Domestic violence Essay Example for Free

Domestic violence Essay Domestic violence is a term that can be easily defined as violence within the house between the partners. To have a domestic violence case, it does not need to be physical it can be emotional. According to the domestic violence organization (2009), domestic violence is defined as â€Å"Domestic violence and emotional abuse are behaviors used by one person in a relationship to control the other. Partners may be married or not married; heterosexual, gay, or lesbian; living together, separated or dating. † Which mean domestic violence can take place in any household it is not just a particular people that it happens to? It also does not matter the race or ethnic background. Domestic violence is not only words or something that one says to one another or physical contact, according to Mass organization (2013) domestic violence is â€Å"Domestic violence is defined as a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviors and tactics used by one person over another to gain power and control. This may include verbal abuse, financial abuse, emotional, sexual, and physical abuse. Domestic violence occurs in heterosexual, as well as same-sex partnerships, and crosses all ethnic, racial and socio-economic lines. † Although the studies of domestic violence are somewhat different, they give the same examples as to what is considered violence between domestic partners. For example; name-calling or putdowns, keeping a partner from contacting their family or friends, withholding money, stopping a partner from getting or keeping a job, actual or threatened physical harm, sexual assault, stalking, intimidation. Furthermore one may not even notice that there was violence until there is a threat or physical harm due to the fact that so many individuals are not educated about what abuse truly is and the proper steps to take in order to prevent abuse or prevent themselves from getting abuse. Many individuals attempts to fix their relationship by going to a counselor, which is a good step however it maybe something that they witness growing up therefore a counselor can only do so much for them. There are many different effects that could happen in the life of a child who is raised in an abusive home. For example, if the child being raised in the abusive home is a male, he is more likely to become an abuser for he may believe that it is okay to speak to anyone that way precisely women, on the other hand he maybe the type to defend his mother because he may have a different mindset and believes that his mother shouldn’t be treated that way and become really sensitive to other women because of the way his mother was treated. The other ways that this could impact the child is if that child is a woman, she may become paranoid of the opposite sex for she may believe that, the way her father as talking to her mother is the way that every man will be talking to her. On the other hand, she may become submissive if her mother was always submissive to her father through the abuse that she was receiving. Nevertheless she may also develop a low self-esteem believing that she was is worth much less than she does. According to the crisis center, some of the symptom that one may notice or hear from a child who is raised in an abusive home is: they may feel a complete self-powerlessness because they are unable to do anything to the frightening noises, threats that they see or hear. They may also experience a terrifying â€Å"storm of angry energy† around them during abuse. They may experience emotional abandonment, develop low self-esteem as mentioned before, behavioral problems, problems with anger, feels isolated, take on adult roles prematurely, experience depression and flashbacks. When all of these issues combine, we have a child who is not fully sociable and has many different issues that may prevent him from having a relationship or conversation to anyone whether it is a friend or a family member because they may believe that the person whom they are talking with may also abuse them. Often times they would be sensitive to certain impact. For example, if a person starts a conversation and it starts to get loud it may escalate to something much bigger than what it could be. In the United States, one may believe that abuse occurs more than other countries because in certain countries, abuse is not legal or some women will certainly not put with the issues. Often time it may result in fights or serious issues where one of the individuals has to live the house where they used to live. The different types of abuse that takes place affect a child differently. A great example that shows how a child might be affected badly by domestic violence is one of my close friends Ashley, while growing up Ashley would see both parents fighting and the fighting would be so bad to the point where her mom would not be able to sleep in the house after the situation occurred because the dad would threating her mom that if she sleep in the house he would kill her. Because of seeing this so often Ashley developed anger towards her father and the love that she once had for her father was long gone. Now Ashley is much older and she would tell he how the relationship that she is currently in would be affected because of the way she grow up seeing her parents fighting. In her current relationship, if her boyfriend would talk to her the wrong way or if he would treat her in a way that she did not like she would develop anger that she would hit him and then they would start fighting. Even though she knew that this was not right she did not feel any remorse because to her that was the only way to release her anger and also she had become accustom to seeing her father do that to her mom so to her it is not all that bad. This example shows how a child that is around domestic violence may display violence against their partner when they are of age. Each culture has its own view on the correct way to raise a child. Some culture believes that a child should not be able to work or have any responsibility, while there are other culture that believe that a child should have responsibility because that will be the best way for the child to grow up and not be dependable on no one and would be able to care for themselves when they become of age. No matter what culture, ethnicity or race one might be everyone is able to be a victim of domestic violence. In some culture for example Jamaica domestic violence is not accepted but it is not looked upon as a very bad thing where as the United States perception on domestic violence as a horrendous topic. While growing up in Jamaica I saw a lot of couple fighting, but often times the male partner is the abuser. While this is going on there are people in that area trying to stop him but was unsuccessful in doing so. Even though domestic violence is not looked upon as ok, it is not a crime that is so horrendous that the police will be involved. The only way the police would intervene is if a death occurred and then an arrest would be made. While in the United States if a domestic violence is taking place then the police would be notified. Depending on the severe ness of the case an arrest would be made. If the couple is only arguing or they became physical but no physical injury is noticed the police would ask one of the individual to leave the premises and cool off. This period is known as the cooling off period and often times does not always work and if the violence happens again then one of the individual involved or even both will be arrested. This is just two of many cultures that have different views on domestic violence. The United States is a diverse country, and even here most people based the life on their culture. In some culture a man is allowed to have more than one wife and the amount of money he has would determine the amount of wife he was allowed to have. In this culture the male is also looked on as the dominant one in the household and because of this he is able to do as he please with any of his wife without getting into any trouble. No matter what culture you are domestic violence is something that should not be tolerated no matter how much money one has or even their statue in life. Due to the fact that a lot of people are not aware of domestic violence and the signs to look out for when abuse is about to take place they don’t protect themselves and allow the abuse to take place. No matter what culture you are the main reason for domestic violence is power and control. According to life wire, different types of control in an abusive relationship are: Threatening to report their partner or threatening to withdraw a petition to legalize their partners immigration status or threatening to seek sole custody of any children if their partner reports the abuse or attempts to leave. In many cases children of different cultures that were victim of domestic violence grow up and abuse drugs and alcohol. To them they feel that all they saw growing up were their parents fighting or their dad abusing their mom or even the other way around, so why try and make something of them in the future if they will only become just like their parents. Children like this need close supervision and also need to be shown love on a daily basis so they won’t think about suicide or committing crime in the future. Some sociological consequences are, â€Å"the immediate emotional effects of abuse and neglect, isolation, fear, and an inability to trust can translate into lifelong consequences, including low self-esteem, depression, and relationship difficulties. † There are other children that see their family member fight often and tell themselves that they will not be the same as their parents or family member. Children like these often are very dedicated to anything that they set their mind to and often accomplished their goal and become every successful in the future. They are also likely to treat their children with the utmost respect and show a lot of love for them because they do not want them to go through the same thing they went through. In concluding children are affected by domestic violence just as badly as the parents and often times even worse than their parents. Child abuse main role is power and control; because they are children they are looked upon as helpless and defenseless and are more prone to become a victim of child abuse. No matter what culture you are domestic violence is still considered as wrong and should not be tolerated. Knowing the signs of domestic violence will help prevent it from happening and also will help you protect yourself if it occurring and also make u aware of the steps that you can take to get justice for yourself. Nevertheless, one must always take into consideration that some child turns out to be sensitive towards others after witnessing abuse in the family and other turns out to be abusers. In addition male children are affected differently than female children.