Domestic Violence 1

Domestic Violence

Lei Huang (Una)

ELP 810

Julie Kidder

20/09/2010

Domestic Violence
 Domestic Violence 2

People study the cause of domestic violence and research the impacts of domestic violence in order to

find a way to solve domestic violence. Domestic violence is a commonest social problem. It’s also a

particular crime. Domestic violence shows the unequal rights between man and women or adults and

children. Many people may experience domestic violence. Many families are destroyed by domestic

violence. Domestic violence becomes more and more serious because people do not want to talk about. At

present, people who are abused usually hide it and they felt too shy to tell others what happen in their

families. May be they felt guilt to have a bad husband or a bad parents. They fearful of anther serious hurt.

They are afraid of that others will look down upon them. They admire their families so harmonious.

Domestic violence has many forms, such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological and emotional

abuse. But the people who are suffered domestic violence have more courage and strength than any other

normal people to adapt to life. People will solve this social problem after understand what’s the correct

meaning of domestic violence. Domestic violence separates into three parts, the causes of domestic violence,

the impacts of domestic violence and how to rebuilding lives after domestic violence.

Causes of Domestic Violence

Nowadays, person has discovered many direction causes of domestic violence through the social. Social-

structural and alcohol abuse were the two main reasons of domestic violence.

Social-structural

Social-structural contents many aspects, such as traditional attitudes, cycle of violence and so on. Hague

and Malos, in their book, Domestic Violence Action for Change, explained that in the past people accepted

that men can punish their wives and kid without bear any legal liability. In 1994, 19% of men said that they

had disciplined their wives or children with no reason or an unacceptable reason. The traditional opinion is

that men suspect their wives are not loyalist. The tradition accepted that men have right to control their

partners. In nowadays, some women always have no choice to select their husbands by themselves. A

portion of people will become abuser if they have violence families. The violence form is learned by
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children whose parents are abusers. Violence can be passed on this way (2005). A stable social-structural is

very important foundation to stopping domestic violence. Domestic violence is happened on account of

discordant social-structural.

Alcohol Abuse

Domestic violence is happened by an obvious reason of alcohol abuse. The adults are out of control after

drinking. According to Jerry, in his article, Alcohol Abuse Causes Domestic Violence (as cited in Roleff,

2000, p.54). Said that the children who have alcohol abuse family have the same abnormal behaviors as that

whose are suffered by domestic violence. Although not all alcohol family become domestic violence family,

and not all the domestic violence family only cause of the alcohol abuse family (2000). Some violence

happened in a family because the adults drink alcohol and then their minds are loss of control. They abuse

their parents but they always forget that in tomorrow, because they drinking too much yesterday. Alcohol

abuse is the anther reason of domestic violence.

The two main reasons of domestic violence are social-structural and alcohol abuse. An unstable social-

structural have a result for domestic violence. Alcohol abuse is a reason why children or women are suffered

domestic violence.

The Impacts of Domestic Violence

There are a lot of impacts from domestic violence. For example, murder, divorce, or social unrest, the all

social phenomenon are produced by domestic violence. Some impacts of domestic violence are very

common, but some are not. The main impacts are on children and women.

The Impact on Children

Children have badly hurt in an abused relationship. Children are treated with cruelty by adults that who

have great stress from work or life. Hague and Malos said that at the beginning of 1990s, people noticed the

harm for the children of domestic violence and then they pay attention to the children’s requirement for help

and concern. Actually, the right of children is not effective when domestic violence happens. People do not
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care about children’s feelings and thinking, and they may abuse children or discriminate against them.

(2005). There are the reason that why children are always injured in domestic violence. When a child grows

up in a violent family, he can’t grow up healthy.

Abused children who grow up in a domestic violence family are different from other children. They are

looked not very natural by their appearance. Hague and Malos reported that an unhealthy child had showed

how domestic violence affects children as they grow up. Children's physical health becomes weak because

of psychological factors. Children have a variety of negative emotions such as anxiety, lying, not believing

anyone, not good at expression, used to abuse, do no like to talk with any other people, do not like crowded

places. They also show some negative emotions such as grief, weakness, timid, fear and helplessness.

Mothers whose families have domestic violence find their children have no friends in school, and when the

children come back home they also never talk to their parents (2005). The impacts on children have most

severely affected from domestic violence. It requires a lot of time to solve this problem. Some rescue

operation try to help children who are ignored by adults or lack ability to protect themselves.

The Impacts on Women

If women are in an abused relationship, they have a miserable life. The abused women even considered

that they have no hope to live ahead. Hague and Malos stated that when women experience domestic

violence, they become so self-contemptuous. The women are in a puzzled about that why they do everything

badly. They hope that they can do everything better or even perfectly. They are considered as a very bad

wives or bad mothers by themselves. The domestic violence not only hurts the body of the women but also

bring about a long-time physical injured. The abused women lose everything in their lives. They do not have

a job to feed up with themselves. Their life is very boring without any friends. The seriously, women were

attacked by many mental illness. They can’t eat, can’t sleep well and they feel hopeless in their world. But if

the abused women out of the abuse relationship, they have amazing ability to rebuilding their life even they

have no job, no friend, no money, and no help (2005). Women need to show remarkable courage when they
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come up against difficulties. But women almost become weakness after they are suffered domestic violence.

In general, because women and children have low social position and they don’t have capacity to protect

themselves; women and children become two main groups who are suffered by domestic violence.

Rebuilding Lives after Domestic Violence

All the victims need to rehabilitate their life after domestic violence. Community supports help for

children and women to building their friendship and managing a new life. Children need help to have a

better life and women need help to building a better life.

For Children

Children who are suffered from domestic violence have a result in homelessness. They can’t show their

feelings and they always feel sad and disappointed. They have lost a lot of things more than other children,

loss of friends, family, even parents. Abrahams, in his book, Rebuilding Lives after Domestic Violence,

stated children should to go to the school like a normal. Children go to new school replace for the existing

school, made new friends in new school instead of staying at home. When children grow up, there are new

members born, the relationship of the family are changed. The changing family has great impacts on

children. Children express different behavior when some stranger play with them in the school or in the

house, angry is replaced by confident. Children had changed their feeling after leaving the abusive

relationship (2007). All the new things or strangers will help children to go out of the abusive relationship.

For Women

Women must be able to become economical independent. Learning the ability to work is very important

for the women. Abrahams claimed that the first step is a new future, meaning find a new job, organize a

new family, moving to a new place and make new friends, even they have no idea what will happened in

the new future. The community support help for women to have more choice to find the job, such as house

keeper or babysitter. Organize most of abused women to work in the same place. Women can help each

other when they work together (2007). The important one is that women must be rebuilding their new self-
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worth to make an independent and new life. Women should try hard to strive for their own rights.

The ways to rebuilding new lives are different between children and women. The children and women

are the main groups of the victims. Society should afford more legal aid and protection for the abused.

People must pay more attention to the children and women’s development of their future live after

domestic violence.

The causes of domestic violence are Social-structural and alcohol abuse, children and women which are

the main victims have to rebuild their new life after domestic violence. Domestic violence brings a lot of bad

society impacts on children and women. But domestic violence always exists up till the present moment.

People need to find some ways to rebuild new lives after domestic violence. Many physical and

psychological injured from women and children are caused by the domestic violence. Actually, people

should not afraid of the violence, everybody who was suffered the domestic violence must be brave to fight

resolutely against the violence. When the abused people become more powerful, the abusers will become

more weakness. Abused people have the right to ask for social services and help. Society need set up a more

satisfying social systems and a better community aid for all abused people to help them rebuilding their

lives. If everyone devote the more love and more care to the victims of violence, it will make the world

better and beautiful.

References

Abrahams, H. (2007). Rebuilding lives after domestic violence. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Hague, G. & Malos, E. (2005). Domestic violence action for change. UK: New Clarion

Roleff, T. L. (Ed.). (2000). Domestic violence. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press.