Introduction
Determining the factors that contribute to the domestic violence and child abuse can be a start in reducing the high rates of domestic violence around the country. The factors will be examined based on the psychosocial assessment. The mother has a history of domestic abuse and this history will probably continue on with the children. She came to the agency for the financial assistance. The family stayed in the abusive partnership for around 10 years have severe effects on the two children that have problems in school and also left the consequences to the mother the victim. Since she is African American we will further presented the studies and research already made in this segment and correlation of race and domestic abuse statistics, the correlation between their culture and the rate on no reporting to the agencies and seeking help. The data about the possible correlation of low income and domestic abuse and other factor will be made. The examination of the effect of education – high school diploma of our victim and the decision to stay in the abusive relationship for so many years will be examined. The research already made in the area of employment and income in connection with the domestic abuse.
Literature Review
Theoretical perspective and current research
There are many different theories and researches made that present the correlation between domestic violence, education, income and employment. A national coalition against domestic violence (2016) statistics shows that every second in the United States a woman is beaten or assaulted and that every minute 20 people are physically abused by their closest partner. 1 in 15 children are being exposed to intimate partner violence per year. The mother is African American, just being a woman increases the chance of suffering domestic abuse.
Cultural and religious implications
Further the cultural implications on the possible domestic abuse will be examined. The National resource center on domestic violence has reported that finding a help and support services is even more difficult as for other ethnicity. The reason why the colored women suffer the most can be found in the strong familial structures with cultural identity and patriarchal elements where mothers and women are perceived to have the role of wife’s, homemaker and mothers. The religious beliefs also reinforce the woman’s victimization and the legitimatization of abuser’s behavior. The religious women also believe in forgiveness, which can lead to hidden domestic abused. By getting to know the case and my abused victim closer I could also see if the fear of isolation and alienation or loyalty to extended family or race, fear of rejection from family, friends and community played any role, since she stayed with the abuser after various cases of abuse which is seen from the medical records. The National resource center on domestic violence reports distrusts in law enforcement, skepticism and shelter intervention services also play important role in reporting the abuse among color woman. African American females are exposed to violence cause by the intimate partner at a rate 35% higher than other races. The African American is also less likely to use service, woman programs or visit the hospital. The abused woman could also fear a still present racism that is common among African American woman and the reasons why they do not seek help. There are also non-arrests situation of abuser common and that is probably the reason why our mother did not seek help. There are also many stereotypes connected to the African American woman as being very strong, resilient, and no need to offer a help from others which makes them even more vulnerable (National resource center on domestic violence, 2006). The core statistics of the mother’s ethnicity are the factor that children of African American women are more exposed to the domestic violence and are therefore more vulnerable to the domestic abuse participants, watchers and the greater threat of becoming the victim of the abuser. That is for the whole domestic violence, but for the intimate physical abuse, which mother was exposed to, as reported by the National coalition against domestic violence (2016) the physical abuse is not bound to race, economic status, ethnicity or sex since it exists in all communities.
Racial implications
Already mentioning the racism can play a significant role in case of African American reporting and seeking help in case of domestic violence. The racism is shown in the lack of access to assists the victims and to help with rehabilitation and their perceiving before the criminal justice system and how the woman is perceived as a victim. The racism can portray itself and correlated to the causing further poverty among the colored people with the lack of opportunities, access to quality education for children, no safe place to live with poor housing and segregated areas. This can lead to the feeling of males emasculated and with it the probability of domestic abuse increases. African American men are still systematically oppressed and that is why many America African women are more tolerant to the violence against them (Jordan, n.d.).
Income implications
Socioeconomic status is measured as a combination of education, income and occupation. There has been many researches made that examined the correlation between socioeconomic status and violence. The results were different and the violence seemed to be correlated to low-income in some cases that examined SES and violent offenders (American Psychological Association). The wealth does not protect against domestic violence, and all classes can be affected the same. But the inequality of low income family’s might be seen in using the social services and have access to the help. Low income family usually uses the social services where the one with a better economic history, uses private help where they can stay hidden from the public.
There were, however, studies that concluded that the income and violence are connected. The study from the National crime victimization survey (2013) showed that domestic violence rater very five times greater in the low-income households as in the households with the highest annual incomes. The children who witness domestic violence are more likely to suffer from depression, nightmares, anxiety, violence and disruptions in school, which can be what happened in the case examined where mother expressed issues in the school. The study was made on more than 500 children who witness the domestic violence. The stereotypes were examined about the domestic violence being more present in low income families. The violent accident crossed economic lines. 28% of the domestic violence happened in the families with the annual incomes lower than $20.000, 30% with incomes $20.000-$50.000, 18% with incomes $50.000-$75.000 and 24% in the incomes $50.000-$75.000 (American Psychological Association, 2014). This information and data cannot be the sole indicator of connectives between the income and domestic violence because there was no information on the number of family members which can greatly affect the income with distribution among each family member. It is possible that in the last group where annual income is more between $50.000 and $75.000 are only big families which would not mean that they are wealthier solely because they have bigger incomes. The researches should also focus on this kind of issues regarding with measuring and interpreting the results and data collected. The domestic violence, therefore happens in various annual income families. The frequency of reporting on the domestic violence by the poor was higher who also more often rely on the police for dispute and resolutions. Victimization survey (Renninson, Wlechans, 2000) has indicated that low-income women are in fact more frequently victims of domestic violence in comparison with more wealthy women. Woman with family incomes of less than $7.500 are more vulnerable, since they are five times more likely to become victims of domestic violence. Center for the problem-orientated policing (n.d.) has also reported that victimization by domestic violence is most common among the poor woman and indicated a research where a woman that were receiving governmental income support were three times more likely to become a victim of physical aggression by an intimate partner.
Educational implications
Next the factor – education and it’s possible effect on the domestic abuse will be presented. Our victim has a high school diploma which means lower education that also contributed to the working decisions as a waitress. It would be good to know the level of education of his partner, but that information is not known. Next the researches that examined correlation between level of education and possible domestic violence will be presented. The human rights violations with domestic abuse are common. A study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family (Kreaher, Felson, Warner, Wenger, 2013) also analyzed the woman in the United States and the factors that contributed to decision of females to leave the abusive relationships. Education has shown to be the factors that influence the decision to leave and get divorced if valance is present. In cases where women had a college degree and was in highly violent marriage the decision to divorce was in higher percentages as among the women who were also in violent marriage but with lower education. The tendency for educated women to leave abusive partners was substantial. Education in abusive cases played an important role. They also concluded that in the United States ever more women are gaining higher education and college degrees, which will follow in the decrease of domestic violence. Many other studies were conducted around the world that showed the same results with the connection between the education and domestic abuse. The correlation where education is higher the domestic violence is lower and if the education is higher the likelihood of reporting and leaving the abusive partner is greater. One survey was reach was made in India and Bangladesh (Kramer et al., 2012) where results showed that wives with higher education than their husbands were less likely to experience less severe and severe domestic violence compared to the low educated women. The couples that had higher education had also lower rates of likelihood of experiencing domestic violence. The research showed that the severe violence was decreasing with increasing level of education. The authors did, however express the need for further examination of the factor and determinants that could also have an effect on the rate levels of domestic violence. World Health Organization (n.d.) has among the risk factors included also the lower level of education which resulted in the highest rate of sexual violence. The information that witnessing the family violence can be a factor of perpetration of domestic violence should not be dismissed which can have a severe effect the children in our case. Also the research made in Saudi Arabia (Fageeh, 2013) showed the same results where educated women were more likely to report the domestic violence and violence in comparison with lower educated women.
Discussion
Social Policy Implication
Access to support networks and services can increase the risk of further suffering domestic violence. Ever four out of five victims of domestic violence do not contact a specialized support agency and services, but most usually their family or friends. The domestic violence expenses are at more than $5.8 billion annually, but still many victims do not receive adequate treatment. The costs are sum of missing days from work, childcare, domestic work. In 2007 the victims among the female population represented 65% of the work force experiencing abuse and had 26% higher rate of absenteeism from work than non-victims. This was also true in our case, where the victim of domestic violence contacted her family and was told by her mother to stay in the relationship because of the children. There are various reasons such as costs related to seek help, unaware of available services, no culturally appropriate services for African American, fears of contributions, shame, social taboos and others (Social Impact Research, n.d.).
Clinical Application
This has a severe effect on the children that were in this case presents and saw the domestic abuse. 38% of children in the country are witnessing violence during the childhood. Among African American children compared to the other segments of the population, higher rates of victimization have been seen. The National center for victims of crime reported that black youth has three times greater possibilities to be victims of reported child abuse or neglect and further less likely to be become victims of homicide which is the leading cause of death among African American aged between 15 to 24. The support of children of our victim must be provided since the domestic abuse can have severe impacts and can even lead to death. That is why the stereotypes, discrimination and perceptions about the African Americans and their family values should be changed in order to seek help for them and most importantly for their children that can suffer great consequences.
Correlation between employment and the domestic violence will be next examined. Research conducted so far was connecting the education, income and domestic violence. The income is usually based on the level of education, where higher education can bring better paid jobs and as a consequence also better earning and incomes. Even though our victim has a job the motivation for staying with violent partner can also be the economic hardship. The woman has two school children that need to be taken care of and with the wage of waitress and living expenses for three could have contributed to the prolonged stay with the partner along with advice from her family.
The reason for not seek the services in our case is also the advice from the mother and we came back to the importance of family and their opinions.
Based on the domestic case violence and psychosocial assessment, we can see that various factors contribute to the possible higher rate of domestic abuse. All the research examined and the statistical findings above have a severe effect on the children. The children are the most vulnerable and the effects of only seeing the domestic violence and witness it can result in severe consequences on their health, development, academic achievement and behavior. The case was examining the domestic violence in the African American family that was happening for a long period of time ten years. The domestic abuse resulted in visiting the hospital and causing the physical pain and injuries. There was no reporting on hospitalization of children. The greatest importance in this case is also employment status the job the woman does, their low income and the level of education. Because of the income condition and the cultural background no help was sought in the possible supportive services. This segment of the paper focused on presenting the factor that can increase the possible rate of domestic abuse. First the culture of African Americans was examined where the research done in this area all proposed play a significant role of acting when it comes to the abuse. Their culture is made on patriarchal, where women are perceived more as a housekeeper and mothers and therefore do not have the same respect as men. They are more connected to their family, which is also the reason why our mother did not report the domestic abuse. The family member – her mother did even advise her to stay with his husband even though she knew about the abuse and that shows how much family opinion matters. The social status also plays an important role because of still present racism in the United States which results in different perception of African American woman of action done by their partners. The racism is also connected with the lack of opportunity for education and better jobs. African American tendency towards religiosity also plays an important role. The economic situation based on the examination of the literature is also one of the major contributing factors that affect the level of domestic abuse. There were, however different results with conducting the analysis, but usually low income families are more vulnerable to domestic violence. In our case the mother had a high school diploma and with the lower education the time spend with the husband can be explained. The correlation between education and abuse has been proven. With the lower education the women are more inclined to stay with the abusive partner that with higher education. Socioeconomic patterns, culture, level of education, income will all affect the future of the children living in the abused family. African American children are therefore more vulnerable to the witnessing and experiencing the domestic violence, because of the family income, parent education, employment and jobs, culture, neighborhood and lack of opportunity deriving from racism.
Work Cited
American Psychological Association. (n.d.) Violence & Socioeconomic Status. Retrieved http://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/factsheet-violence.aspx
American Psychological Association. (2014). Children See Domestic Violence that Often Goes Unreported, Research Finds. Retrieved http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/04/domestic-violence.aspx
Benson and Fox (2004) have analyzed households in the country and found out that with the increased ration of household income the likelihood of domestic violence went down. http://www.vawnet.org/applied-research-papers/print-document.php?doc_id=2187
Center for Problem-Orientated Policing. (n.d.). Factors Contributing to Domestic Violence. Retrieved http://www.popcenter.org/problems/domestic_violence/2
Fageeh, M. K. Wafa. (2013). Factors Associated With Domestic Violence. Retrieved http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/2/e004242.full
Jordan, Marie, Lynda. (n.d.). Domestic Violence in the African American Community. Retrieved http://pluralism.org/affiliates/sered/Jordan.pdf
Kramer, Alexander, Pollman, Throsten, Khan, H. Mobarak, Zoch, Beate, Rapp, Daniel. (2012). Association Between Gap in Spousal Education and Domestic Violence in India and Bangladesh. Retrieved http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471- 2458-12-467
Kreaher, A. Derek, Felson, B. Richard, Warner Cody, Wenger, R. Martin. (2013). Woman’s Education, Martial Violence, and Divorce: A Social Exchange Perspective. Journal of Marriage and Family.
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. (2016). Facts about Domestic Violence and Physical Abuse. Retrieved http://ncadv.org/files/Domestic%20Violence%20and%20Physical%20Abuse%20NCAD V.pdf
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The National Center for Victims of Crime. (n.d.). Action Partnership on Interventions for Black Children Exposed to Violence and Victimization. Retrieved https://victimsofcrime.org/our-programs/other-projects/youth-initiative/interventions-for- black-children's-exposure-to-violence/black-children-exposed-to-violence
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