Sibling Abuse And Sibling Violence

“Abuse is still seriously under reported. I was told by leading British social worker that when they hold training courses for employees, they find that a third of the females and slightly less of the males come forward to talk about their childhood experiences of being abused. Over ninety percent of parents as some time hit their children – and some people hit them several times a week – so there is a great deal of emotional hurt, fear and physical pain in the world today” (Davis 251). For this reason alone it makes perfect sense why violent crime rates are so frighteningly high.

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.

Parents, pediatricians, and the public should treat sibling aggression as potential danger and not just let it go. Corinna Tucker, associate professor of family studies at the University of New Hampshire talks about how sibling aggression has went unrecognized and dismissed (“Bullying At Home”). According to psychologist, John Caffaro discusses that parents who play favorites or give their children labels like “the pretty one” and “the athlete” can increase conflict (“Bullying At Home”). Across the nation, sibling violence is by far the most common form of family violence, occurring four to five times as sibling or parental child abuse. According to some research, nearly half of all children have been punched, kicked or bitten by a sibling, and roughly fifteen percent have been attacked over and over (“Action Against Bullies”).

How does domestic violence between parents and parental figures affect the children who witness it? This is a question often asked by Sociologists and Psychologists alike. There have been studies that prove that children who witness domestic inter-parental violence experience mental health problems, issues with gender roles, substance abuse, the committing of crimes and suicide/suicide attempts later in their lives. This paper will explore all five of these 'effects' of domestic violence on children and show that there is evidence of a clear relationship in which increasing parental violence is associated with increasing outcome risks (Fergusson & Horwood, 1998, p.8).

Next comes the phase of violence, which is characterized by hitting, slapping, kicking, choking, the use of objects or weapons, verbal threats or abuse, and sexual abuse. The final phase that sets the individuals up for the cycle to continue is the honeymoon phase. The honeymoon phase is noted by calm and apologetic demeanor. The individuals tend to go through denial about the abusive behavior, come up with excuses, and make promises about future behavior. While it is important to know how professionals define dating violence, it is also pivotal that those in the helping professions also have an understanding of how the teens themselves view the violence that occurs in their relationships. According to one study teens define abuse according to the context, intent, and actual harm caused (O’Keefe, 2005). In another study teens actually reported that in situations where revenge, retaliation, or prevention of face loss was the reason for the abusive behavior, the violence was justified (Sears, Byers, Whelan, & Saint-Pierre, 2006, p 1197). In the same study individuals reported that they also took into consideration whether the act was a result of their partner “just kidding” or a demonstration of their caring for their partner. Not only do definitions of interpersonal violence vary across the board, but they also vary significantly between males and females. Males and females have very different views as to what the purpose of

There are millions of examples of children who not only witness intimate partner violence (IPV) but also has been victimized. ( Christoff, Murrell & Henning, 2007) Children exposed to these kinds of violent behavior at such a young age also show signs of these behaviors, many violent, as adults. Evidence shows that witnessing violent behavior as a child correlates to patterns of abuse into adulthood as well. (Murrell et al., 2007) Over the years there has been a growing recognition that young people who witness IPV is has much of the same impact as a child victimized of abuse. This often damages their long term social and emotional well-being. Having a safe place outside of the home along with a supportive

Violence in any form can have a lasting effect on a person. Children who witness violence are permanently scarred because of what they are seeing. Children who witness family or domestic violence are affected in ways similar to children who are physically abused. Children are often unable to establish nurturing bonds with either parent and are at a greater risk for abuse and neglect if he or she lives in a violent home. Statistics show that an estimated 3.3 million children are exposed to violence against their mothers or female caretakers by family members in their home each year (Ackerman & Pickering, 1989). When a spouse, woman or male is abused, and there are

In “High Risk Behaviors Among Victims of Sibling Violence,” Deeanna M. Button and Roberta Gealt explore sibling violence. In their study, their “[…] results indicate that sibling violence is experienced by forty-two percent of respondents,” when comparing this to past studies that had sibling violence at a percentage of sixty-five this is low (136). The researchers were able to draw connections between sibling violence and “[…] substance abuse, delinquency, and aggression” (137). Their research also says that as siblings grow up they exchange violence with verbal confrontations (138). Also, their study shows a connection between anti-social behavior, and sibling violence

The most accurate method to measure the incidence of family violence would be by using the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS). This method is more reliable than others because it measures three variables: "use of rational discussion and agreement, use of verbal and nonverbal expressions of hostility, and use of physical force or violence." (Wallace, 2011). This study was surveyed from the 50 states and it measured from parent to child, child to parent, wife to husband, husband to wife, and any other sibling interactions. By measuring these particular relationships, it can collect any information pertaining to child abuse, wife abuse, husband abuse, or any other sibling abuse within the

As in other forms of sexual abuse, sibling sexual abuse does not necessarily involve sexual touching. The abuser may force two or more other children to engage in sexual activity with one another. The abuser may force siblings to watch sexual activity or a pornographic video; and the abuser may abuse siblings by repeatedly watching them dress, shower or use the toilet when they don’t want to be watched. (Marcia burke, 2005)

Domestic violence effects everybody in a family. Patterns of abuse from one parent to another, between both parents or directed toward a child all have a composite effect of inflicting potentially severe emotional damage upon the child. The research outlined here identifies domestic violence as a serious sociological problem and consequently provides a usable definition of domestic violence for the present study. This is followed by a discussion on the various psychological consequences of exposure to domestic violence for a developing child. This includes acknowledgement of the manner in which this exposure may damage the ability to formulate healthy social relationships later in life as well as a greater proclivity toward behavior problems, learning difficulties, substance abuse and a learned pattern of violent tendencies.

There is a preconceived notion that all families are a “great big happy family”, unfortunately this is entirely false for a hand full of families; not all families are filled with love and joy, a few possess a very dark side (Sev’er, 2014, pp. 273). This dark side is the violence that occurs within the family, whether it be child abuse or domestic violence. Domestic violence is defined as violent or aggressive behaviour within the home, typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse or partner (Oxford Dictionary). Although there are instances where women are violent, Kimmel and Holler (2011) state “most family violence is perpetrated by males - husbands beating wives, fathers hitting children, sons hitting their parent, boys hitting

Unfortunately, seven years have now passed and Aaron now has a domestic violence (DV) criminal case pending as well as a possible child abuse case for the abuse of his son. It seems that Aaron has been having a lot of problem lately with the law as well as personal. However, those problem didn’t just start because as a child he had two adjudications of delinquency and served six months in a juvenile detention center for his actions. Yet, he did not learn his lesson from his younger actions and has now been arrested four times for aggravated assault as well as domestic battery that led to one conviction. Furthermore, he has been arrested two times for driving under the influence (DUI), and one of his DUI cases is slated for trial in three months. Therefore, he may be facing another conviction as well as some time in jail and fines once again for the DUI.

A: MHS will sit down and discuss with member and one of his siblings what triggers member to act out towards siblings in a violent way.

The theory that best connects with the issue of family violence is systems theory. This theory entails that the “family as a system is thought to be best understood through the recognition that family members (as the parts of the system) interact with one another in such a manner that, over time, these interactions become patterned behavior” (Sutphin, McDonough, Schrenkel, 2013) Every family member that is within this family are characterized as subsystems. The main sub-systems are parent-parent, parent-child, and child-child. In most cases, what happens in the parent-parent relationship impacts both the parent-child relationship and the child-child relationship. A type of violence that can occur between the parent and parent relationship