Introduction
The journal article represents the author’s view on the rise of people’s awareness of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the United States. The author notes that this rise occurred in the last several decades due to demand for change coupled with women empowerment by feminists and women movements. The researcher views the previous studies on domestic violence as biased with regard to their negligence of rural areas where domestic violence is presumably harsher as compared to urban areas. Over the years, the American law enforcement agencies have failed in restraining domestic violence in the country, as there are no laws that protect women against the vice. This trend is worrying, for, without legal protection, women will continue suffering from domestic violence.
Article Overview
The journal article explains domestic violence as a solvable social problem. The author explains that other researchers make the problem bigger due to failure to get to the rural areas where the problem is extreme. The targeted audience seems to be law enforcement agencies and the general public who hold a bigger responsibility in the effort to solve this problem in the United States. The main goal is to make it known that the problem is extreme in the rural areas and urge the law enforcement agencies to utilize the existing law to solve the problem.
Definition of the Research Problem
The research problem touches on the marginalization of women in countryside areas coupled with the nature of violence and the inefficiency with which the concerned authorities respond to such vehemence (Erwin et al. 2005). Over the past few decades, there has been a tremendous rise in domestic violence against women in the United States (Raj & Silverman, 2002). The author believes that women in rural areas are more affected than those in urban areas; however, police do not respond positively to the problem.
Research Methodology
The journal article is self-explanatory and heavily relies on both secondary and primary sources of information. Secondary sources include mainly other previous researches that were carried out on the same subject in the past, but there are gaps in those findings that the current article intends to fill. In addition, the researcher found that previous findings provided insufficient information that needs to be added to (Walby & Myhill, 2001). For instance, the author argues that previous research on domestic violence did not pay much attention to rural areas as it did to urban areas; it is clear evidence of the fact that previous research had insufficient knowledge. In addition, the author conducted fifty interviews, which results were taken as valid research findings.
Article’s Contributions to the Existing Literature
The journal article contributes much to the existing literature on domestic violence and provides a response of the law enforcement to the vice in both urban and rural areas. The author begins the article by criticizing other previous research findings on the same subject after finding out a huge knowledge gap, which is due to incomprehensive research methodology (Gracia, 2004). The article presents new knowledge on the subject after the author have carried out research in the rural areas in Kentucky and found the domestic violence to be harsher there than in the urban areas, on which previous researchers based their findings.
Article’s Results, Findings, and Recommendations
From the interview, which was the main primary source of the research, the author found that residents of rural areas were used to research domestic violence. Worst still, residents see the problem as a normal family issue. Additionally, law enforcement agencies do not interfere with the partners as they see the matter as a family way of life (Follingstad & Dehart, 2000). The researcher recommends the great need for introduction of regulations and policies that will ensure that women are empowered in Kentucky, and ensure that telephone subscription is made available to all residents in the rural areas, as costly telephone services force many households to live without telephone services.
Article Critique
The journal article presents a well-done research and thus, it is a source of important knowledge and information related to domestic violence and response of law enforcement agencies to the problem. First positive key is the finding that women in rural areas are abused due to physical and social isolation, which makes the reader feel the great need for introduction of women empowerment campaigns in the rural areas in an effort to reduce cases of domestic violence (Belknap, 2007). The second key is poor communication infrastructure and inaccessibility in the rural areas contributing to rise in the cases of domestic violence where about two out of ten households do not have a telephone in the rural areas.
Conclusion
The researcher concludes that women have more problems than they presented in the interview. He argues that his masculine physique could have contributed to women fearing him and failing to disclose all their experiences in abusive relationships. The case is true, as during those interviews women could not entrust their feelings towards their husbands to the author. In addition, they could also have feared that he would betray them, and hence opted not to disclose their experiences, as they would not get any help from him for he had not promised them any solution to their marital problems even after the disclosure.
Reference List
Belknap, J. (2007). The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice. Belmont, CA: Cengage.
Erwin, M., Gershon, R., Tiburzi, M., & Lin, S. (2005). Reports of intimate partner violence made against police officers. Journal of Family Violence, 20(1), 13-19.
Follingstad, D., & Dehart, D. (2000). Defining psychological abuse of husbands toward wives: contexts, behaviors, and typologies. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 15(9), 891-93.
Gracia, E. (2004). Unreported cases of domestic violence against women: towards an epidemiology of social silence, tolerance, and inhibition. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 58, 536-537.
Raj, A., & Silverman, J. (2002). Violence against immigrant women the roles of culture, context, and legal immigrant status on intimate partner violence. Violence against Women, 8(3), 367-398.
Walby, S., & Myhill, A. (2001). New survey methodologies in researching violence against women. The British Journal of Criminology, 41(3), 502-522.