Family violence includes aggressive and hostile actions against members of the family, as a result of which the object of violence may be caused by damage, trauma, humiliation and sometimes death. “Violence against women is a serious human rights abuse and public health
issue” (Garcia-Moreno 1260). Currently the international professional community of social workers most commonly use two classifications of types of violence that help to develop and implement specialized research and correctional programs.
The first typology is based on the nature of violence and includes such types of violence, such as physical, sexual, psychological (emotional) and economic. It is obvious that in most cases the violence is integrative in nature, in particular, any kind of violence always has its part of the psychological (emotional) violence. The second classification focuses on the characteristics of the object of violence. Such characteristics may include age (for example, violence against children or the elderly), sex (violence against women), health (violence against the disabled or infirm), kinship (family violence, incest), ethnicity, social status, profession, and others. Sometimes systematize typical circumstances of other acts of violence (for example rape during a date).
The role of the family in social life is determined by what it characterized, on the one hand, the social institution features, and on the other as a small social group. As a social institution, the family is characterized by a set of social norms, sanctions, and patterns of behavior governing the relationships between spouses, parents, children and other relatives. As the primary small group it is based on marriage or kinship, whose members are linked by common life, mutual moral responsibility and mutual assistance. Violent actions of family members in relation to each other took place in all societies and at all times, but they are not always seen as a social problem.
An important feature of domestic violence is cyclical character of the violence. Relationship in a family with domestic violence, develop a circle passing through the same stage. Since violence is repeated and performed more often over time. Violence becomes predictable patterns of behavior. Phase "Tension" is characterized by the appearance of strain in relations, innuendo, accusations, premonitions that may soon occur violence (Johnson, Ferraro 948). The duration of this stage varies from days / weeks to a year. Phase "Violence" committing violence in any form. This is the shortest phase, this usually occurs after the offender sobering and denial of the seriousness of the incident, that is, comes the next phase called "Honeymoon". This time may seem like a happy ending abuser may promise never to commit violence, to show remorse and ask for forgiveness.
Domestic violence is considered to be the end product of the impact of a number of factors. In individual cases, a history of domestic violence may be in the family of parents (which happens about 50% of cases of abuse to his wife), as well as belonging to a family or a culture in which the dominant role of the male means and the use of violence in the family conflicts. The actual behavior of the parents has a huge impact on a child. “A wide range of children's developmental outcomes are compromised by exposure to domestic violence, including social, emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and general health functioning” (Wolfe 171). Additional factors include stress due to lack of gainful employment, poverty (most men are among the groups with low socioeconomic status), problems at work and frustration, as well as due to the effect of alcohol (Kitzmann 339). Bouts of violence may occur in connection with the releasing the influence of alcohol at the embittered husband or as a result of the impact of the preceding factors, such trifling or imaginary neglect or jealousy. The need to complete the task by the deadline or permanent implementation of routine, endless work could also lead to disruption of peace of mind.
In general, attempts to reduce the level of domestic violence are reduced to the following options (Babcock et al. 1030):
- Asylum for battered wife. Such asylum emerged as a voluntary initiative and is now widely used.
- Provision of psychological counseling and work with groups of men who beat their wives. This feature is widely offered, but few agree on her husband, and the high percentage of loss of the consultation cycle, so there is little known about the effectiveness of this approach.
- The support of the other victims of violence, whether in a shelter or in a counseling group. Particular attention should be paid to the children that they need to help bring their individual experience in the overall context and break the cycle of transmission pattern of domestic violence from generation to generation. It should also deal with emotional disorders of children and their feelings in relation to domestic violence (anxiety, distress, guilt). The men in the family more likely to experience psychological violence. Researchers distinguish such the victims of domestic violence:
o parents towards their children;
o one spouse towards the other;
o children and grandchildren in relation to elderly relatives.
We can conclude that domestic violence is defined as any intentional action of one family member against another, if this action violates the constitutional rights and freedoms of a family member, or contains a threat of harm to the physical or personal development of the minor family member. Domestic violence has a high degree of latency. This is due, on the one hand, the reluctance of victims to apply to law enforcement authorities (because they do not trust). Also it implies less abilities of family members to apply to law enforcement authorities.
Works Cited
Babcock, Julia C., Charles E. Green, and Chet Robie. "Does batterers' treatment work? A meta-analytic review of domestic violence treatment." Clinical psychology review 23.8 (2004): 1023-1053. Print.
Garcia-Moreno, Claudia, et al. "Prevalence of intimate partner violence: findings from the WHO multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence." The Lancet 368.9543 (2006): 1260-1269. Print.
Johnson, Michael P., and Kathleen J. Ferraro. "Research on domestic violence in the 1990s: Making distinctions." Journal of Marriage and Family 62.4 (2000): 948-963. Print.
Kitzmann, Katherine M., et al. "Child witnesses to domestic violence: a meta-analytic review." Journal of consulting and clinical psychology 71.2 (2003): 339. Print.
Wolfe, David A., et al. "The effects of children's exposure to domestic violence: A meta-analysis and critique." Clinical child and family psychology review 6.3 (2003): 171-187. Print.
