both of those involved and of the observers.

The victims of domestic violence who appear, technically constitute a group, can be hardly classified this way, since each segment shows individuals dealing with their own individual problems. The women are allowed to speak for themselves, although their views and opinions about their situation are often devalued or ignored, as when the police actively argue with them about the correct way to proceed. They do not always (or even often) follow the advice of the police, creating tension in the concord. By choosing not to follow directions, they are asserting themselves to some degree, refuting police claims that the problem is simple and that the responsibility for ending the problem lies with them. This is not enough to give them a dominant voice in the way things are portrayed, but their presence and views are felt to some degree. When home abuse is portrayed in the media (especially on television) the batterers and alleged batterers on the show are often given no voice.

The police officers actively silence some of them or discredit their speech by pronouncing them too drunk or too upset to make any sense. These men, through such behavior and through their appearance (often dirty, ragged, unkempt) further discredit themselves in the eye of the viewer as people able to speak rationally regarding the problem. The men often attempt to justify their behavior (She asked for it) or downplay it (I never hit her). Because of their appearance and their often poor language skills (owing to drunkenness, hysteria, non-native background), they provide no reason for the audience to identify with or pity them, and therefore any words they could speak have little if any impact on themes of discourse other than to work against them. In the most recent issue of The Future of Children (Vol. 9, No. 3, Winter 1999), the David and Lucile Packard Foundation has pulled together a series of articles that highlight the impact of domestic violence on children.

The impact appears to be especially severe on adolescents, who show higher levels of aggression, conduct disorder, truancy and revenge seeking. Research estimates that between 3. 3 million and 10 million children in the United States are exposed to domestic violence each year. Though clearly large, the number is imprecise - a reflection of the lack of accurate data on the nature and scope of the problem. Without more extensive and reliable information on the prevalence of exposure and its impact on development, these children will remain largely invisible to professionals and policymakers.

It is clear that exposure to domestic violence can damage a childs physical, emotional, social and cognitive development. Infants, school-aged children and adolescents are all affected, with differences in responses stemming from their developmental level. Very young children exposed to violence in their families show excessive irritability, sleep disturbances and regressive behavior. Older children may show anxiety, depression, decreased academic performance and lower levels of social competence and self-esteem in association with exposure to domestic violence. In cases of extreme exposure, children may experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder similar to what is seen in children living in an actual war zone. Childrens dependence on their parents means that when one parent is the perpetrator and the other parent is the victim, the childs needs inevitably suffer.

The battered parent rarely can provide adequate emotional support for the child, and ongoing contact with the batterer, which frequently occurs, is a constant stress. Domestic violence is usually not an isolated problem in an otherwise well-functioning family: in 30 to 60 percent of families in which domestic violence occurs, child maltreatment is also present. Traditional services such as battered womens shelters do not provide access to needed care for the majority of exposed children. Childcare professionals - teachers, pediatricians and mental health workers - often lack training related to domestic violence and its impact on children.

New laws intended to help children in some areas may have unintended negative consequences for children exposed to domestic violence. For example, laws designed to minimize a childs time in foster care may result in premature adoption if the battered parent requires too long to get back on her feet. Laws promoting family reunification may backfire in cases of domestic violence if children are returned to a violent family situation. Recognition of the problem is the first step, but more research, new models of intervention and sustained commitment are essential to mitigate the impact of domestic violence on children. There is also usually a relationship between alcohol use and domestic violence. One recent comprehensive review of the topic observed that marital violence arises within the context of an array of distal and proximal influences, such as gender role expectations and situational cues and transient states of victim and aggressor.

It is, unfortunately, clear that home abuse would be difficult to stop completely. People of violent nature will probably not stop just because somebody tells them to. However, society should treat this problem very serious as it not only makes many women unhappy, but also threatens their health and lives. Moreover, children, living in the families where constant abuse takes place, receive deep psychological traumas, from which they might not be able to recover. Bibliography: Berry, Dawn Bradley.

THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SOURCEBOOK: Everything You Need to Know Revised edition. Lowell House, 1998. Business & Health Magazine, The fight against domestic violence Author: Janet Gemignani, Issue: Oct, 2000 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL (E/CN. 4 / 2000 / 68 /Add. 4, 13 March 2000), agenda EUROPEANS AND THEIR VIEWS ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. (European Commission survey results) (Statistical Data Included), Winter 2001 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN, edited by Richard E. Behrman, M.

D, Los Altos, CA. WIN News, Crimes Against Women, April 2000


Free research essays on topics related to: economic and social, violence against women, o j simpson, violence on children, victims of domestic violence

Research essay sample on O J Simpson Violence Against Women

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