Domestic Violence Victims: Ways to Help, Save Someone

Domestic violence is a very controversial topic that affects almost every American in some way, shape or form. Domestic violence victims have not always been treated as most would like to see. Coming from that are many different foundations, that are supporting the victims by creating support systems, shelters, hotlines, and many more implementations have been put in place to make domestic violence victims lives easier after the incident has taken place. Domestic violence has also been called Intimate partner violence (IPV). Research of this topic has been growing for many years, which brings me to cover this topic, making me more familiar with it and maybe even enter a field that would allow me to continue to help these victims out.

Effects of Domestic Violence on Children

Domestic violence victims make up most crime victims in America. Here is a little background information regarding what domestic violence actually is. “Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) comprise physical, psychological and emotional, financial, or sexual abuse, or controlling or coercive behaviors, against a current/former intimate partner or adult family member (Home Office, [29]).” (Trevillion 2016). The biggest misconception within the topic of domestic violence is that people believe the violence takes place two significant others and completely forget about the fact that it can also occur between family members within the household. “1 in 4 (25%) children are exposed to family violence during their lifetime (Hamby et al. 2011), with the vast majority (90%) of these children directly witnessing the violence between their caregivers.” (Herschell 2016). It is not good for these children to be exposed to these sorts of behaviors because it will directly affect their lives. “In fact, a recent review of 122 studies published between 2005 and 2011 (Lourenco et al. 2013) found that children who witness domestic violence exhibit internalizing symptoms (e.g., depressive symptoms, insecurity, and posttraumatic stress; 75.8%), externalizing and adjustment symptoms (e.g., behavior problems, aggression; 32.6%), and poor school performance (e.g., declining academics, bullying; 20%) at higher rates than their peers.” (Herschell 2016). Those rates are alarming high, especially in a case where these sorts of things could be avoided if the caregivers did not partake in domestic violence in front of these children. The rates mentioned are closely related to the statistical numbers and with the help of more support shelters or programs for these children to go to, the rates could significantly decrease by getting them out of these types of households. Being a teenager is already hard enough as it is especially as school, relationships, and clubs/sports start piling up, adding this sort of stress to the child’s life will hinder their ability to perform to their highest standards. “Further, when a child’s parent is also impacted by a stressful event, such as domestic violence, the relationship between the caregiver and child may be impacted (Osofsky 2004).” (Herschell 2016). This means that not only does the relationship of the partners who partake in the domestic violence get hurt, but the relationship between the partners will be hurt too. This is not something you want in a household, because as things go on, it will continue to break and make everybody in the household have weaker relationships and leading to weaker mental health to everybody involved.

A child’s best support system usually comes from within the household, so when these bonds and relationships our broken, they will not have the same support system to motivate them to do the things needed to succeed in life. There are also domestic violence cases between the parent and the child where the child is killed by their parent. “While the child is typically not the primary target of the perpetrator’s aggression in these domestic homicide cases, children are often killed in a deliberate attempt to make their (former) partner suffer (Holden et al., 1996; Lawrence, 2004).” (Jaffe 2014). In these cases, the child usually did not deserve what happened to them and the reasoning for the homicide is usually the fault of one of the parents. The other parent will then seek revenge by taking their anger out on the child or by committing the homicide in order to get back at the other parent. This is very sad to hear especially since the child typically had no part as to why the homicide took place.

Women in the United States are the most victimized group in domestic violence cases. “In the United States, approximately 1 in 3 women (35.6%) experience domestic violence (e.g., rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner) in their lifetime (Black et al. 2011).” (Herschell 2016). This is just slightly higher than the 25% of children who are affected by domestic violence. With that being said, these cases are the ones that are most thought of when the topic of domestic violence is brought up. Domestic violence happens all over the world. “Data from 2013-2014 shows that one woman dies each week as a result of DV (domestic Violence) and VAW (violence against women) (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018: ix).” (Fletcher 2018). This is another crazy statistic when looking at the case of domestic violence, especially knowing that on average there is a female killed each week in a violence case. In these sorts of cases, the victims do not even get a chance to be rehabilitated back to normal because their significant other or family member took their life. This is only in Australia too, so in just one country, about 52 women die each year in a domestic violence case or other violent case against women. Some of these crimes could’ve been prevented with more rights or shelters for the victims to vacate to and help them avoid the situation.

Domestic violence can be found just about anywhere you look, even on college campuses. There is a growing awareness of these sorts of cases that take place on college campuses and the numbers are shocking. A study conducted by Turgut Ozal University, School of Nursing in Ankara, Turkey that included 451 college students, 77.8% of those students were female. An article based on this study tells us that, “A significant number of the students (23.9%) indicated that they were subject to domestic violence. Most of the students thought that domestic violence was widespread in the society (94.0%) and agreed that a partner cannot have a justified reason to apply domestic violence against women (91.6%) and that domestic violence against women should be shared by others (90.4%).” (Aktaş 2016). The rate of students who were subject to domestic violence is right around 25% which is alarmingly high to see that almost 1 of every 4 college students were subject to becoming a victim of some sort of domestic violence based on this study. College institutions are taking steps to reduce these rates but there is no way to completely end all domestic violence. “Under the Clery Act, an institution is required to disclose crime incidents in three geographic categories: on campus, on public property within or adjacent to the campus, or in non-campus buildings or property owned or operated by the school.” (Campus safety 2014).

This is one step that could lead to the decrease of these types of cases happening on college campuses, which would lead to less victims of domestic violence. Domestic violence is becoming a big deal to women who are incarcerated in jails or prisons. “It's worth noting that the vast majority of women in prison are single mothers who have been victims of domestic and/or sexual violence.” (Cox 2017) This is a sad statistic to hear about, especially because when these women are locked in these cells with many other women around them, they would not be able to escape if somebody from within the jail would lead to domestic violence against them. The voice would likely not be heard or would be pushed to side and done nothing about. There needs to be more done for women who have been victims of domestic violence that are now in incarceration, or it happened while they were in incarceration. Victims of domestic violence have always been overlooked and not given much help when it comes to rehabilitation or restitution, and this is even worst when it comes to those who are incarcerated for whatever reason.

Domestic Violence Shelters

All over the world, shelters are being put in place to help aid with the treatment and rehabilitation of victims who are affected by domestic violence. These victims are in search of leaving their household to avoid becoming a victim once again, which makes these shelters even more important than most people even realize. An article from healthyplace.com tells us, “Battered women shelters are a refuge where women can feel safe and know that their batterer can't hurt them there. Domestic violence shelters are used in cases of emergency and are typically open 24-hours a day. There are 1500 emergency battered women shelters in the U.S.” (Tracy 2016). With these shelters being open 24-hours every day, it allows the victims to come anytime they need to escape from the situation that is taking place, or even if they just need somebody to talk to about the situation. These shelters are there for immediately help but are not to be considered a long-term fix to the problem. The shelter will be able to provide many tips and tricks to help ease the situations when they arise and how to deal with it, but most of the time will not be able to completely fix the problem. Services that are provided while staying at these shelters include, Housing and meals, Information and referrals; educational programs, Aa crisis line, Support groups and counseling, Housing assistance, Employment assistance, Taking care of personal and medical needs, Childcare, Assistance with restraining orders and other legal matters, Accompaniment to healthcare and legal appointments, Transportation, Addiction services. (Tracy 2016). Although safety is one of the biggest reasons for victims to leave their current situation and go to one of these shelters, it may not be the only reason. They may also leave because some of these reasons, “counseling, social support, healthcare, addiction and recovery services, immigration help, housing, and services for their children.” (Sullivan 2017). Going through these sorts of things would require a sense of support and help to back them up, which leads them to the shelters where they have the ability to reach the resources needed to rehabilitate the victims back to being themselves again. But overall, these domestic violence shelters have made huge steps in the treatment and rehabilitation of the victims after their cases are over, and while some cases are still taking place.

To wrap this who thing up, domestic violence can be considered one of the biggest forms of serious crime that is committed all over the world. It also can come in many different forms such as, spouse on spouse, parent on child, child on parent, etc., making it unique in their own ways. When children are present while the violence is taking place or they are the victim in the case, they are affected in these categories, “internalizing symptoms (e.g., depressive symptoms, insecurity, and posttraumatic stress; 75.8%), externalizing and adjustment symptoms (e.g., behavior problems, aggression; 32.6%), and poor school performance (e.g., declining academics, bullying; 20%) at higher rates than their peers.” (Herschell 2016). Also, these cases are not only happening at home, they also are reportedly taking place on college campuses and within jail/prison cells. The trouble for the victims when the violence is taking place within jail cells, the guards are less likely to believe them, which would make it virtually impossible for the victim to escape the offender. These sorts of statistics and information are what lead me to researching the topic of how victims are treated, to help me better understand what these victims go through in their lives. There are over 1500 domestic violence shelters, with most of them being open 24-hours a day to the public for anybody who would need to seek assistance. (Tracy 2017).