Domestic Violence Is a Problem

Domestic Violence is a problem that society has been dealing with for s number of years. The only difference seems to be the number of people coming forward to report it. One thing that still seems to be a constant is the number of women that are the recipients of the violence, not saying that there is not a percentage of men that are also victims of domestic violence. In this report, I reviewed five journal articles dealing with domestic violence, as I mentioned before one common thread in all of the articles in the number of women that are reporting the violence.

In the first journal article, some of the main points argued in this article were: (Ellsberg et al. 1) Violence against women is increasingly recognized as a significant public health and human rights concern. One of the most common forms of violence against women is the physical and sexual abuse of women by a current or former intimate partner. Abuse of this sort has been associated with a broad range of serious physical and mental health problems, such as depression, suicide, bodily injury, and homicide. Women who have experienced sexual or physical assault are more likely to suffer a variety of sexual and reproductive health disorders, including chronic pelvic pain, sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancy, and adverse pregnancy outcomes, including miscarriage and infants of low birth weight.

Physical and sexual violence can also have an impact on fertility. Many international studies have found that women who suffer physical or sexual abuse from an intimate partner are more likely than non-abused women to have many children. Although high parity often has been assumed to be a risk factor for abuse, research among Nicaraguan women found that violence frequently begins early in a relationship, often preceding a woman's first pregnancy. High parity, therefore, is more likely a consequence of violence, resulting from women's diminished ability to control the timing of sex and contraceptive use. Qualitative research has shown that in many parts of the world, the marriage vows are interpreted as granting a man the right to unconditional sexual access to his wife. Therefore, many women are afraid to refuse unwanted sex or to raise the issue of contraception for fear that their partners might respond violently (Ellsberg et al. 1)

The above article is relevant to the field today because these facts still remain. The characteristics and probabilities are consistent and true across research. One main point is that the perpetrator is a current boyfriend or spouse.

In the second journal article, the author (Feather) discussed a study they performed to determine the outcomes of perception on a crime based on the gender of the judge. They examined whether perceptions of domestic violence differ depending on whether the observer or judge is male or female and whether the perpetrator of the violence is male or female. The situation that was investigated was one in which either a husband or wife threw a kitchen knife at his or her spouse following years of verbal abuse, inflicting a serious injury. The incident occurred either following stress or after deliberation and thought. The perpetrator of the offense was subsequently sent to jail for two years. Male and female participants in the study provided their reactions to this situation of domestic violence in regard to the perpetrator's responsibility for the offense, the degree to which he or she deserved the penalty, the seriousness of the offense, whether the penalty was too lenient, too harsh, or about right, positive affect about the penalty, and sympathy for the offender. Thus, the variables of interest included justice variables as well as reported affective reactions.

It was predicted that reactions to the perpetrator of the violence would be more negative in various ways when the perpetrator was the husband rather than the wife. There is evidence to show that men are more physically violent and aggressive than women while women are more likely to use more indirect forms of verbal aggression. The vast majority of domestic violence cases in the courts involve husbands rather than wives, although the woman is often blamed for inciting the abuse or for not leaving the abuser. The results of a recent study showed that participants judged a husband more severely than a wife when either was the perpetrator of domestic violence. When the husband was the perpetrator, he was seen as more responsible for the abuse. More deserving of conviction, more likely to have acted in that way in the past, more likely to be reported to the police, more likely to be left by the victim for good, and less liked than when the wife was the perpetrator of the offence.

These various strands of evidence imply that there are differences in the way male and female perpetrators of domestic violence are perceived that reflect widely held social beliefs about the dynamics of domestic violence, with male partners seen as more blameworthy than female partners in serious domestic disputes that result in physical injury. These generalized beliefs are shared by both men and women and in part they may be assumed to reflect stereotypical beliefs about differences in aggression and power that are associated with a person's gender and social role in a domestic situation, beliefs that have some basis in reality (Feather).

This article focuses more on the fact that there are both male and female victims. A main difference is that the author states that women are believed more often than men, and when a man is the perpetrator it is because he is the man (stronger, bigger, etc.). This article relates to today in that men are still looked upon mostly as the victimizer, seldom the victim. It is important for society to realize that men can be victimized too.

The third journal article discussed the authors views that: Male violence is a problem for women of all income, race, and ethnic groups and affects an estimated three to four million women in the United States every year. This problem creates serious hardship for women. Most abused women experience fear and emotional pain, as well as physical injury. Children can also suffer from witnessing the physical abuse of their mothers. Beyond depriving women of their basic right to safety, male violence is also very costly to society. The public pays billions of dollars for the direct and indirect costs of this problem, for health and criminal justice services.

This article further focuses on poor women, their experience of male violence, and its impact on their lives. Although violence against all women must be studied, the situation of poor women needs particular attention because they have so few resources. Those who wish to leave violent relationships, particularly those with children, face serious problems gaining the financial stability they need. Government assistance can be critical for poor women. The previous welfare system, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), though in many ways inadequate, did provide a guaranteed safety net for all poor women. Unfortunately, the termination of poor women's entitlement to benefits in the recent welfare "reform" bill, the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), P.L. 104-193, and other severe cuts to welfare programs have deprived poor women who are trying to escape abuse by their partners of a very important resource.

The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of the new welfare legislation on the lives of poor abused women who are enrolled in or qualify for welfare programs. I will examine what this legislation provides, or falls to provide, to battered women; I will also demonstrate how the new bill falls to address critical concerns of abused women, despite provisions that do address their situation. I argue that federal and state policymakers must make greater commitments to protect abused women and to help them rebuild their lives (Kurz).

This article takes quite a different viewpoint than the other journal articles above. Here the woman is seen solely as the victim, and it is portrayed that her (women whom are victims of domestic violence) hardships are created solely due to the victimization of women by men. The only way this relates to current society is discussing the issues about welfare reform and the effect that has on poor women.

The fourth journal discussed the battered-women's movement is a particularly apt exemplas of state-community partnerships because of its longstanding commitment to the simultaneous development of both a community-based and a state-sponsored response to domestic violence. During the early 1970s, movement activists began calling attention to the prevalence of violence being perpetrated against women by men with whom they are intimate. The articulation of the problem was quickly translated into political demands that the state begin treating such violence as a serious crime rather than as a personal matter between partners. Legal reforms followed, and by the 1980s domestic violence was illegal in every state. Police departments nationwide began implementing new arrest procedures designed to ensure that violence by one adult against another, regardless of their relationship, would be treated seriously.

At the same time that movement activists were pushing for the enactment of new legal measures, they were also working to develop a grass-roots community-based approach to providing direct services to victims of domestic violence. In 1979, the first domestic violence shelter in the United States was opened in an apartment in St. Paul, Minnesota, staffed entirely by volunteers. Today more than 2,000 shelters and crisis centers dot the North American landscape. Some are funded through private donations and staffed by volunteers but most are sustained by a combination of public and private monies and are run by a mix of professional and nonprofessional, paid and unpaid staffs. Thus we see that contemporary efforts to address domestic violence are characterized by a pattern of service provision and problem definition that from the outset has involved a reliance on state and community measures.

The dual focus on the development of both state-based and community-based responses to domestic violence has grown stronger as movement activists have become increasingly aware of the limits of legal interventions and of the need to work harder at changing cultural attitudes about the acceptability of this type of violence. Although the criminalization of domestic violence and legislation permitting the civil issuance of orders of protection of victims have been of undeniable importance in transforming the act from a private into a public problem (at both the symbolic and material levels), it nevertheless is still the case that many victims are simply reluctant to turn to the state for help. (Kelly)

This journal article discusses an initiative that was done to help victims of domestic violence. This article does not single out men or women; it solely gives information about the subject matter and discusses when it all happened. This article is significant to society today, because without knowing where something has started there is no way to plot a course of action for the future.