SS1008 Social Work In Society Is An Essay That Explores The Role Of Social Work.

Domestic violence and abuse are any occurrences which involves coercive, controlling, behavior, threatening between persons aged 16 and over who are in an intimate relationship or family members irrespective of sexuality or gender. Intimate spouse violence is abuse by a partner or a spouse in a close or intimate relationship contrary to the other partner. Domestic abuse may take place in same-sex and heterosexual intimate relationships and may include abuse against children in that family (Devries, Mak, Garcia-Moreno, Petzold, Child, Falder, Lim, Bacchus, Engell, Rosenfeld, and Pallitto, 2013).

According to the case study of Rachel and John who were in a relationship, several characteristics of an abusive relationship can be drawn from the case study. It is important to identify signs of a relationship which is abusive earlier, but it has never been too late for a victim to get help. It may difficult for an individual to recognize whether his or her partner is abusive or not. For example, in the case study, it is well stated that at the beginning of the relationship, the couple had a beautiful life where John was considerate, affectionate, boosted the self-esteem of Rachel and it was fun to be around him. The beginning of the case study shows that an individual may not suspect or know whether his or her partner is abusive or not until they stay together for a while. Violence cannot reveal the nature of all the interactions that an individual has, but it does not make the concerns to be less severe when violence occurs. Psychological violence may be much hard for an individual to identify than physical abuse. Psychological abuse may have a damaging and lasting consequence on the victims. Those people who experience psychological or verbal abuse are not likely to feel as if they are at risk; nonetheless, many violent relationships quickly worsen to greater levels of brutality. Due to this reason, it is good for people in a relationship know how to identify the feature of an abusive relationship at an early stage (Salter, 2013).

Many violent relationships tend to follow a mutual cycle or pattern according to psychologist Lenore Walker in the year 1979. The complete pattern may occur in one day or may take some weeks or months. The cycle is different for each relationship and not all intimate relationships follow the pattern. The pattern has three phases.

Tension building phase: tension forms over domestic issues which are common such as children, money or jobs. Oral abuse starts. The person attempts to control the condition by giving in, pleasing the abuser or avoiding the abuse but none of these can end the violence. With time, the tension attains its boiling point leading to physical abuse (Domestic Violence Roundtable, 2017).

Acute battering episode: physical violence is mostly generated by the incidence of an outside event or the emotional condition of the abuser but not by the behavior of the victim. Evidently, the victim has no control of abuse at this point. Some experts tend to believe that the victims may provoke the abuse unconsciously so that they release the pressure and move to honeymoon phase (Domestic Violence Roundtable, 2017).

The honeymoon phase: the abuser is first ashamed due to his behavior. He articulates regret, he tries to control and minimize the abuse, and he might end up blaming the partner about it. He may exhibit kind and loving behavior which is followed by generosity, apologies, and helpfulness. He even swears that he will never repeat the abuse again. The actions might convince the victim not to leave the relationship, and the bond between the two partners grows stronger than before (Domestic Violence Roundtable, 2017).  In the case study, John was always apologizing to Rachel whenever he did something wrong which made Rachel stick with him for a long time.

The pattern proceeds over and over, and it explains the reason why most people stay in abusive relationships.  

Insisting that one should look in a certain way is a feature of violence. When people are in a relationship or marriage, they should be comfortable with the way her partner looks and should not ask her to change her looks. He should feel comfort with her because he met her looking the way she looks. Quoting from the case study, John used to tell Rachel “that skirt is too short, what are you doing with that, you’ve not got the figure for it.” Telling Rachel that she was wearing short skirts shows that John was insisting Rachel to wear long skirts which she was not doing before. “What are you doing with that,” shows that John was also shouting at his partner. Shouting at a person in a relationship is a sign of violence which may also involve giving them negative, mean, and hurtful titles (Toscano, 2014).

One of the partners may withhold approval or affection as a form of punishment. When a partner withholds affection such as love, small treats that he or she used to do before, it is may a sign of violence. When people are in a relationship, everything should flow as it used to be when the two met unless there is a problem which both people should clarify to each other. If one partner finds that the explanation is vague, she or he has a right to suspect something (Cattaneo, and Goodman, 2015). Withholding of affection may be a form of punishment where a partner wants to prove a point. In the case study, John started warning Rachel from taking money which was in the cashpoint without informing him, and this could prove enough to Rachel that her partner had changed. When Rachel wanted to buy something example shampoo, she was supposed to inquire from him first then proceed to purchase it, and John could pick, check and confirm whether she purchased the cheap one. The same case was happening with clothes. Earlier, John used to ask Rachel to accompany him as they were going to shop and she would pick what she wanted. Telling her to ask for permission shows that he was withholding affection.

Another characteristic of an abusive relationship is that one of the partners prevents the other one from seeing her family and friends or having any contact with them (Nicholls, and Hamel, 2015). If a person in a relationship sees such a sign, he or she should be warned and take precaution because such a person may be abusive. In the case study, John was not only jealous and possessive, but he also turned against the friends and relatives of Rachel and prevented her from seeing them. John was very possessive and kept accusing Rachel that she had an affair therefore restricted has from seeing her friends.

Another characteristic of an abusive relationship is that one of the partners may ignore the feelings and the other and even insult her ideas, beliefs or values. One partner may always be ignoring what the other one feels and does not have time to talk about it with her and other times pretending that he is late to go to work, or any other place so that he may not pay attention to her. Additionally, one may also insult the ideas of the other one, abusing what her cultural values and pretending not to know her beliefs. When one partner sees such characteristics, she should be careful and observe her partner because it can result in violence in the relationship (Nicholls, and Hamel, 2015). 

Domestic violence has a negative impact on the victims, and some are long-term effects. There is physical evidence that shows an individual is a victim of domestic violence such as bruises which may appear on the face where an individual looks as if they came from punching, choking, or defending someone (Cattaneo, and Goodman, 2015). When bruises are on the face, it is easy for anyone to guess or suspect that the person is a victim of domestic violence. Also, having black eyes is physical evidence which results from violence where for example, the person mostly a woman is hit by her husband leading to a clot of blood in the eyes and much cries which result to black eyes. Having purple or red marks on the neck is another physical evidence for domestic violence. Some people usually involve in biting the victim on the neck and leaving red marks on her neck. Some victims may also have broken or sprained wrist which results from domestic violence. Some partners try to break the hand of the other one when fighting which may lead to breaking the wrists (Cattaneo, and Goodman, 2015).

Domestic violence can result in miscarriage. A woman can miscarry because of psychological effects of domestic violence such as stress or depression, also, physical torture which includes, beating the victim (Cattaneo, and Goodman, 2015). In the case study, in the case of Rachel, she was suffering psychologically since her husband was violent which led to three miscarriages. Rachel was always blaming herself, and she felt that she was the one who was in the wrong whenever her husband apologized to her. As such, she was taking the blame and kept telling herself that she was the wrong one and hoped that she could change her husband. Since domestic violence leads to psychological effects, when a woman is pregnant, her husband should treat her in the best way possible during that crucial time because stress and other psychological effects may lead to miscarriage.

Domestic violence may lead to isolation. Most of the time the victim tends to isolate herself from others and opts to stay alone because she feels embarrassed to be with other people. Most of the time isolation comes when the person feels that no one can understand her problem and when there is physical evidence that she has been involved in domestic violence such as bruises on the face, black eyes. In the case study, Rachel had isolated herself, and she felt embarrassed to a point she could not tell anyone what was going on in her relationship and always thought that it was her fault the way her partner was treating her. Isolation is as a result of feeling that nobody can understand what the person is going through. As such, the victim remains alone at home and fears to speak out and share with someone what is happening is her relationship (Hayes, 2013)

Looking at the long-term effects of domestic violence, women are mostly the victims of domestic violence; however, domestic abuse may affect and have a negative impact on their lives. A battered woman may lose her job because of failing to go to work on a daily basis due to illness which results from violence. At first, the manager can be lenient to the employee who is the battered woman until it reaches a time where the manager cannot keep up with her any longer. When this case goes to extremes, the woman may lose her job and forced to stay at home without earning income to take care of herself and her family. Many battered women end up losing their jobs because they are always absent at work most of the time until the boss gets mad with their excuses and cannot tolerate them any longer (Band-Winterstein, 2015).

The unfortunate actuality is that when a woman is abused by her spouse in a marriage, the children in the family are also impacted negatively in both subtle and overt ways. In the case study, John threatened to hurt his children physically, and it is at this point that Rachel decided that she could not keep up with the relationship. Clearly, what happens is that children are affected by domestic violence especially if they are young children who cannot even defend their mother. However, they end up feeling guilt, or they feel that they are the cause of the conflict. It is clear that children are the ones who are affected most because they can be neglected when their mother tries to deal with the trauma. When divorce happens, both the mother and the children suffer the most.

Domestic violence has a psychological effect on the children. Children from abusive families tend to feel confusion, fear, stress, shame or sometimes blame themselves for what is happening in their family (Child Welfare Institution Gateway, 2013). Most children from such families grow up learning that it is right to hurt others or it is okay when other individuals hurt them. Children who observe their mother beaten usually develop emotional problems. They tend to emulate the same behavior as their parents especially boys have the tendency of following the steps of their father if the father is violent. Boys who observe and they are present when they father beat their mother are ten times likely to be violent in their relationships in future. Most people are violent because their parents were also abusive in their intimate relations, therefore, they imitate the same thing (Hornor, 2005).

Resources and Support Networks That May Be Available For Those Living In Situations of Domestic Abuse

Since abuse against women is both a cause and a consequence of gender inequality, first prevention programs which tackle the issue of gender inequality should be employed in this scenario because they are all significant. Public health employees have a role in building awareness by disseminating and creating materials and original audio-visual messages that usually project a good and positive image of a woman in the society.

The organization is a Non-Government Organization which serves all women, and it helps in providing community development/education, research, and advocate for women. The organization promotes the growth of society-centred, research on violence against children and women. Its role is to simplify the cooperation of people, institutions, and groups on behalf of the diversity of the society to follow research inquiries and teachings prospects to prevent and understand abuse. It aids national, local, and international societies by producing suitable tools and information to help in everyday work against abuse toward children and women (Canadian Women’s Health Network, 2012).

Duluth is a small community which is in northern Minnesota which began in early 1980’s, and it has been a reformer of techniques to hold abusers, therefore, keeping the victims safe. The centre always evolves and think how the community can work together to fight domestic abuse. Over many months, the centre assembled focus women in groups who had faced violence. They listened to heart-wrenching narration from battered women, survival, and terror. After they had listened to those stories and they asked several questions, they documented those behaviours that were common or tactics which were used against women who came claiming they faced violence. The tactics selected for the wheel were those which were greatest commonly experienced by victims who were female (Duluth, 2017).

Zero Tolerance is a charity centre which works to tackle all causes of men’s abuse against women. Very many women in the world face violence which they experience from men. Violence is from those men who they are close to or are in authority over them. The centre is decided to bring change in gender inequality which is the outcome of violence. The centre tries to stop gender inequality (Zero Tolerance, 2017).

In conclusion, most women are the victims of domestic violence, and as stated earlier, it is hard to know a violent partner at the beginning of the relationship. Several characteristics may show a violent person, and individuals in an intimate relationship should not ignore the traits. Those in abusive marriages should take caution and look for support networks which can rescue them from violence.

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