NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Families and Domestic Violence Domestic violence is defined as a system of social control and discrimination that proceeds along a continuum that includes violence between intimates in the home, in particular emotional, verbal, and physical abuse. From the critical and practical point of view, Individual costs of domestic violence may include those related to employment, such as reduced productivity, absenteeism, or unemployment, psychological health of individuals, namely anxiety, major depression, and post-traumatic stress disorders. In general, the emotional and physical harm often done to the children, spouses and women may be costly to both individuals and society. Many studies from various disciplines have shown that alcohol plays a significant role in incidents of domestic violence.
For example, it is estimated that about 40 % of all cases of child maltreatment (including physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect) involve alcohol. Because of the prevalence of alcohol in such violence, it may be possible to reduce domestic violence through changes in certain economic policies that affect the demand for alcohol. Domestic violence constitutes the most invisible and difficult area for public policy to address. Critically, the abuse of women in their homes is greatly misunderstood by both men and women. People who do not reflect on the situation of the abused wife (or an unmarried woman living with a man) tend to say, "Why didn't she just leave?" Wife abuse is experienced by women of all races and socioeconomic backgrounds. Women do not leave for many reasons, including lack of faith in the police and the courts to protect them and their children because they have been told by their partners that they would be killed if they left.
Most women are in great danger when they finally leave an abusive relationship. Women experiencing intimate violence often become isolated from their families and communities. Most women are unable to support themselves and their children without the resources of a job and a home. The batterer knows their habits of daily life, where they work and shop, and where they might run for help, so that home is not a safe place anymore.
For some women, home is the most dangerous place. Perhaps most important, women are socialized to accept many types of abuse, just as men are socialized to be dominant and in control. Since the 1970 s and the advent of laws against rape and sexual harassment, however, the perception of abused wives has evolved considerably. What had previously been characterized as learned helplessness and the battered women's syndrome is now classified by psychologists as post-traumatic stress disorder because the continued threat of violence traumatizes women in ways similar to prisoners of war and hostages.
Simultaneously, there is general agreement that a strong link exists between alcohol consumption and violence. The link has been the focus of many biological, psychological, sociological, and epidemiological studies. In a variety of settings, alcohol is found to have been used prior to assault. An overwhelming amount of evidence shows that the use of alcohol is prevalent in many cases of criminal assaults and rapes In the context of child abuse, Gil finds that 13 % of child domestic abuse cases involved a perpetrator who was intoxicated at the time of the attack (Gil, 56 - 57). Many other studies link alcoholism to child domestic abuse. Behling finds that in 69 % of cases of child abuse, at least one parent was an alcoholic (Behling).
Behling asserts that of parents who had lost custody of their children because of abuse and neglect, 38 % were alcoholics. Given the general association between alcohol use and violence, the question of importance is how alcohol use may promote violent behavior. Our society teaches people that alcohol use may cause people to lose their inhibitions and / or release violent tendencies, and thus users cannot be fully blamed for their actions. In other words, drunkenness may give people an excuse for violence, despite whether or not actual pharmacological effects exist (Gelles & Cornell, 110). In general, domestic violence has been the focus of many studies in numerous disciplines. The most notable economic studies of domestic violence are by Long and Tauchen.
Both papers focus only on spousal abuse and treat violence as a good that the dominant partner can purchase. Long offers a theoretical discussion that models a dominant partners utility as a function of family income, time spent engaged in violence, and tastes for violence. The dominant partners choice problem is to maximize expected utility subject to income constraints, time constraints, the threat of dissolution of marriage, and the threat of interference by authorities. Simultaneously, Tauchen proposes a variation of this model where the utility functions for both partners depend on the behavior of the female, on the violence the male inflicts on the female and on the level of income of both the male and the female. Each partner also faces a reservation level of utility that can be achieved outside the relationship (Tauchen, 281). The key assumption in this model is that the male can transfer income to the female and buy more violence, while the female can reduce the amount of violence inflicted on herself by raising her own income and thus raising the amount of utility that she can achieve outside the relationship.
When the female's income is increased, the male must reduce violence inflicted on her in order for the marriage to stay intact. Using a sample of 125 women who had been physically abused by their partners, Tauchen empirically tested his theory and found that in low income families the predictions of the model held. For high income families, however, when the perpetrator holds most of the income, increases in income by either partner serve to decrease the violence. When the victim holds the bulk of the income, increases in income result in increased violence, possibly because the victim refuses to transfer income in order to lower the level of violence (Tauchen, 302). One drawback of these domestic violence studies is that the models are not applicable to child abuse. The models reviewed assume that the victim has a choice to be in the relationship or not.
In reality, this choice is not always available, especially for very young or very old dependents. In addition, such dependents generally have little or no income to transfer as a means of avoiding violence. Finally, there are other factors involved in the propensity to commit violence. As previously discussed, alcohol in particular plays a major role and should not be left out of any model dealing with domestic violence.
Feminist theory supports women's definition of their own reality and the recognition of the violence in their lives. The Battered Women's Movement, a by-product of the Women's Liberation Movement of the 1960 s, is frequently credited for unmasking the extent of intimate violence and agitating for social change. Advocates staffed their own shelters and hot lines and resisted government interference due to fear of co-option and reduced security. Law enforcement officials were encouraged to arrest batterers; however, women experienced various levels of police support because, historically, wife abuse has been perceived as a private matter. When first introducing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 1990, Senator Joseph Biden cited the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, which stated that "every 6 minutes, a woman is raped; every 15 seconds a woman is beaten. Gelles and Cornell estimated that 2 to 3 million women per year are assaulted by male partners in the home (Gelles & Cornell, 115).
Medical literature states that domestic violence was the leading cause of injuries to women aged 15 to 44, more common than automobile accidents, muggings, and cancer deaths. Logically, approximately 95 % of all domestic violence victims are women. Thus, the VAWA was included within the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 after 4 years of lobbying. VAWA was the most expansive legislation to date for responding to violence against women in public (Safe Streets for Women), in the home (Safe Homes for Women), in the courts (Equal Justice for Women in the Courts Act), through improvements in current laws and statistical reporting (VAWA Improvements), through a recognition of the problems of stalking (National Stalker and Domestic Violence Reduction), and through the recognition of the abuse of immigrant women (Protections for Battered Immigrant Women and Children). Due to the lack of information on the true scope of violence against women, VAWA mandated a report to Congress, Domestic and Sexual Violence Data Collection. The report, prepared by the NIJ and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, revealed that the use of "different definitions, legal procedures, and records management systems that are used to identify domestic violence and sexual assault complicate data collection efforts.
The report recommended using multiple sources of data, including that of service providers, to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the problem. These service providers were to coordinate community education with health care providers, the clergy, the schools, and business and civic leaders. VAWA contained extensive initiatives for educating the courts and law enforcement officials, although education for judges was not funded. In addition, VAWA had an educational model to be used in secondary schools and a mandate for model programs to be used in primary through higher education institutions nationally.
Because VAWA was federal legislation, it was ultimately limited to further criminalizing only acts defined as felonies in federal or state law. For example, VAWA heightened federal penalties for multiple acts of sexual abuse and for crossing state lines to violate protection orders or to commit sexual violence. It also encouraged mandatory arrest policies for batterers by denying funding to communities that did not have this policy. VAWA's Title III, Civil Rights Remedies for Gender Motivated Acts, stated that all persons within the United States shall have the right to be free from crimes of violence motivated by gender (VAWA, Section 40302 b). The Civil Rights Remedy was developed to emphasize that violence against women was not something personal but was a form of discrimination against women as a group, collectively influencing and limiting womens choices about everything from where to work or study to how and when to travel.
The chill on womens life choices is palpable: violence fundamentally restricts womens sense of citizenship and freedom. Bibliography Violence Against Women Act of 1994. Pub. L. No. 103 - 322, Title IV, 108 Stat. 1902 Gelles, Richard J. , and Claire P. Cornell. (1990).
Intimate Violence in Families, Sage Publications, Newbury Park Tauchen, H. (1991). "Domestic Violence: A Nonrandom Affair, " International Economic Review, May Gil, D. (1973). Violence against Children: Physical Child Abuse in the United States, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. Behling J. (1981). Drinking and Crime: Perspectives on the Relationships between Alcohol Consumption and Criminal Behavior, The Guilford Press, New York
Free research essays on topics related to: post traumatic stress, law enforcement officials, abuse and neglect, violence against women, domestic violence
Research essay sample on Families And Domestic Violence
