The reality of domestic violence in most homes is that many men and some women often show intolerance against those who face this issue. The main questions are always the same. Why victims of domestic violence do not just go away? If the problem of domestic violence is a social problem, why is not it solved up to now?
The problem of domestic violence was raised many yeas ago. Nowadays, this problem is considered as one of the most urgent ones, still it has not been decided yet. There are a lot of possible reasons which may be the main reasons for presence of violence. Today, in the debate surrounding domestic violence, it is believed that society concedes that mental state of many victims of domestic violence has often been psychologically changed or culturally habituated, so they cannot escape the abusive relationship without outside assistance.
In this action, victims of domestic violence do not display rational or reasoned behavior because of a myriad of extraordinary complicated circumstances. Their mental state has often been psychologically tainted by an experience that often can leave them intellectually incompetent of making rational decisions regarding the situation they have occurred in. The understandable belief is that through most of human history, men have been in charge of making the family decisions.
In the modern society, each of the cohabiting spouses, because of current social changes, wants to dominate the decision-making process. Conflicts and violence can occur as there is no process in place that regulates family life. The ethical principles of fairness and equality arise from a mutual human respect for the extent in which we can all act with an awareness of our actions and their consequences.
Nowadays, many specific actions are made in order assist those who have been abused at home. Ultimately, we must come to understand that the primary obstacle to modern society’s ability to reach an agreement regarding the domestic violence is that too many studies and several critiques about domestic violence basically support measures which are to be taken after the violence has occurred. This frequently presents people with two disconnected and separate notions of the problem.
Some people believe domestic violence to be a central concern in the society, while others do not consider it to be a problem at all. Domestic violence is not an issue of gender as it is rather about how social and economic decisions are made within relationships at homes (Ratterman).
A person in relationships that has control of the decision-making process will often use threats and/or violence to keep control over the partner. It must be fully apprehended that to ask an individual to stay in a relationship when it becomes too domineering for them is immoral and diminishes the value of their life.
This is not to argue that a man cannot be the victim of domestic violence or that women cannot be the primary assaulters of a domestic violence occurrence. Men can be the victims of domestic violence as well as some women can be the primary assaulters (Ratterman). The reason of one becoming an offender or a victim lies in one’s character as the person who dominates is to be more stubborn or more steadfast (Folstad).
Domestic violence is a world problem and there are a lot of initiatives and programs aimed at eliminating the effects and complicated consequences of this issue. There is a phone number where people who have occurred under the affect of domestic violence may call and get a piece of advice.
Such phone numbers are aimed at assisting psychologically those who need help. People can get the assistance in further behavior and treating of those who abuse them. People can get the information about the places where they can go. T is very important to know that there are people who can assist you. It is also important to speak to somebody. It is a universal problem that those who are abused, mainly women, do not turn to police.
There are many reasons for such decisions, however, these women still need help. Speaking about this problem, those who appear under the affect of a domestic violence do not usually want others to solve the problem, they just want to tell about their problem and to express their ideas about it. Many people who call to such centers do not even need advice they just tell about their problem and disconnect. It is also possible to report about the case of domestic abuse in the neighboring house.
Ultimately, in times of fast social change, there are always deceitful machinations to avert or slow societal change. In current society, as a result of the confused emotional change in relationships between men and women, they often emerge to be worried, suspicious, and fearful of each other. Coming to police before the violence is committed results in nothing as police is sure that fear for violence is always a result of emotional instability of a weaker position in family relationships.
Thus, some cases left without attention remain just the cases, but the part of such requests for help usually result in further violence. For example, Patty Prickett, the counselor (Catania), was the witness of a situation when a woman who came six months before to police to ask for help was refused and she was killed at the moment. It is impossible to combat the problem dealing with its results. It is important to make sure that the causes of the problem are considered.
The absence of the correct social programs at schools and the lack of desire of government and police to pay more attention to the prevention of the problem while it is not too late are the main reasons of the increased number of the cases of domestic violence.
If the problem was considered before the irreversible effects appeared, it would be easier to reduce the rate of domestic violence in the country (Abner). Looking at the current situation, the most reasonable actions which are to be done are the implementation of the school programs directed at reducing the number of the domestic violence cases and an implementation of an initiative devoted to preventing the causes of domestic violence rather than dealing with the consequences.
David A. Wolfe and Peter G. Jaffe are sure that adolescence is a particular time when crucial cognitive and social processes occur in the development of youths. During this time adolescents “learn to think more rationally and become capable of thinking hypothetically” (Wolfe and Jaffe). At this stage of development, adolescents understand the main idea of complex interpersonal relationships with reference to possible risks and consequences of decision making processes.
Trying to implement such an initiative, the effectiveness is to be considered along with the specific measures which are to be taken. As for consequences, it must be stated that if people are taught from their youths that domestic violence is something illegal, awful and incorrect, it is possible to reduce the number of the cases of domestic violence in the future. Many people commit such actions just because they are unable to solve problems in another way.
The main idea of the initiative is to develop the school lectures which show students the cases of domestic violence and teach them solve problems without applying to violence. Adolescents are to understand that there are a lot of particular situations where emotions may become predominant, however, emotions must never rule people and their decisions. So, the implementation of such initiative will help give students some knowledge about handling relationships, coping with conflicts and preventing domestic violence.
The potential victims should also be taught the basic principles of behavior. Domestic violence is a very complicated problem as sometimes the victims of the accident are guilty in the fact that such a case took place. Inappropriate behavior, failure to select necessary words and many other factors may cause unpredictable outcome.
The knowledge about the psychological grounds and some useful information may prevent a crime or at least to reduce the consequences. Much attention should be paid to those children whose parents have been involved into domestic violence. Having already been at the side of a victim, such children should be involved in the discussion of a problem to help them overcome the already existing fears (Gemma 113).
Another proposed measure in dealing with domestic violence is trying to prevent the act at all. There are several specific measures which may assist police in preventing the domestic violence before it is committed. First of all, it is important to have a list of all the houses where the case may take place. Additionally, police is to react to any sign of possible abuse and take some measures.
For example, the requests of aggressive behavior of one member of a family must not be ignored, even though there are no signs of violence of abuse have taken place yet. It is inadmissible to wait until a crime is committed. It is necessary to find the reason (e.g. drunk condition, aggressive behavior, etc.) and to isolate a possible abuser. Additionally, it is essential to make sure that a possible abuser does not think that it is a family member who has taken a police to the place.
A possible criminal is to come though the psychological treatment in order to make sure that he/she looks differently at situation and aggression has been treated. It is important to visit the homes where domestic violence took place once, but the offender was allowed to remain in the family. Such families are to be under special control (Krueger and Labbe 40).
Therefore, it should be concluded that there are a lot of measures which are taken in order to reduce the number of the cases of domestic violence, however, not all of these actions are effective as in most cases the measures are take after the crime is committed. It is important to think about the specific actions which may help prevent domestic violence at all.
School lectures for students is one of the ideas which is to be implemented. Moreover, attentive following of the homes with possible domestic violence cases is to be conducted as well. The country should be under constant control. Even though much is done in order to reduce the number of cases of domestic abuse, there are a lot of measures which may still be taken.
The problem is not going to be solved by means of changing the criminal or civil court systems. The change of this doggedness must start in community involvement through a multi-strategy educational plan. The use of civil preventive orders and compulsory arrest policies by police departments without appropriate criminal approval to alleviate the ills of domestic violence is a deception in which firm realities are inadequate and it is difficult to tell reality from fable.
The regrettable fact is that many empty spaces must be filled before proceeding any further and the only way to realize this is by using political smoke and mirrors to change facts.
Society must merge empirical studies with psychologically held ideas and become more loyal to the judgment of reasonable problem solving. Society must also become more practical and ask questions about who the people are and what the suitable relationship between men and women should be. The society must understand that success is distinguished by what is put in life and not by gains. It must become the responsibility of the community to identify what the current social positions should be in terms of gender and family.
Works Cited
Abner, Carrie. “Addressing Abuse.” Print.
Catania, Sara. “Domestic Violence: The Counselor.” Print.
Folstad, Kim. “Are You Shackled to a Bad Boyfriend?” Print.
Gemma, Ellis. “The impact on teachers of supporting children exposed to domestic abuse.” Educational & Child Psychology, 29.4 (2012): pp.109-120. Print.
Krueger, Mary and Dennis Labbe. Protecting a domestic abuse victim’s privileged counseling communications in family law cases. New Hampshire Bar Journal, 53.2 (2012): pp.38-43. Print.
Ratterman, Debbie. “Chronicling the fight against family violence.” Print.
Wolfe, David A. and Peter G. Jaffe. “Prevention of Domestic Violence During Adolescence.” Print.