Domestic Violence Interventions

With regards to the Secretary of State for Justice, this report will investigate domestic violence within England and Wales. As the government advisor, I will be looking into the definitions and key legal documents associated with this crime, its prevalence within today’s society, the offenders and it’s victims of domestic abuse alongside the causes and motivations which may cause domestic violence. Furthermore, I will be giving any criticisms and recommendations I may have as to how this crime type should be addressed in the future.

Domestic Violence is not just hitting, or fighting, or an occasional mean argument. It is a chronic abuse of power (Newton, C.J., 2001). The Modes of policy argumentation are distinctive methods charted by information converted into policy claims. Listed below are the reasoning patterns of domestic violence illustrated in Table 8.1 in the textbook (Dunn, 2012).

Astounding statistics reported by the Children’s Defense Fund, “An estimated 3 to 4 million women in the United States are battered each year by their partners, In homes where domestic violence occurs, children are seriously abused or neglected at a rate 1500% higher than the national average in the general population, Between 2.3 and 10 million children are witnesses to family violence, Based on an estimate of 2 children per household, in 55% of violent homes, at least 3.3 million children in the U.S. are at risk of witnessing domestic violence each year,” (Retrieved, 10/12/2011, http://cdf.childrensdefense.org).

The Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012 is the act of Parliament that deals with domestic violence. The key aims of the legislation are to provide immediate and short to middle term protection for aggrieved people. Under Division 2 number 8, domestic violence can be defined as “behaviour by a person (the first person) towards another person (the second person) with whom the first person is in a relevant relationship that— (a) is physically or sexually abusive; or (b) is emotionally or psychologically abusive (c) is economically abusive; or (d) is threatening; or (e) is coercive; or (f) in any other way controls or dominates the second person and causes the second person to fear for the second person’s safety or wellbeing or that of someone else as shown in Appendix A”. Violence occurs between intimate partners, husband and wife, ex - partners, step- parents, parents and their teenage or adult children as well as disabled people and their carer. (Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012).

This essay will critically analyse the significant changes that have occurred within domestic violence which is viewed as a vital subject within the criminal justice system. It will explore the way that domestic violence has progressively become a concerning issue in the criminal justice system from being relatively acceptable in recent history. In addition to this, the essay will explore legislation changes in relation to domestic violence and how the police have arguably been forced to change their attitudes towards a problem that was once thought of as a private regard. It will critically analyse the theories put forward as to why domestic violence occurs in today’s society. It will explore the weaknesses within the criminal justice system, especially the police in regards to domestic violence, the police previously viewed domestic violence as a matter of which they should not get involved. However as mentioned in the essay, after many reviews within the system, many improvements have been made to help protect the victim.

The resource chosen is to identify and build awareness for a public health need to highlight the prevalence of domestic abuse against men. It is known that women are subject to Domestic Abuse, but Du-Plat Jones (2006) argues recent statistics

Domestic violence calls to the police became popular in the 1970’s and 1980’s. History indicates that these calls were considered “family matters” that should be handled by its family. Following the landmark case of “Thurman vs. The city of Torrington”, that garnered a severe financial penalty for the police for failure to respond, changes occurred. In this case, Tracy Thurman was awarded $2.3 million when she sued the city of Torrington, CT police department for their failure to arrest her abusive husband.

At my agency I work with victims of domestic violence. In training with Chesterfield County Domestic Violence Resource Center I learned a lot about how this growing problem has affected them. This county is one of two that had been recognized for efforts to ending domestic violence. They believe that effective intervention in assaults and sexual violence occurs when the agency and service coordinates their policies and practice to meet community intervention.

“The NRCDV’s four key initiatives include Building Comprehensive Solutions to Domestic Violence, the Domestic Violence Awareness Project, the DV Evidence Project, and VAWnet.” Under the Building Comprehensive Solutions Domestic Violence section, it offers a platform that promotes guidance on challenging advocacy issues, for example, child safety supporting victims with ongoing contact with abusive partners. The mission of BCS is to promote victim-defined advocacy and responses. The second section goes over the Domestic Violence Awareness Project. “The NRCDV’s Domestic Violence Awareness Project (DVAP) supports and promotes the national, tribal, territorial, state and local advocacy networks in their ongoing education efforts through public

Domestic violence has become an increasingly dominant problem within Australian society but is constantly pushed to the side like a burden. Domestic violence is a relationship between intimate partners in which one individual seeks to assert power and control over the other and cause fear or intimidation and doesn’t have to be physical abuse, it can be emotional, psychological, financial, sexual or other types of abuse. It can affect anyone in the community regardless of gender, sexual identity, race, age, culture, ethnicity, religion, disability, economic status or location ("home - Domestic Violence", 2016). Violence isn’t just physical violence it can also be sexual, verbal, psychological, emotional, spiritual, economic or social. Domestic violence is the most frequent form of assault in Australian society nevertheless, it remains a hidden problem because it occurs within the privacy of the home and those involved are usually reluctant to speak out. Women and Children are commonly affected by domestic violence in fact, 33.3% of women had experienced physical violence since the age of 15 (Domestic Violence Statistics, 2016). Although, studies show that men are not the only perpetrators, in fact more than 10,000 men alone have been affected by domestic violence in NSW ("10,000 men are domestic violence victims", 2016).

Surprisingly, many Australians are unaware that about 2.56 of women (33 per cent of all women) have experienced physical violence and 1.47 million (19 per cent) have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. You also probably don’t know that only 7.2 per cent of the abusers have received a prison sentence. Although domestic violence is a widespread and growing problem in Australia, there is something quite radically wrong with applying the criminal law in this field.

The term ‘‘domestic violence’’ will be used in this entry and will refer primarily to female victims of male perpetrators. While it is also recognized that abuse can occur in

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) led to mandatory arrests of the alleged abusive partner, yet there lacks a similar for male victims. Further, the VAWA provides free counsel to women, yet men must find and pay for their own legal counsel. Furthermore, a study conducted exhibited that when male victims attempted to domestic violence hotlines, 64% were told that they hotlines aided women only, 32% were referred to batterers’ program (which helped men stop abusing their partners), and 25% were given a number for a batterers’ program. Further, 16% of males indicated that they were simply made fun of and/or dismissed by the

Taken together, therapy offered within domestic violence programs typically involves helping survivors, such as Anita, to recover their personal sense of power and control, and it’s also one way through which survivors learn about common emotional and behavioral responses to domestic abuse (Sullivan, Warshaw & Rivera, 2013). Thus, the general intent behind this therapy intervention is to alleviate the distress that often accompanies victimization (e.g., depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress symptoms, guilt, shame) and to increase Anita’s sense of self and well-being (Sullivan, Warshaw & Rivera, 2013). De Santis (n.d.), suggests that we help Anita prioritize which needs have to be dealt with immediately, and which can be temporarily left

The Children and family court advisory and support service in Britain uses the term domestic violence to refer to a wide range of abusive and violent behavior in its “domestic violence policy”. It defines domestic violence as “patterns of behavior characterized by the misuse of power and control by one person over another who are or have been in an intimate relationship.” This is said to occur in all kinds of relationships ranging from same sex to mixed gender.