Victims Of Domestic Violence example essay topic

When looking at the area of domestic violence there are many areas in which need to be looked at. First off domestic violence affects a lot of people, not just the abuser and the victim. It affects the children, especially if they end up becoming a victim. It affects both the victims' family and the abusers family. In seeing that if the abuser is arrested then both families have to deal with court and everything that goes along with that. After looking at a lot of statistics I found that domestic violence is a cycle, it goes in different stages of violence against the victim, the next stage being worse then the one before.

Further what a lot of people don't know about domestic violence is how many laws and acts that have been put into place to protect those that are in danger, and that there are many groups out there to also help the victim. There are many areas to take into consideration when looking at domestic violence all of which is discussed in detail below. In 1920 all states made "wife beating" illegal. But even with this new law, it was just the beginning for treating domestic violence as a serious crime, as suppose to a private family matter.

Domestic Violence has several but similar definitions. One of which would include any physical, sexual, or psychological abuse that someone may use against a current or former "intimate partner". Another definition of domestic violence is one consisting of a pattern of coercive behaviors used by a competent adult or adolescent to establish and maintain power and control over another competent adult or adolescent. Domestic Violence also refers to a number of criminal behaviors, and they are as follows: assault and battery; sexual assault; stalking; harassment; violation of a civil restraining order; homicide; plus any other crimes that may occur during the course of a domestic violence incident.

Some of those might be: arson, robbery, destruction of property, and endangering a minor. When looking at the statistics to see if there was a typical abuser it was found that the majority of those who are arrested for domestic violence are heterosexual white men. Also in one study it shows that there are eight factors that are associated with being a batterer: 1. Sexual aggression. 2.

Violence towards children. 3. Witnessing parental violence as a child or a teen. 4. Working class occupational status.

5. Excessive alcohol use. 6. Low income. 7. Low assertiveness.

8. Low educational level. There are many theories, as the cause to domestic violence, and those theories are as follows: Feminist-inspired theory (This theory argues that battering mirrors male power and control over females). Family-Based theory (This theory examines the level of family conflict, and any lessons that kids may be learning including indirect lessons about relationships between violence and love). Individual-Based theory (This theory argues that domestic violence is due to personality disorders and / or biomedical factors (such as head injuries or mental illness) ). And the final theory is Evolutionary-Based theory (This theory states that male violence against females is to control the female's reproduction, and also often male jealousy).

But a more basic and general cause for domestic violence can be defined as a manifestation of sexism rooted deeply in history and culture. It is an outgrowth of the cultural past that has defined men's relationship to women in terms of ownership and entitlement. The federal approach to domestic violence is they leave the responsibility of enforcing domestic violence laws up to local and state governments. However in 1994 Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (V AWA). There are certain offenses that this Act makes a federal offense such as stalking and violation against Protection Orders. Furthermore Orders of protection is orders made by the judge.

It is not an Order between two people involved in the case. Which means that only the judge can change the Order of Protection. The person that requested the Order of Protection cannot change the order or make it meaningless by allowing the defendant to have contact. If the Order of Protection is to be changed it can only be done by the judge or Assistant District Attorney.

Any violation of the Order of Protection by the defendant will result in an arrest for Criminal Contempt. There have been surveys done asking victims of domestic violence where they would go, and they responded as stated below: . 31.2% of all victims, male and female, said they would seek help from the police... 27.7% said they did not know... 14.7% said they would go to a hospital... 10.7% said they would approach a family member...

10.7% said they would go to a shelter... 3.1% of victims said they would forego assistance and simply retaliate. In one survey in 1996 they estimated that more than 50% of woman are battered at some point in their lives, of which over 33% are battered repeatedly. Some other facts are as follows; according to the Justice Department data for 1992, a proximate. 28% of female homicide victims were known to have been killed by their current or former male partners, an average of 4 women per day. As far as race goes, people have tried linking domestic violence to a certain kind of race.

But in data collected by the U.S. Department of Justice, there was no statistics having a significant difference between one race of women and another. However there has been found to be an age range which females are typically more found to be victims of domestic violence, and that is women aged between 19-29 are most likely to be victims by an intimate. Also between 20-30% of University women report violence during a relationship. Furthermore it has been found as more of an age differential between the husband and wife increases, so does the risk of spouse homicide. In the course of the surveys done on domestic violence they have come up with a ranking scale for physical abuse (anything higher then a 5 indicates likelihood of danger), and also a lethality checklist.

The physical abuse checklist goes as follows: 1. Throwing things, punching the wall.