Domestic Violence Is a Negative

Domestic violence is a negative term in most cases which may cause some emotional reactions when it is used in conversation. Researching and learning about domestic violence in the United States serves to gain more knowledge about the topic so that it can be better understood. The purpose of this essay is to synthesize the findings of my research that I conducted on this subject in order to bring a clearer picture to what this topic consists of. I will present four differing aspects on this topic done by several different sources and bring these individual contributions together to form a consensus of the topic.

The World Health Organization recently conducted in their words, a "landmark study" on domestic violence. The report was released 24 November, 2005 in which it contained information supporting " the enormous toll physical and sexual violence by husbands and partners has on the health and well-being of women around the world and the extent to which partner violence is still largely hidden." This report is a global perspective on the idea of domestic violence. Although the specific target of my research deals with domestic violence that occurs in the United States, this world view is helpful to contextualize America's problem as it relates to the rest of the world.

The study itself is based on interview with more than 24,000 women from rural and urban areas in 10 countries, mostly third world nations. In this study it found that "one quarter to one half of all women who had been physically assaulted by their partners said that they had suffered physical injuries as a direct result. The abused women were also twice as likely as non-abused women to have poor health and physical and mental problems, even if the violence occurred years before. This includes suicidal thoughts and attempts, mental distress, and physical symptoms like pain, dizziness and vaginal discharge."

This article is helpful because it signifies the common problems of domestic violence as a world and global problem. However, this report does not create a full picture of my particular inquiry. Men and children were not involved in this study, leaving out a large group of the abuse population. America is unique in many facets of its culture suggesting that altough the problem of domestic violence is everywhere in the world, a more specific solution may be needed in regional and local areas of this problem.

Source 2

Wilt & Olson (1996) compiled a useful report that contained much important data about the prevalence of domestic violence in America. This report much like the World Health Organization's focused only on women. The report attempted to link several factors together in order to achieve a clearer understanding of how this phenomenon of violence manifests. Such factors such as age, pregnancy status, marital status, socio-economic status, race, ethnicity and drug and alcohol use were used as qualitative factors that were investigated in their report.

This article contains many tables and charts that help give a mathematical representation to the arguments the authors are presenting. There investigation of the statistical importance of the studies used for their analysis demonstrates the rigor and sophistication of their methods of analysis. The article eventually concludes that "both the popular and professional literatures have misrepresented domestic violence study findings, frequently overstating the extent of the problem. Systematic research in domestic violence is relatively new, and the violence among intimate partners in America is quite high and report that 8% to 12% of women experience some form of domestic violence " (p.21).

Source 3

Sternberg et al. (1993) is a secondary research source that described the effects of domestic violence on children's behavior. This source of information on the topic of domestic abuse is more expansive than the previous two sources discussed. Here the impacts of domestic violence are realized through the children of domestic violence victims. As this article also expands the idea of domestic violence, it also ignores those victims of domestic abuse with no children. The article and all of its data suggest that the research that can be done on domestic violence may be infinite and can be viewed through multiple lenses all giving new characteristics to the term and creating new and challenging relationships that researchers must figure out.

The article itself reaches interesting conclusions about its effectiveness. The authors proclaimed "the results of this study have several important implications for the design of research on domestic violence. First of all, extensive efforts must be made to document the severity and nature of domestic violence to define children's experiences accurately " (p.51). The main point of this research appears to be that subjectivity is very important in determining what violence and abuse really consists of. There are different cultures being practiced everywhere in America and many of these cultures would not agree on what is violent or not. This is the problem that is ultimately presented in this source of information about this topic.

Source 4

The final source used for this research project comes from a report issued by the American Bar Association. In this report, statistics with very little analysis is presented. Sources are quoted throughout out the online report which directs the origin of the information.