Family Violence Is Systems Theory

Violence affects a healthy family’s relationship, state of mind and well-being, in other words, it’s normal functions. Because of violence, children are forced to endure and cope with mental, physical and emotional trauma leading to a display of impacts on health, development, and wellbeing. The effects build up over time and can impact on every aspect of their life.  How many children and innocent lives must suffer from something unnecessary? Imagine walking into a home late at night to find a child hiding in a corner, with a bloody face and cuts all around their body saying they were self-inflicted or making up other silly excuses like falling down the stairs out of extreme fear. Up to 75% of all acts of domestic violence occurs between the ages 18-24. No child should ever see domestic violence as normal because the moment that happens a future perpetrator has been born. We need to take a stand and refuse to let domestic violence become something we ignore.

Growing up in an abusive household was reality to my siblings and I. Being an adult now, I’ve struggled maintaining control over my anger and have had an issue in doing so since I was a child. It’s a fact that “children who witness violence between one’s parents or caretakers are the strongest risk factor of transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next.”

The theory I utilize most when considering social problems, such as domestic violence are strengths and systems theory. Systems theory is a go to theory for me as I feel a large part of our decisions and experiences is impacted by the systems in our lives. For example, a domestic violence survivor may have witnessed domestic violence in her childhood and may feel that it is acceptable for a spouse or partner to physically abuse, name-call, and do all of the decision making. They may also have grown up in a household where their mother did not work and took care of the household with little input in to household decisions and no access to household funds.

There are many theories out there that try to explain why domestic violence happens. Some like family violence theory say that it is passed down through the family because basically what you see is what you will do. Others say it’s a chemical imbalance or its based on other things. I believe that it is a little bit of all of the theories but the Culture of Violence Theory is playing a huge role today in helping shape our young children’s minds as to what is now acceptable. During this assignment we will look at four different types of examples of how the Culture of Violence Theory is doing just that.

Nothing less is allowed from the children. These authoritative parents tend to listen to their children’s arguments, but never change their minds. Additionally, the parents dominate and make decisions for the children (Benton). These children are mentally abused because of the lack of communication and emotional support. The emotional needs tend to shift moreover to the parents

Moreover, another factor believed to contribute to child abuse is the widespread belief that it is completely appropriate to utilize physical punishment when disciplining children. The book claims that parents tend to cross the line between “appropriate” physical punishment and child abuse when they get angry and use physical punishment for discipline their children. Also, the book claims that they are various social factors that contribute to child abuse. These are lack of education, poverty, family problems, and unemployment. These factors all have the ability to cause individuals a great deal of stress. When stress builds up in an individual, an individual may be more likely to become physically aggressive towards their children whenever

To start off, as most of us have already know, social and cultural norms are one of the factor that influence in shaping one’s behavior, and one of them include the use of violence. The cultural norm, such one that encourage the use of violence as normal method of solving problem within families would be a risk factor of having the child likely to use violence once he or she grow up. According to Esposito, a psychotherapist, "Boys exposed to domestic violence may channel their feelings through aggressive acts such as fighting,

For children living in violent and unsafe homes, they are learning that hitting and verbally abusing someone is the proper way of communicating love. According to Holt, Buckley & Whelan (2008), “as they learn a generational cycle begins in which children grow up to be victims and abusers as adults.” The effects that domestic violence has on children are heartbreaking. Some of the major effects are; increased risk of poor health, poor education, isolation, learned helplessness and decreased satisfaction in such family environment.

Family violence, I believe can mean different things to different people. Based on what I read, family violence is an act of physical abuse, which causes injuries between members who are related somehow. The violence can also be psychological and mental. There has been great debate however on what constitutes family. It does not necessarily mean related by marriage or blood. It can also be between partners of any kind. I feel the term should be more classified as relationship or intimate as the book states. Violence is to give a broader variance to the subject. The most accurate and reliable way to measure family violence is by using the Conflict Tactic Scale (CTS). This method measures 3 variables: use of rational discussion and agreement, use of verbal/nonverbal expressions of hostility, and use of physical force or violence. The CTS is deemed to be more reliable due to the sampling procedure, the expansive numbers The CTS is deemed to be more reliable due to the sampling procedure, the expansive number of respondents and the validity of the CTS as a measuring device. The theory that offers the most hope of understanding family violence in my opinion is the social learning

When the supposed parent doesn’t give enough attention to the kids, such kids are prone to violent attitude. Even, some parent practically exposed to their kids to violence indirectly. An example is when a parent takes an underage for a gun show. Of course, such kids would want to use it one day. Parents who engage in domestic violence always have a negative impact on the kids. According to a research (Harold & Sellers, 2018), “Interparental quality is regarded as a major determinant factor in the life of a child and adolescent psychopathology. Recent research has highlighted that children are affected by attributes of interparental conflict, specifically how parents express and manage conflicts in their relationship, across a continuum of expressed severity and negativity – ranging from silence to violence.” The article further reveals evidences that children's emotional, behavioral, social, academic outcomes, and future interpersonal relationships are adversely affected by conflict between parents either divorced or still living together. The research article is based on Historical and it is a clinically oriented. Some parents believe that parenting has a duration, therefore, once their children attain a certain age little or no correction is required from them. Good parenting does not have a duration, rather, it is a continuous

It goes without saying that police officers will respond to an unimaginable amount of domestic violence investigations during their career. Sadly, these investigations have been found to account for 22% of in the line of duty deaths (National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 2016). Lesson 1 of this course has introduced me to various theories to explain the causes of domestic violence, which in turn has expanded on my perception of these investigations.

The children are forced to do everything on their own without any guidance from their parents and the parent-child relationship is non-existent. Moreover, physical violence is a common problem among dysfunctional families. Parents physically violate their children to show them that they’re superior. In certain cases, the children are forced to witness their mother or father being abused by their significant other.

Domestic violence also greatly impacts the family structure and the relationships between the members. Domestic violence threatens both the relationship between the child and their mother and the child and their father. Children who are exposed to domestic violence do not have an emotionally available parent to foster their development and have a 30-60% higher risk for being abused by the perpetrator (NCADV, 2007); when the father is the perpetrator of the violence, he often knows little about his children, their interests, and progress in school (Crosson-Tower, 2009, p. 84). The mother’s parenting style may also be damaged from domestic violence; the perpetrator may not allow the mother to take care of her children properly or soothe them when they are upset, which can cause the children to believe their mother does not care for them. When a mother is constantly traumatized by domestic violence, it can be more difficult for her to be present and attentive in her children’s lives due to depression, anxiety, and lack of sleep (Centre for children and families in the justice system, 2009). Domestic violence has an impact on the ability for a family to function. The perpetrator may sow divisions between the members of the family by turning them against each other, or favoring one child over the others. There may also be role reversals in families who experience domestic violence; parentification of the children and infantilizing of the mother may

In relation to this topic control theory could arguably explain potential effects and impacts on children witnessing domestic violence. This theory is based on the principle that family conflicts may result in an individuals need to maintain and obtain power in a relationship (Britt and Gottfredson, 2003). This could potentially result in the individual forming destructive relationships due to the underlying fact that victim tends to adapt to the abuse and challenge the abuser. This may result the victim begins to modify their behaviour in to the same nature as their abuser as a form of defence mechanism, in order to avoid potential abuse in the

Family situations in which both parents are under mass amounts of stress and must work tediously to make ends meet are often inclined to have victims of child abuse in the home. Often because of troubled times economically parents reach a breaking point and enforce their anger onto his or her child, beating them physically. In many cases, parents take “teaching their child a lesson” to very high extremes, using the act of discipline to mask an act of physical child abuse. While many parents abuse under stress and frustration, some are too young or immature to handle the responsibilities of a child; not containing the capacity or patience to care for a young one often ends in abuse. As seen there many cases in which guardians cannot handle the tasks of parenthood, leading to acts of abuse. Whereas, there are also many cases in which parents suffer from disorders, increasing the probability of child abuse in a home.