The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WSCADV, n.d.) provides training for advocates of domestic violence (DV) survivors and their families. This paper reflects my experiences as I worked through the first three sections of training: the history of the DV movement; the key requirements of DV advocacy; and safety planning. The primary thread throughout the training sections is the importance of providing advocacy based on survivor-empowerment and meeting clients where they are. In this paper, I also explore my role as a mental health counselor in an interdisciplinary response team working with survivors of domestic violence.
History of the DV Movement
The first section of the WSCADV (n.d.) training discussed the background and history of the DV movement. This section began with an audio interview (Bell & Coontz, n.d.) with Stephanie Coontz, a professor of history at Evergreen State College. Coontz discussed the effect that women entering the workforce over the past century has had on the stability of marriages and families. In the fifties, the middle-class family in the United States was structured around women’s economic dependence on men. Women’s entrance into the workforce destabilized marriage for a time, but in the 1980’s, increasing divorce rates leveled off and began to decrease, and women in the workforce became (and continue to be) a marriage stabilizer. This finding, however, does not necessarily apply to low-income couples who experience more
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,
Feminism has not changed today, but its focus has changed. Many women today have good education and employment opportunities just like men, as the early feminist fought for them. Now, after getting all these, men are now discriminating them and at times abusing them in order to undermine their hard work and potentiality. Men are doing all they can to undermine the success women have been able to acquired, however, today’s feminism is struggling to protect women and girls from domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape as well as discrimination.
Domestic abuse in the United States is a large-scale and complex social and health problem. The home is the most violent setting in America today (Lay, 1994). Sadly enough, the majority of people who are murdered are not likely killed by a stranger during a hold-up or similar crime but are killed by someone they know. Not surprisingly, the Center for Disease Control and prevention has identified interpersonal violence as a major public health problem (Velson-Friedrich, 1994). Current estimates suggest that three to four million women are the victims of physical abuse by their intimate partners (Harris & Cook, 1994). According to the FBI, some form of domestic violence occurs in half of the homes in the United States at least once a
Domestic violence, alternatively referred to as Intimate Partner Violence, is defined by the Department of Justice 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.” While domestic violence is commonly thought of as only physical or sexual abuse, domestic violence can also be emotional, economic, or psychological. Domestic violence has remained constant in society throughout history, even though over time society’s response to the issue has changed. While domestic violence affects everyone regardless of race, gender, age, etc. it is estimated that approximately 90% of all victims are women. For the purpose of this paper, I will be focusing on
"Abusive Relationships Information | SAFE@UNC." SAFE@UNC. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2012. Web. 19 Dec. 2012
The team of individuals who will lead this work include Baonam Giang, NMAFC’s Victim Services Coordinator; AnhDao Bui, Social Services Director; Kay Bounkeua, Interim Director, and Sarah Lau, Fiscal Manager. Mr. Giang was the sole creator of NMAFC’s men group and helps to coordinate all victims’ services at the agency, in addition to running a tae kwon do class for Asian youth. Mr. Giang has two years of formal training and experience on addressing gender violence. Before Mr. Giang, there has never been a Pan-Asian men’s group in Bernalillo County working to address gender violence within local Asian communities. As domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of violence are still extremely taboo topics for Asian communities, the formation alone of this group with regular attendees
Domestic violence has become a major issue in The United State of America and is commonly associated with the mistreatment of women. There are distinctive types of domestic violence in American’s homes that affect men, women and mainly the children. This is abuse that happens in different structures, including physical, passionate and mental. There are various instances of domestic violence in the home every year with individuals being abusive toward their significant other, accomplice or their relatives. While there are distinctive associations, coalitions and help lines accessible to get abused victims the support they require, why are there people not trying to benefit from their support services? There are individuals who don 't have to deal with being in an abuse relationship and keep on doing so in any case. The main reason people always asking domestic violence victims which is mainly women is why do you stay? In three main points we will look at the reason why women stayed in and abuse relationship, from the author Susan Glaspell in her short story “A Jury of Her Peers”, then look at the “Domestic Violence against Women: Statistical of Crimes across India”, and a short “Farm Life 1990” and lastly look a someone the women twitter pages and what they tweeted of their reason for staying.
Domestic Violence is a critical issue negatively impacting women in the world today. There has to be something done to prevent this type of abuse from happening. The results of my research revealed that there are many victims that do not know the type of help that is available and there needs to be major improvement in the way domestic violence cases are handled. Based on my findings, awareness and prevention programs should be implemented in every state in order prevent this type of abuse from happening over and over. Also, each program must be monitored to ensure they are following the proper guidelines in order to better serve the victims and their families.
When it comes to describing domestic violence all that comes to mind is a woman or man being physically abused or being mistreated and humiliated by another person. You may think that since domestic violence is a serious concern the criminal justice system has taken actions to stop or prevent it. In reality the system is failing these women and some are getting seriously hurt or even killed. Domestic violence was not that popular before the Tracy Thurman case. Ever since the case was shown to the public domestic violence awareness increased. It captured the attention of the public through the media.
For domestic violence, medical providers can be as much of a first responder as law enforcement or emergency medical services. The medical provider who is going to note that the victim has been seen several times for the same injury. One of medical providers’ core functions is to investigate the well-being of the patients. If a patient presents with multiple concussions in a year without a good explanation of the circumstances that caused the concussion, this would raise the red-flags for the provider. Additionally, with new governmental regulations providing incentives for providers to transition care to another provider, the whole medical record for a patient can now be in the hands of the provider. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016) At Santa Clara County Health and Hospital System, the primary care provider will receive documentation of all their patients who are admitted or seen in the emergency room. Information sharing about patients will only increase with time. If a patient is seen on one side of the country in the emergency room for a concussion, their primary care provider on the west coast can receive a report of this concussion. The awareness can be a matter of life or death for a patient.
In beginning my revision process, I started by staring at my submitted essay over and over. First thought, I should have changed the title to something along the lines of, “Domestic Violence, is there Treatment?” Second thought, Wow!! What a difference I am from the person who first began this course. I took a look back over my previous submitted writing assignments and could see my writing abilities has drastically improved, As I reviewed and reflected on the submitted essay “Domestic Violence and Treatment”, I believe, I did a complete and thorough job in delivering my subject. As I previously stated, I credit you, Mr. Perkins and this course for my improvements. I have always struggled to put my thoughts on paper in a manner that is coherent. I now feel that my ability to write and express my ideas, thoughts and knowledge have grown stronger.
There are many different types of domestic violence. Physical abuse is the most obvious form, but this is not to say that outsiders always recognize it. Generally, physical violence causes bodily harm, using a variety of methods. Slapping, pushing, throwing, hitting, punching, and strangling are only a few methods. An object or weapon may or may not be used. There is not always physical evidence of physical abuse such as bruising, bleeding, scratches, bumps, etc., therefore, absence of physical marks does not necessarily mean physical abuse had not occurred. Physical abuse sometimes escalates to murder (Morris and Biehl 7, Haley 14-17).
Our existence can be illustrated by envisioning a painter who is fabricating a painting. As the painter begins to use the soft brush, its thistles with each movement construct systems and subsystems that are elaborately woven together to display biased perception of ourselves. Consequently, a misguided stroke may alter an exceptional piece of art turning it into a catastrophe. Regrettably, this metaphor unveils the misfortune that can occur in the lives of numerous individuals. Comparatively, like the painter who can be consumed by adversity, a victim of domestic violence with one misstep can eradicate his/her own life.
“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.
If one were to look in to the trend of working women in America, it would be flabbergasting to see how far they have come since the 19th century. Working women have become a dominant force in the workplace. According to recent analysts, women now control 50 percent of the paid workforce (Pollitt). It is no surprise then that divorce rates have been steadily increasing directly proportional to the divorce rate. There is a clear relationship between the success of women in America and their ability to live independently. Due to this newfound independence, many women no longer feel trapped in marriages that they are not happy in or that they are being either physically or verbally abused. With nearly “80 percent [of women] contributing a major chunk of family income” (Pollitt), it is clear that women have now set the benchmark in equality. They are no longer