The Family Violence Prevention Fund

Working with victims of domestic violence can be an extremely rewarding and fulfilling endeavor. One of the most crucial aspects for a paralegal working with victim of domestic violence is adequately engaging in the task of educating oneself to understand the commonalities of such victims and the ordeals that they have been through. Such clients are drastically different from other individuals who have suffered other physical and violent crimes. Understanding the background of someone who has lived through domestic violence is absolutely central to being able to provide adequate and sensitive legal care. Most victims of domestic violence are women (95%) though domestic violence can have an impact on ever age, class, race, ethnic, cultural or religious group (purplerainfoundation, 2012). "In the United States, nearly one in three adult women experience at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood (American Psychological Association, Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family 1996 Report)" (purplerainfoundation, 2012). These women are often terrified of their partner's temper, apologize when they are abused and often in the most extremely controlling and isolated environment where the abusive partner will control who the partner sees and where the partner goes outside of the home, jealous of outside relationships (purplerainfoundation, 2012). In these abusive relationships the women are hit,

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) impacts millions of families worldwide (Watts & Zimmerman, 2002). In fact, in the United States alone on average nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner. During one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 2010). In light of this troubling information, the clinical social worker may find him or herself called upon to serve this most vulnerable population.

Many feel if they seek help, the abuser will find them and it will only get worse. The victims need to feel safe, or else they are not going to use the programs to receive help. As both of these articles reveal, these programs are not working. On the contrary, “The Seriousness of Domestic Violence Is Exaggerated” argues that it’s not because the programs are ineffective, but that it’s due to the increase in social services available. However, due to the countless studies that were done, it has been proven that this domestic abuse is a problem. Moreover, there needs to be more effort taken into putting these programs into action. Improvements in how the programs are put into practice need to be made, since how the programs are put into practice now are not efficient

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.

Intimate partner abuse is a sensitive social topic as well as an important topic with respect to health care and community nursing (Svavarsdottir, 2010). Nurses should be well aware of the signs and symptoms of intimate partner abuse, but its detection can often be difficult. Specific assessment protocols are often useless in detecting abuse because each situation of intimate partner abuse varies (Svavarsdottir, 2010). While identifying victims of physical abuse is difficult, it must be done to implement interventions to assist these victims. Nurses and health care professionals must be prepared to identify these individuals. In addition to identification of victims of intimate partner abuse, healthcare professionals must be diligent in education, which could prevent future incidences of intimate partner abuse.

Since funding is limited, not all agencies has the resources to hire internal and external evaluators (Yuen & Terao, 2002, Chapter 8). Therefore, funding institutes may provide the necessary resources. As stated earlier, PEACE’s mission is to reduce victim trauma, empowering the survivors, and lastly providing direct services. The biggest part of the program is to reduce the number of sexual assaults, as well as of any domestic violence. The program through PEACE intends to achieve this by informing the community in the city of Portland about domestic violence victims and survivors. As far as the program, those in charge are focused on societal norms. PEACE looks to address the problems that are faced by the youth, spouses, and violence acted upon children in Portland. The PEACE Domestic Violence Agency will always keep the well-being of the victims as the first priority: young men, women, and children whose lives have been affected by domestic violence. This will be possible as long as funding is available. Funding is necessary when trying to raise awareness through educational program such as providing young people who are or have been involved with the criminal justice system with a rehabilitation program designed to obtain the skills, confidence, and personal support networks to enable them to lead fulfilled and successful lives. This is what is needed in order to reduce re-occurring domestic violence crimes. Through a rehabilitation

Despite the fact the physical effects of domestic violence could be the similar as for other forms of violent crime, the emotional effects can be much worse. Domestic violence happens when a crime is committed against a victim by someone with whom the victim is or has previously found, in a close relationship or somebody living in the same household as the victim. Domestic violence regulations differ from state to state. These variances range from conceptualization to the requirements under required reporting laws. Because of all these differences, the entire process of avoidance a domestic violence situation rest on each state. The Violence against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) has been designed to increase victim services and detention and trial of batterers. Stakeholders are persons who have an absolute interest in it, any of individuals who begin and perform it, or individuals whom it distresses directly or secondarily. Detecting and concerning stakeholders can be a huge portion of guaranteeing the efforts accomplishment. To obtain stakeholder contribution and support, it’s vital to understand who probable stakeholders are, but their interest in the effort. Since most women and men’s obtain their health care in primary care settings, health care professionals can play a critical role in decreasing the progress of domestic violence through screening and intervention in a regular bases.

“Domestic violence is a type of abuse by one or both partners in marriage, friends, family, dating or cohabitation” (Aziz & Mahmoud, 2010). There are many forms of abuse from verbal and emotional to physical that often escalates over time in intensity for the victim. Data from the criminal justice system, hospital patient medical records and mental health records, police reports, surveys and social services reports of thousands of women revealed that many are injured and killed as a result of violence from someone close to them. “The US Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) defines domestic violence as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner regardless of race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender” (Robertson & Murachver, 2009). Researchers and the criminal justice system have not been able to agree on a clear definition to domestic violence which can range from physical injury, stalking, verbal abuse and humiliation, denial of shelter and access to money, and intimidation through aggressive behaviors. The definition of domestic violence may vary but the results from physical injury, mental and emotional trauma, and sometimes even death can last a life time.

When a victim first decides to seek help through a domestic violence shelter they may start by reaching out through a crisis hotline service or by meeting with an advocate. Each employee and volunteer is required to go through a training to help them learn to assist with a crisis situation. A crisis hotline is available at all times for any one that feels they need someone to talk to about an abusive situation (Bennett, Riger, Schewe, Howard, & Wasco, 2004). A meeting with an advocate is beneficial when a victim wants to sit down and have a serious talk about their options for leaving their abuser and what may happen afterwards. The advocate will go with the victim to legal and medical appointments as a support system. (Bennett et al, 2004). Bennett et al (2004) reported that after following a group of women who were using an advocate services for a 10 week period, 24 percent of those women were no longer being abused by the original abuser or by another partner. This is a big step compared to the 10 percent of women who were longer being abused without any help from an

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) or domestic violence (DV) reportedly affects more than 5 million Americans each year (Goodley & Fowler, 2006). IPV is the most common cause of nonfatal injury to women it the United States (U.S.). It is an ongoing issue that was first widely recognized as a major societal concern in the 1970’s (Nicholls &Hamel 2015). It is a significant problem with critical consequences for an individuals overall health and well-being. IPV not only has acute effects but lifelong implications as well. It is not limited to one group but crosses all barriers, it has an effect on both genders, people of all ages, all races, all cultures, all educational levels and all socio-economical backgrounds. Although, IPV affects both genders, this paper will focus primarily on women. It will seek to examine the repercussions of IPV on the victim’s health as well as children exposed to IPV. This topic is important to discuss in order to reduce the occurrence of IPV and to be able to better support victims of IPV. It is not a problem that can be solved overnight or with one specific intervention, but must be addressed through a collaborative effort from individuals within a community.

Domestic Violence is a problem sweeping the nation. This problem can affect anyone from anywhere but is generally acting out upon children and adult women in abusive relationships. Domestic violence is emotionally and physically scarring for anyone involved, and as a result could take multiple intervention meetings to begin to understand the issue, alleviate the associated problems, and to assist the victim in getting back on his or her feet. The consequences of abuse include anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and self-harm. Children may begin to act differently to their usual behavior - withdrawal is very common, as is self-harming (Khan, 2012). There are two ways that people can consider interventions for victims of

In our world today, women have been suffering at the hands of domestic abuse for years. Domestic abuse or Spousal abuse has been mistreating women not just physically but also mentally. Most women in an abusive relationship do not report it. One cause can be because of their feelings, even though the spouse may be mistreating them, they still could be in love with them. Because that person wasn’t always abusive, some believe that the person they love is still there and do not wish to trouble them. Also, sometimes leaving the relationship can be harder than it seems. Women may have influenced the abuse by trying to end the toxic relationship. The abuse may have even turned towards domestic violence. Even though it may seem like the simple choice

Violence and domestic violence are very popular issues of social concern of our times. Experts define a few types of domestic abuse, namely psychological, physical, emotional, verbal, sexual, and others, and they all are considered very harmful to families, especially to the youngest members. Abusers who commit domestic violence do so to control their victim, and maintain that control by threatening the victim’s safety and/or that of people they love. To protect themselves from abuse, victims can identify that they are in an abusive relationship work to free themselves from the abusive relationship.

Domestic violence is a very important discussion subject, because it touches all levels of society, and it is widely spreading across a multitude of social groups. This social issue at present appears in different levels of society, and cannot be ignored by social institutions and people. The issue of domestic violence cannot be avoided because of the unfortunately high rate of abusive behavior, and more and more people being affected by abuse every day. People and social institutions cannot close their eyes to these problems, and need to help victims of abuse to be rehabilitated from these harmful experiences.

“Every year in the United States there are over 3 million incidents of domestic violence. That means that every nine seconds a women is beaten by her domestic partner” (Findeley). There are many women that stay silent when being abuse by their partners. The consequences of staying quiet when obtaining abuse can be dangerous and can also lead to death. Many women do not recognize the importance of the fact that there is in speaking out if they are being abuse by their partner. No woman should take domestic abuse by their partners. Every woman deserves a healthy relationship; A healthy relationship involves trust, respect, and consideration for the other person. Domestic abuse has gotten worse during the past years and is still rising up. One can see that domestic abuse can occur everywhere. Domestic abuse is considered a crime and woman should not keep silent when being abuse.