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What is domestic violence ?

definition

Where does this happen ?

Comparison between UK and Asian community lifestyle

Why does this occur ?

Ego, emotional problems, culture, lack of self control

How domestic violence takes place ?

Through sexual abuse, emotional and physical abuse, controlling to not to act in independent, discouraging from acting out the desire

Comparison between UK and Asian domestic violence.

What is the culture in UK

What is the culture in Asia

What is the impact on children and young people ?

emotional and education. (in general)

CHILDREN

Emotional

In UK (cases)

In Asia (cases)

Education

In UK (cases)

In Asia (cases)

YOUNG PEOPLE

Emotional

In UK (cases)

In Asia (cases)

Education

In UK (cases)

In Asia (cases)

How is it dealt ?

In UK n Asia

What are the ways that it could be dealt ?

In a conclusion.

Introduction to domestic violence

Domestic violence is not a new issue in the culture of UK or Asia. It has been there for many years where the issue was whether it has been acknowledged or not. The word domestic appear to be violence in the context of of those who lived together, whereas violence from male partners often continues after women leaves. [1] The word violence should obviously indicate the physical abuse to anyone. However in domestic violence the victims go through a different form of abuse from their partners which not all are violent. [2] To see the context of domestic violence it includes direct violent and indirectly abusive behaviours such as physical, sexual, emotional and verbal abuse.

Though domestic violence does not have a clear definition of which gender does the abuse, it could be clearly seen in most cases and articles of scholars that the male are dominant in this issue. It could be catogarized that the perpetrators tend to be men and their victims usually women. [3] Domestic violence is violence or abuse from one adult to another that takes place within the context of a close relationship as intidimate partner or family members. [4] As it does include the family members as in like in-laws abusing besides the partner

Children and young people gets the impact by going through the abuse at home as in a few occasions like the domestic violence perpetrator directly as in physically or sexually abuse the child, witnessing violence to their mother may have an abusive and detrimental impact on the child and also there are circumstances where the perpetrator may abuse the child as part of their violence against the women. [5]

The main idea of this paper is to bring out the impacts that has been made to children and young people by the domestic violence where a brief comparison being made with UK and Asia. There are effects of them going through. It has also being discussed what are the solutions that has been made in both continents and what can be further done to reduce the impact that there unfortunates are going through. The issue dealt with are both emotional and education. The outcome of the domestic violence on these children. [6]

Domestic violence can be described normally done on the partners yet the children subsequently being affected as in due to either being victimized directly or witnessing the domestic violence. Though it has been divided into two categories in the way which had affects the young people and children, the impact given does not differ much in nature of differentiation.

The impact being brought up in this dissertation is upon references on children and domestic violence have proved particularly beneficial for this thesis because they have conducted interviews with children as well as mothers [7] regarding the affects of domestic violence [8] upon them, an element of which many studies are flawed because of their reliance on mothers as the sole source of information. [9]

Thanks to the resistance and knowledge given by the women’s movement, studies and research [10] 1112131415have began to recognise that those who have witnessed domestic violence in their homes, compared to those who have not, will more likely face detrimental challenges to their psychological and emotional well being, influencing their life patterns and behaviours.

Effect on Behaviours: Internalization and social learning theory

According to research, the effects of inter-partner violence witnessed by the child or young person can cause significant internalized behaviours, whereby the emotional and psychological effects of the violence have caused common problems including anxiety, [16] social withdrawal [17] and depression [18] for children and young people.

It is of our own ignorance that some people choose to presume that a child is ‘just’ being

quiet rather than experiencing significant stress and emotional problems (Calder 2004:57). It is this ignorance that increases the child’s felt isolation alongside their psychological and emotional disturbances. It is arguable that the lack of mature coping strategies a child has,

alongside the failure of others to recognise when a child needs help, is what puts them at

greater risk of experiencing such traumatic and indeed clinical behaviours. For example, Davis and Carlson (1987) [19] found in their study regarding children of ‘battered’ women that 68% of preschool children and 53% of school age children in their sample had depression that was of a clinical concern. [20]

The internalised behaviours of depression, anxiety and social withdrawal are interestingly typical of what the abused mother (victim) often goes through (WHO 2000; Hester et al 2007; McCue 2008). According to the Home Office, 75% of domestic violence cases result in mental health consequences to women (Home Office, 2001). These behaviours are not surprising in relation the physical and emotional harm that domestic violence may cause. The victim may be fearful of when the man may next strike causing anxiety. Depression may come from thoughts and feelings that they can’t get themselves and their children out of the abusive home. Furthermore, the stress, anxiety and depression caused by their situation may lead them to avoid social environments, withdrawing themselves from anything which may lead them to be noticed, questioned, embarrassed or shamed.

One may question however, how do these behaviours in the child occur? When analysing the environment the child is subjected to, the reasons for why they may have symptoms of depression, anxiety and social withdrawal become apparent:

Anxiety

Constant reminders around their home may keep them anxious and fearful of when the violence may next occur; there may be broken furniture, blood stained carpets/walls as well as other reminders around the home, even cuts and bruises physically apparent on their parent, signifying the child’s lack of control (McGee 2000:62,66).

Withdrawal

The child is silent and withdrawn. They will have learnt that silence and not being outspoken is the best way to behave if they don’t want to get beaten or they do not want to see or hear their mothers beaten (Appendix 1). This can be taught verbally and/or visually through associative learning means (Lieberman 2000:41-55). For example if they witness their father repeatedly violating their mother there are two responses; the mother stays quiet and does not respond-the consequence maybe that the father does not continue to be violent, the atmosphere may calm. The second response may consist of a volatile reaction from the mother, screams, shouts and/or crying-the consequence is that their father will continue to violate. Therefore the child learns and associates that being loud, outspoken and overtly emotional will increase the violence, so the child may become quiet and withdrawn with the hope that the violence will reduce.

Depression

The depression may stem from their insignificance, their silence, their feeling of powerlessness and the feelings of guilt for not protecting their mother. Feelings of powerlessness and guilt may increase the child’s emotional and psychological trauma, particularly if there are no significant internal or external supports. [21]

We can apply these behaviours to social learning theory, which is based on the principle that behaviours observed as a young person will become learned and modelled as if the behaviour they have observed is the norm. [22] For example if the normal social behaviours of an abused mother in the home involve depression, anxiety, quietness, such behaviours are likely to be modelled by the child, because of their attachment (psychological, emotional and biological) but also because they haven’t had the opportunity to learn any other behaviours. Social learning can also be applied by observing an actual activity and seeing what it achieves which is sometimes referred to as associative learning. [23] For example, children and young people who internalise their behaviours may do so because they have learnt from their parents relationship that when the mother is quiet and withdrawn the abuse is less likely to occur.

A case study which demonstrates this kind of ‘social learning’ behaviour has been highlighted by a case brought forward to the Domestic Violence Integrated Response Project (DVIRP), a support network based in the East Midlands (UK) which offers supports including the ‘Break-Thru’ programme for children aged 7-16 years who have witnessed and or experienced domestic violence. An 8 year old boy was referred to the ‘Break-Thru’ programme for therapeutic sessions after he had witnessed domestic violence. He saw his father hit his mother on a weekly basis. If he attempted to intervene his father would hit him too. Due to this the boy ‘learned’ to stay upstairs where he would hear the abuse instead. This learning process is one which demonstrates the influence in staying quiet, withdrawing from difficult situations, as arguably this boy learnt that these internalized behaviours were the best way to act in order to reduce trouble.

But what about those children who model and socially learn from the perpetrator’s behaviour? There has been significant research carried out surrounding the ‘cycle of violence’ thesis and the social learning theory of aggressive behaviour [24] (Walker 1979; Straus 1990; Grusec 1992; Bandura 1997) because there is concern that children may learn from their parent, who is the perpetrator, that using such modes of behaviour is the only means of achieving what they want (Calder 2004:23).

3.4 Effects on behaviour: Externalization and social learning theory

A significant impact on children and young people who have witnessed domestic violence considers how the child’s experience influences their externalized behaviours. [25] highlight how all but one study examining impacts of domestic violence found that children who were exposed to domestic violence on a regular basis externalised significant behavioural problems, most commonly: aggressive, hostile, disruptive and anti- social behaviours compared to children from non-violent homes, similar to that of the perpetrator (in this case the father). However one must consider that the significance of such externalised behavioural problems demonstrated in these cases will vary according to support mechanisms in place during and post domestic violence and other situational circumstances at the time of the study. For example some children and mothers were placed in refuges at the time of the studies [26] where a sudden change of home, school, friendships and adjustment to refuge living were most probable and likely to affect their behaviours differently to those who still live with the perpetrator.

Historically scientists have questioned the motivation behind aggressive behaviour. Albert Bandura (1997) [27] , in particular, proposed a social learning theory that focuses on externalised aggressive behaviour and how it can be implanted by roots of observational learning. This theory considers that when children witness adults committing violent acts this will influence children to imitate or model this violent behaviour too (Myers 2008:352-353). Similar outcomes of observational learning have been found in other studies and research surrounding the effects of domestic violence upon behaviour.

The case study regarding the 8year old boy brought forward by DVIRP, as discussed previously, highlighted that the boy displayed externalised behaviours including anger for which he had no outlet; this resulted in him copying his father’s behaviour and being aggressive by hitting his mum and breaking household possessions (Appendix 1). This case, along with other such cases which are demonstrated through research by the likes of McGee (2000) [28] and Abrahams (1994) [29] , highlight that children’s role models (parents) do heavily influence behaviours; if the child had not witnessed his father’s violent behaviour he may not have externalised aggression, he may have been able to diffuse his anger through alternative methods.

Not only do such ‘learnt’ externalised behaviours affect familial relationships, it has been suggested that children living in homes with heightened hostility are likely to resolve their own interpersonal difficulties, for example with peers, by imitating and utilizing the modes of aggression and hostility they have picked up from the home (Straus 1990) [30] , thus potentially leading them into ‘drug and alcohol abuse, running away and juvenile delinquency’. [31] Delinquency was shown in its extreme form by the media attention that surrounded the Sheffield Crown Court case on the Edlington attack where grievous bodily harm with intent was committed by two brothers aged 10 and 11. The barrister on the case implied that the two boys may have learnt such extreme violence and criminal behaviour

from their parents. The barrister highlighted that the two boys had been subject to a ‘toxic’ home life as they witnessed extreme domestic violence in the home; for example they saw their father threaten to ‘slice their mothers face to bits with a knife’ (BBC News 21/1/2010). [32]

On the contrary one must recognise that this case is an extreme form of externalization behaviour that has influenced a criminogenic life path, but there is no clear evidence to suggest the criminal acts carried out by the two boys were the sole consequences of learnt behaviour and such behaviours are not representative of all children who have been affected by witnessing domestic violence. However those who do exhibit hostile behaviours, whether it be on a low scale level or an extreme level are likely to affect important stages of their life, including the school learning process and involvement in peer socialisation; arguably two key aspects of developing ‘the self’ during childhood. [33]

Alongside the effects of externalised behaviours as a young person, researchers have also paid close attention to the impact of domestic violence on children and young people as they make transitions into adulthood. Many studies have found evidence for the intergenerational ‘cycle of violence’ theory which argues that adults who externalize violent and abusive behaviour have most likely witnessed violent and abusive behaviour as children [34] 35

Impact on witnessing the domestic violence

The Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 closes a legal loophole, (whereby defendants in murder and manslaughter cases could escape conviction by claiming each other had killed the child), by creating a new offence of causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable adult. The offence establishes a new criminal responsibility for members of a household where they know that a child or vulnerable adult is at significant risk of serious harm.(NSPCC, 2010)

This Act is about the focus on criminal justice upon legal protection and assistance to victims of crime, particularly domestic violence. It expands to the provision for trials without a jury, brings in new rules for trials for causing the death of a child or vulnerable adult, permits bailiffs to use force to enter homes.(Wikipedia, 2011)

What are children’s need?

The definition of children’s needs is not easy. Katz suggested that ‘one of the most salient aspects of the field of early childhood education is the sharp divergence of views among workers and clients concerning what young children “need” as well as how and when these “needs” should be satisfied’ (Katz 1977:69). Maslow (1954) identified three types of need: primary needs (air, food, sleep); emotional needs (love, security); and social needs (acceptance by ones peers).

What Law says about children’s right?

Children’s rights focuses on the domestic laws and policies that affect child health and social welfare, education and special needs, child labour and exploitation, sale and trafficking of children, and juvenile justice. The children’s rights movement promotes legal protections and safeguards for children, distinct from those of adult.

How to safeguard a child?

The solution in order to protect children from being abuse is going on the extra mile to care about the children’s life after school hours in order to keep a relationship between the family. It is essential that to understand the families’ background because we might not able to understand them better through the children. We need people to be more caring.

What is abuse?

Abuse is an attempt to control the behaviour of another person. It is a misuse of power which uses the bond of intimacy, trust and dependency to make victim vulnerable.(novavita,nd) There are types of abuses:-

physical

sexual

neglect

psychological / emotional

Physical abuse is often the most easily recognized form of abuse. Hitting, shaking, burning, pinching, biting, choking, throwing, beating and other actions are categorized as physical abuse, it may also cause physical injury, leave marks or cause pains.

Sexual abuse is a sexual act or contact between an adult and anyone younger than 18 years old; between a significantly older child and a younger child; or if one person overpowers another, regardless of age.

Psychological or emotional can be the most difficult to identify because there are usually no outward signs of the abuse. This abuse happens when yelling and anger go too far or when parents constantly criticise, threaten, or dismiss kids or teens until their self-esteem and feelings of self-worthy is damaged. Emotional abuse can hurt and cause damage just as physical abuse do.

Neglect is difficult to identify and define. Neglect occurs when a child doesn’t have the primary needs like food, shelter, clothes, medical care or supervision. Emotional neglects happen when a parent doesn’t provide enough emotional support or deliberately and consistently pays very little or no attention to the child. This doesn’t mean that a parent doesn’t give a kid something he or she wants, like a new computer or a cell phone, but more to basic needs like food , shelter and love.

What improvements has been done between the Children’s Act 1989 and Children’s Act 2004?

After the astonishing incident of Victoria Climbie, the Act was created with a certain goals. It built in such a way that to give boundaries and help for local authorities and/or other entitles to better regulate official intervention in the interests of children. The Act also made changes to the law that pertain to children, notably on foster homes,adoption agencies, babysitting services and the handling of child-related crimes and crimes against children.

Reasons of child abuse

There are many factors that are potentially to start child abuse. Most commonly are the past events of child abusers that they experienced while they were young and as they grow up, they think that its fine to hit or beat a child, in other words which is teaching them a lesson. Another factor is that parents or child abuser cannot withstand children’s nuisance especially when parents are undergoing stress or other aspects that they are not in rationale state to cause abuse to happen.

The causes of child abuse are too much to be narrowed down to a single cause. Most of the time, there are multiple factors are in play. For example, a father is an alcoholic and some part of the family system is caught up in a cycle of abuse that spans generation of the family. Now we can say that the alcoholic may be a contributing factor to the dysfunction, but there is also the generational factor to consider.

Therefore, analysing the cause of child abuse , it’s easier to break it into sub categories which put children at risk for being abuse and neglect. These includes the social-economic causes of child abuse, family environment, parental profile and child-related characteristics. The term “causes of child abuse” is in reality about the conditions which may make child abuse more likely. There are 4 major causes of child abuse:

Social – economics

Family income level

Differing cultural value

Institutionalized manifestations of abuse

Family Environment

Domestic Violence

Single Parents

Child-rearing practices

Parental Profile

Age of the Parents

Low self-confidence

Past history of abuse

Drug and alcohol problems

Mental health problems

Low prevalence of social ties

Refusal to believe their way of parenting is wrong

The parent is mentally handicapped in a way that doesn’t enable him or her to provide proper care for their children

Having unrealistic expectations for their children and little knowledge of the developmental stages children go through.

Child-related Characteristics

Age of the child

The child has physical or mental handicaps

Child’s gender

The was unwanted and/or reminds the parent of an absent partner or spouse

Child’s personality is not a good fit with the parents’ personalities

Reduced positive interaction between a parent and child due to separation from a parent during critical development periods.

Impact of each different types of abuse

Physical child abuse effects vary from child to child depending on six factors:

severity of the physical abuse

How hard a child is struck is only one aspect of severity. The implement the child is struck with is also a factor. This does not mean that using an open hand or fist will result in fewer or lesser effects; the harm done to the child is measured both by physical injury and emotional injury

frequency of the physical abuse

A single incident of physical abuse can result in severe trauma, but generally, the more often the physical abuse occurs the greater the impact on the child.

age of the child when physical abuse began

The younger the child was at the on set of physical abuse, the greater the imprint, and thus, the greater the impact. This particularly evident when the abuse continues throughout the child’s life.

child’s relationship to the abuser

When a child has a very close relationship with his/her abuser, the feeling of betrayal are that much greater; the very person who is supposed to protect is instead hurting that child.

availability of support persons

When a child has no one to turn to, increased feelings to abandonment occur, which in turns adds to the physical child abuse effects.

child’s ability to cope

A child will find a way to cope with the abuse. The methods a child uses can add to the effects. Coping skills can be:

Physical

emotional

inward

outward

Emotional abuse effects are directly connected to the relationship between the victim and abuser. The closer the relationship, the more devastating the effects on the child or youth. As the intensity, frequency and duration of abuse increases, so does the effect on the psyche of that child or youth. The negative messages of emotional child abuse causes inner damage that either destroys or impairs the development of a positive sense of self. Emotional child abuse is by definition “constant negative messages”, but even a single message of rejection can have long-lasting negative effects on the child or youth.

Physical Effects

Speech problems

lags in physical development

failure to thrive

facial tic

eating disorders

self harm

drug abuse

attempt suicide

Behavioural Effects

low self-worth

irritability

overly reactive

sleep disorders

inability to trust others

depression

inappropriate behaviour for age

withdrawal

profound sadness

stealing

lying

prostitution

engaging in risky behaviours

Emotional Effects

inability to control emotions

questioning of religious beliefs

The effects of child neglect are not limited to the children in the neglectful families. Research is now showing that effects last well into adulthood. And not just emotionally, but physically as well.

Sexual abuse effects on children and youth can be evident in emotional, physical and behavioural ways. These effects can be just as devastating whether there was only one occurrence or there were repeated occurrences. Sexual abuse cannot be compared, because each abuse experience is unique. Children are vulnerable to sexual abuse because of their age, size and innocence. When a child or youth is molested, she/he learns that adults cannot be trusted for care and protection: well-being is disregarded, and there is a lack of support and protection. These lead to grief, depression, extreme dependency, inability to judge trustworthiness in others, mistrust, anger and hostility. And as if all that isn’t enough, children’ bodies often respond to the sexual abuse, bringing on shame and guilt.

Conclusion

Lastly, if a child is been abused mentally and physically, the possibility of the child to be affected is very high. This will not only affect the child himself but his future will be affected due to previous abuse that he has gone through. It is everyone’s responsibility to make sure all child is protected and given the right environment for their development in young age.

Social Sciences theory for social work
Abused Men in Hong Kong: A need to build a men’s refugee?
Kwok Lai Wun

Introduction

When we talk about domestic violence, it is common that we will think that the abuser is man and the abused one must be woman, but is it the only pattern in reality? Is there any chance for men abused by their partners or family? In fact, there are some news reports that the men victim in domestic violence in Hong Kong has been risen, however, there are limit service provided for them and there are no any confidential accommodation e.g. refugees, to protect their safety.

Contrast to men’s situation, in Hong Kong, there are four woman refugee (organized by Po Leung Kuk, Christian Family Service Centre and Harmony house), one family crisis support center by Caritas and one family crisis intervention center (CEASE) by Tung Wah Group of hospitals provided vacancy for abused woman and their child, only two of which provide vacancy for male victims, but none of which are for male only, the one organized by Caritas is public in address, all people can find out their details though website or SWD, so it may have the chance that abuser will come to find the victims and not safety at all. The other one (CEASE) which is a shelter that for different type of people, including abused man and woman. So, in Hong Kong there is no specific shelter or refuge design for men only to provide a confidential short-term accommodation for them and focus on men victim’s needs. If you are men who were abused by your partners or family, where can you go and what social service that Hong Kong can provide to you? In this paper, we will have a look on abused man in Hong Kong and is there any need to have a refuge for them will be discussed.

What is domestic violence?

Domestic violence is violence that takes place within an intimate relationship and family members. Mostly abuser see themselves as the superior one and they will using their power to control other family members or intimate. There are different medium to abuse others, commonly is physical abuse, besides, there are psychological, sexual, financial control, social isolation and emotional abuse. (Po Leung Kuk, Woman Refugee)

In 2010, our government had revised the law to “Domestic and Cohabitation Relationships Violence Ordinance” which provides civil remedies for victims of family violence. The law stated that

“Spouses or former spouses, heterosexual cohabitants or former heterosexual cohabitants, same-sex cohabitants or former same-sex cohabitants, and other immediate and extended family members can apply to the court for an order against molestation by the other party.”

Thus, domestic violence can be appear in both men and women and it is a criminal offence and offenders may be prosecuted.

Study of Men and Women using violence

It is common that when we discuss domestic violence, we will pop up the image a “strong” men beaten a “weak” women, however from the study by Steinmetz (1997a,b,c) found that both men and women may use physical to abuse each other’s in martial conflict, and the percentage was similar, details were below:

Study of 54 couples

Male

Female

Thrown objects

39%

31%

Pushed or shoved their partners

31%

32%

Hit their partners

20%

20%

Hit others with an object

10%

10%

Study of 52 Canadian college students

Male

Female

Thrown objects

21%

21%

Pushed or shoved their partners

17%

13%

Hit their partners

13%

13%

Hit others with an object

10%

12%

Study of 94 randomly selected people

Male

Female

Thrown objects

31%

25%

Pushed or shoved their partners

22%

18%

Hit their partners

17%

12%

Hit others with an object

12%

14%

From the three study take part in different place and people, we can see that both men and women react similar to use violence in solving their conflict in marital, especially in the part of “hit their partners and using object to hit others”, therefore woman also have potential to commit acts of violence in certain circumstances.

The study from Steinmetz mainly focused on the medium of using physical to abuse, however, as mentioned before, medium of abused not only in physical but also others types.

Current situation in Hong Kong and Others Countries
Hong Kong

The report of Harmony House state that in recent year, there are risen of abused men case, most of them aged between twenty to twenty four which is 30% of the total case and it rise almost 60% in one year (Oriental Daily, 2013). From their experience, most of their call said that their wives or girlfriend not only physical abuse them, such as kick them and using fingernail to scratches them, women also using psychological abuse towards men, such as ignore their feeling, do not talk with him, using some foul language to abuse him and lower their value at home, sometimes they may urge their husband to watch lust film and make sex to prevent him go out to find the other girls, moreover they may ask for prohibit male to go out with friends and ask him to call home every 5 minutes. Even worst, woman may use the child to threaten the man. Some of the abused men (Apple daily, 2014) (ShingPao, 2014)

In addition, social worker Wu Yi Ling from Harmony House said that in the statistic from police between 2011 to 2012, there are 500 married man were experienced in domestic violence, also, statistic from SWD in 2013 also show that there are 692 men were experienced in domestic violence which take 2% of the total domestic violence in Hong Kong, compare to 2012, it increased about 60%.

Ms Wu also guess that this is only a few of abused men in Hong Kong since most of them have many hesitation to speak out, seek help and their awareness of domestic violence are weak that they do not think they were abused by their wives or girlfriends. Moreover, from their hotline experience, some cases do not ask for help because they want to maintain the complete family for their child and do not want their child get harm. It shows that men may have some fear from their wife but they can’t find anyplace that can provide them a safety environment to let them take care their children and avoid found by their wife.

Actually in the past there is one men refuge in Hong Kong, however in 2005 it was closed. According to the news from oriental daily (2005), the only men refugee in Hong Kong cannot sustain their service since government stop renting the hostel to the organization and they need to use some container located at the farms for chicken as a temp address of the refugees, however the hygiene condition was not satisfy, so the 16 clients should be discharge and some of them may become homeless. Moreover, they criticized that government have gender stereotype in building refugee.

From the above discussion, we can see that more and more cases of men suffer in domestic violence were discovered but it is common that they don’t seek help themselves. Although there are some Men’s hotlines provides by SWD, Caritas, Po Leung Kuk and Harmony House and even some group for them but there are no short-term confidential accommodation for them to had protect and men focused counseling service which they may need.

Others Countries

Similar to Hong Kong, according to the news from the Observer (2010), About two in five of all victims of domestic violence are men, contradicting the widespread impression that it is almost always women who are left battered and bruised. The charity’s analysis of statistics on domestic violence shows the number of men attacked by wives or girlfriends is much higher than thought. Its report, Domestic violence mostly sees as a female victim or male perpetrator problem, but from the statistic by Parity show that this is not true. They also said that that men assaulted by their partners are are almost invisible to the authorities such as the police and being ignored, since there are fewer refuges to flee men than women. Moreover, it is largely overlooked by the public or media, in official reports and in government policy, for example in the provision of refuge places in England and Wales are 7,500 for females but only 60 for men. Palmatier (2013) also stated that in the United States, there is only one shelter for male victims while approximately 1,800 shelters to women and their children. In Canada, there also a domestic violence shelter for men that was run by the late Earl Silverman.

It seems that not only Hong Kong, but also others country underestimate the problems of abused men. The reason that the public does not aware the problems and the men do not recognize it may have different reason.

Reason that Men doesn’t seek help by social constructs theory

The basic assumptions of social constructionism, as described by Crawford & Popp (2004) are:

(1) Social constructionist focuses on how meaning is created. They suggest that knowledge is an “account of reality produced collaboratively by a community of knower; knowledge is not only a social product, but a product of a specifically situated society

(2) Social construct the power and hierarchy in the society, it shows the result that how one’s differ in status, entitlement, efficacy, self-respect and other traits based on the interactions one is involved in and subjected to.

(3) Social construction is a dynamic process. Social constructionists emphasize the complexity of how knowledge is created in social interactions. Knowledge and meanings are not stable or constant; they are co-constructed in interactions with others, negotiated, modified and shifted. People are active in their perception, understanding and sharing of knowledge acquired from their social milieu. It is prudent therefore to consider this process when explaining the social construction of knowledge, including knowledge concerning gender.

(4) The individual and society are indissoluble. Social constructionists believed that individuals can create meaning only in relation to what they are exposed to their environment. Paradoxically, the same individuals co-create the meanings that are available in this environment.

From the perspective of social construct theory, an individual belief and knowledge are constructed by the social, thus the gender identity is a socially constructed any may vary over time for an individual, it is not a stable, fixed trait. For example, me, I had a belief that I am a girl, and I behave like a “girl should be” to match the society mainstream value, if not I may be the one that violate the mainstream value and may not accept by the others. Therefore, our gender role are social construct female and male to femininity and masculinity.

Each society has a set of expectations, stereotypes and assumptions about what it is to be a man. These can be taken as forming a set of standards regarding what one needs to be and do in order to be a man. For the men situation in Hong Kong, since we are a traditional Chinese society, we belief in some tradition Chinese concept that “Men are breadwinners while women are housewives” “Men don’t cry easily” ” not airing one’s dirty laundry in public”, those traditional theory construct that the image of men should be strong, cannot ask for help easily and they always as the autonomy role in a family. As we can judged by what we do as a man or as a woman, so that it is common that men believed in those value and do what the gender should be, act to conform to stereotypical gender roles and it is the active engagement in any behavior that is gendered, or behavior that may be evaluated as gendered, for example, when they abused by their wives or girlfriend, they may not recognize it is a problem, even they recognize it, to avoid violate the mainstream value and being isolated, they may shame to share with others and only tolerate it.

Not only the abused men social constructed their gender role, the public also encourage them to performance in certain way and they should behave like this. For example, daily TV programs, the mainstream media report, advertisement, etc. From the news report by Observer (2010) Men’s rights campaign group Parity’s staff Mays said that

“Culturally it’s difficult for men to bring these incidents to the attention of the authorities. Men are reluctant to say that they’ve been abused by women, because it’s seen as unmanly and weak.”

Alex Neil from The housing and communities’ minister in the Scottish parliament also said that

“Both men and women can be victims and we know that men feel under immense pressure to keep up the pretense that everything is OK,” “Domestic abuse against a man is just as abhorrent as when a woman is the victim.”

There is common experience share by abused men, and it may the reason that why men have hesitation to seek help from others.

Limitation to having a men refuge

Although the abused men cases had risen and it is a need to have a men refuge for them, however there are some limitation to urge the men to seek help since they accept the social norms constructed by social and they don’t dare to break the norms so that it is hard for the organization encourage them to be initiative to seek support in the public, for example, Miss Hardie (Daily Mail Report, 2009) said

“There is still a very strong stigma attached to men who say they have been the victims of domestic violence. Most of our referrals will only have decided to come forward after being taken to hospital.”

The situation may be similar in Hong Kong, since there are limit case were found in public and the stigma to men were strong too. It may take several years to educate the public and arise their awareness on men’s victim in domestic violence.

Conclusion

To conclude, research focused on abused men is limit, it seems that it is not a controversial topic over the world, however, the cases of abused men in Hong Kong or others countries has risen in recent years, it may be a signal for us to pay attention the need of them and arise the public awareness to the problems of men victim in domestic violence. Although there are some limitation that men may not take initial to use the service of refuge immediately, but similar to women refuge, though education and promote a new value to public via media or government promotion though the value of “gender mainstreaming” in their advertisement or on policy to strive for gender equality may reduce the stigma attached to men, and therefore may have a new social constructed gender role to men. So I think whatever the usage rate of the refugee, there is a need to provide a place and focused counseling service for male victim in domestic violence.

References

Campbell, Denis (2010, Sep 5). More than 40% of domestic violence victims are male, report reveals. The Observer. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/sep/05/men-victims-domestic-violence

First refuges for battered husbands offer support to male victims (2009, Feb 16). Daily Mail Reporter. Retrieved form http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1146783/First-refuges-battered-husbands-offer-support-male-victims.html

Gender equality, Wife battered men more than 500 cases a year, estimate that is just a tip of the iceberg (2014, Feb 17). Apple Daily. Retrieved from http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/news/art/20140217/18627552

Hong Kong Ordinances. (2009). CAP 189 Domestic and cohabitation relationships violence ordinance. Retrieved from www.hklii.hk/eng/hk/legis/ord/189/

Marecek, J., Crawford, M., & Popp, D. (2004). On the Construction of Gender, Sex, and Sexualities. In A.H. Eagly, A.E. Beall, & R.J. Sternberg (Eds.), The Psychology of Gender (pp. 192-216). New York: Guilford Press.

Men refuge will close today (2005, May 5). Oriental Daily. Retrieved from http://orientaldaily.on.cc/archive/20050505/new/new_a82cnt.html

Palmatier, Tara J. (2013, Oct 1). Domestic Violence Awareness Month: The Invisible Victims. A Voice for Men.com. Retrieved from http://www.avoiceformen.com/mens-rights/activism/domestic-violence-awareness-month-the-invisible-victims/

Searchlights: Aggressive, Jealous, Out of Control, Male cannot do anything (2013, Nov 5). Oriental Daily. Retrieved from http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20131105/00176_126.html

See-Fung, Liu (2014, July 13). Men also battered by women, abused not only for female. Singpao. Retrieved from http://www.singpao.com/xw/yw/201407/t20140713_518068.html

Steinmetz, Suzanne K. (1977a). Cycle of Violence: Assertive, Aggressive and Abusive Family Interactions. New York: Praeger.

Steinmetz, Suzanne K. (1977b). The Battered Husband Syndrome. Vol. 2 (3-4), pp. 501–503. USA.

Steinmetz, Suzanne K. (1977c). The Use of Force for Resolving Family Conflict: The Training Ground for Abuse. The Family Coordinator. Vol. 26 (1), pp. 19–26. doi:10.2307/581856.

Yuen-Nam, Chan (2013, Nov 5). Searchlights: Hong Kong female abuse male partner getting younger. Oriental Daily. Retrieved from http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20131105/00176_125.html

Mrs. Chan lives with her husband and two children. The son and the daughter are aged 11 and 8 respectively. The couple has been married for 20 years. Mr. Chan runs a grocery store, and is the breadwinner of the whole family. Mrs. Chan is a housewife and responsible for taking care of the two children and housework. Both are in their mid-forties

Summary of the information gathered

Presenting problem and the aim of assessment

Mrs. Chan came to sought help because of the alienation relationship between her husband and son. Furthermore, the domestic violent also be another issue because Mr. Chan abused the client frequently.

The social worker carried out two interviews to gather specific information about the family. The aim was to realize the situation and raise an intervention plan to facilitate positive relationships of all family members.

Problem assessment

Clients’ perception of the problems

During the several contacts with Mrs. Chan, she conveyed her view on the issues which exists in their family. The client expressed that she has two major concerns. One is she felt helpless when facing the domestic violence. The other is that she worried about her son would be negative influenced by her father and be hurt during family violence.

She told the worker that she had been abused by her husband for several months starting from last year and tolerated the unfairness mistreatment for a long time. Sometimes, he even did the violent behavior in front of their children. And her husband ever threatened her with a knife. Mrs. Chan admitted that she felt feared. For her children, she decides to leave their family temporarily.

The client mentioned that the reciprocal conversation between her husband and son is seldom. Even when they stay together there is rare communication. She did not know how to improve their relationship and was anxious to seek solutions to remedy this situation. She said to worker she has ever hear her son murmuring that he has hidden some weapons and may use them to attack his father. Besides, her son’s performance in school is not as well as before. Therefore, she was solicitous about the conflict between two of them will more and more worsening which will bring about more negative effect on her son.

Worker’s perception of the problems

During the interviews with Mrs. Chan, the worker observed that the family functioning is unbalanced because of domestic violence.

Domestic violence

Family system theory focus on the interaction patterns within a family. It stressed that in each family, there exists a rule to confine each family members’ behavior. And the boundaries and communication patterns of each member’s are defined. (McCue, 1995). By adopting the theory, the worker found that Mr. Chan seems to view himself as the dominant role and authority in their family, once some family members do not obey his rules they will achieve punishment. And Mr. Chan use violence as a mean to restore Mrs. Chan’s position within the family.

father-son relationship

The worker found that the alienated relationship between the father and son mainly result from domestic violence. In this case, the boy’s father is the perpetrating party and his mother is a victim. The boy presented resentment and fear to his father, what his behavior, such as indifference and alienation represent his emotion.

3) Family communication

As a result of domestic violence, the spousal relationship and parent-children relationship were both damaged. The mere family communication lead to family system lacks basic understanding and support.

During the interview, the worker found that the distorted communication pattern and alienated relationships between family members are results of domestic violence. To Mrs. Chan’s son, his academic performance and mental health were both negative influenced by domestic violence.

Agreed view of the client and the worker

Mrs. Chan and the worker agreed that the foremost thing is to guarantee the safety of her and her two children. Staying in hostel can provide an opportunity to her calm down and make a decision whether leave or not. Based on the premise, a sound family relationship and a harmonious atmosphere would be constructed in the long run.

Priorities of problems

domestic violence and spousal relationship

relationship between Mr. Chan and his son

family communication and relationship among all family members

Intervention phase

Objectives

Short -term:

To alleviate the domestic violence in Mrs. Chan’s family and improve the relationship between the couple.

To improve the relationship between Mr. Chan and his son

Long-term:

1. To facilitate positive interaction pattern and create harmonious family atmosphere.

Strategies and rationales

shelter program

Shelters have been gradually became a critical strategies for women and children who are preparing to escape violence. The shelter program can help abused women deal with current crisis and prepare to control their lives. ( McCue, 1995). At present, the foremost concern is the safety of Mrs. Chan and her children. Through shelter program, Mrs. Chan can calm down to consider the arrangements afterwards and make a rational decision for their future lives.

Cognitive-behavioral approach

The worker believes that a cognitive-behavioral approach for Mr. Chan would be effective to solve the whole family problem. The cognitive -behavior model stated that behavior is influenced by cognition: behavior will be modified by cognition. (Bonnet & Williams, 2001). By cognitive-behavioral approach, Mr. Chan can indentify the situation which trigger his anger and learn how to control aggressive emotion with adaptive behavior.

Mutual communication workshop

Family members use verbal and nonverbal channels to convey messages. And the interaction and communication patterns play an important role in family relationship. (Hepworth, R. Rooney, G. Rooney, Strom-Gottfried, & Larsen, 2010). For the purpose of improving the family relationship and ameliorating the communication pattern, some relevant activities would be arranged for them. The workshop includes organizing some domestic activities to alleviate the misunderstandings and facilitate reciprocal communication among family members. By this method, the family relationship will be more stable and harmonious.

Parental skills training

Marital conflict always related with ineffectiveness parenting, and children who suffer parental discord and uncaring parenting are prone to represent internalizing behaviors include anxiety, depression and externalizing behavior include aggressive and disobedience. (Papalia, Olds, & Feldman, 2009). Through the training, the parental pattern of the couple can be improved, and their son’s emotional and mental issues can be alleviated and be more preoccupation with schooling.

Regular meeting with children

Since the domestic violence impose a negative influence on the boy, a regular meeting with the child is compulsory. By the regularly meeting, workers can give out specific and pertinent suggestions and projects to help the child rebuild his confidence and expectation to the family, community as well as the society.

A Comparative Analysis Of Domestic Violence Against Women In Ghana And UkAbstract

Domestic Violence in the UK is widely recognised, accepted, dealt with as an issue. However in Ghana, due to illiteracy, culture, domestic violence is widely not recognised as an issue. There are no measures in place by the government to tackle the issue. The following aims to give a comparative analysis of domestic violence in women in the UK as against women in Ghana. Secondary reports from the police, Charities (NGOs), journals and newspaper issues were used in doing this analysis. Results showed that cases of domestic violence against women in the UK were widespread. There is a social services structure to deal with these issues. Children who are indirectly or directly affected by domestic violence can be identified in most cases and are offered any help or necessary treatment. In Ghana, there are many cultural barriers to first of all getting the message of domestic violence across and secondly being accepted as an infringement of human rights. There are no social structures in place to help these women. NGOs are the equivalent to social services in the UK, but cannot/are not as proactive. They rely on women coming forward and do not/cannot carry out investigations on suspicion of domestic violence. Children, who are directly or indirectly affected, tend to pass through unnoticed. This is due to the fact that culturally, children must be seen and not heard. In other cases, children’s accounts are not believed over the older person out of cultural respect for the adult; such a thing would be considered a taboo. In conclusion, the social workers involvement in women affected by DV and any related children are far more extensive than any involvement in Ghana. All in all, Ghana has a lot to learn and possibly implement in order to tackle the issue of domestic violence in women and children.

Introduction

This study will look at a comparative of Domestic Violence, hereon referred to as DV, in women in two different countries, Ghana and the UK. I chose to compare these two countries first and foremost because I’m a Ghanaian and secondly because I have lived in both countries and currently studying social work in the UK. I have come to know of the social workers involvement with women plagued by DV. I will also include a little on the effect DV has on children in these two countries. It is my intention through this study, to highlight the perception and differences of DV between the two countries and to study the impact of social work(ers) in dealing with DV in these countries.

In order to get a better understanding of how DV is perceived in the two countries, I would like to talk about the Demographics focusing on the culture and social standing of Ghana.

Ghana Demographics

Ghana is a country found in West Africa, located on the Gulf and Guinea and is a few degrees north of the equator, giving it a warm climate. It spans 238, 535 square km and has a population of about 23 million as of 2007. Colonised back in the days by the British, the national language of the land has remained as English till this day.

However, out of it’s ten recognised regions or counties, Ghana has more than 250 indigenous languages spoken. Within these regions and languages, many dialects and cultures also exist. Each ethnic group has it’s culture and each culture has a way of life. Ghanaians are generally peace loving people. Tradition plays a very important part of the Ghanaians life right from birth (naming and dedication ceremonies), through to Puberty (initiation rites), to marriage (traditional marriage) and death (funeral rites). The legal system however, is a mixture of British law, applicable to criminal cases, and indigenous custom for civil cases. Civil cases that concern customary matters, such as land, inheritance, and marriage, are usually heard by a traditional chief. People are generally wary of the judicial system, which can involve substantial costs and unpredictable outcomes. They usually attempt to handle infractions and resolve disputes informally through personal appeal and mediation. Strong extended family ties tend to exercise a restraint on deviant behavior, and family meetings are often called to settle problems before they become public. Marital disputes are normally resolved by having the couple meet with the wife’s uncle or father, who will take on the role of a marriage counsellor and reunite the parties. As culture and traditional customs play a large role, they go along way in defining or influencing acceptance of DV in the Ghanaian society as we shall explore later.

Ghana is a low income country with a per capital GDP of only $400 (U.S.) per year. It has many economic and social problems especially in the areas of employment, housing, health, and sanitation. Ghana has an active Non governmental Organization (NGO) sector, with over 900 registered organizations that participate in welfare and development projects in health, education, micro financing, women’s status, family planning, child care, and numerous other areas. The longest standing groups have been church-based organizations and the Red Cross. Most are supported by foreign donors. Urban voluntary associations, such as ethnic and occupational unions, also offer important social and economic assistance. The family unit is regarded as an important structure of the community and is held in high regard.

This report is based on a Chief Executive Officer with unlimited budget to improve mental health services in London Borough of Ealing. The following neighbourhood study will focus on a proposal for change to improve services. It will focus on the changes necessary in the services provided for Asian Women experiencing domestic violence with mental health issues. An understanding of social and cultural diversity will be discussed and their impact on healthcare. In addition, these issues will be compared to the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.

Domestic violence has come to the forefront as an important issue that affect many people in our society. DH, (2005) define domestic violence as any violence, abuse or threatening behaviour between current or former partners. It stipulate that any attempt to exercise control over an intimate partner or family members regardless of gender, sexuality constitutes domestic violence; the violence can include physical, psychological, sexual, financial and emotional abuse. Domestic violence can also include honour base violence, female genital mutilation and force marriages.

According to Home Office, (2004), women are more likely to become victim of domestic violence than men; children are also affected and can be traumatised by the incidences they have seen. Research has shown that one in four women experience domestic violence over their lifetime and one in ten women experience it annually and 32% of children (Walby and Allen, 2004).

Williamson, (2000) outlined that ethnic minority women are well known to be victims of domestic violence particularly Asians. However (DH, 2005) highlighted that the affects of domestic violence can result in women experiencing isolation, loss of job and income, low self esteem and self worth; It can lead to mental health issues in women causing the victims to suffer from mental health problems including, anxiety disorder, eating disorder, depression and self harm which could lead to suicide. Experience of domestic violence can also exacerbate an existing mental health condition.

Womensaid, (2009) highlighted that a large number of women accessing mental health services have experienced domestic violence, and at least 20% of service users are still experiencing the abuse. It further suggests that 50% of Asian women who have attempted suicide or self harm are survivors of domestic violence.

The London Borough of Ealing consists of 23 wards. It is the third largest borough in London with a population of 300,948 of which 151,200 of the residents are females and 22,200 are of Asian background (Neighbourhood statistics, 2006). When compared to Hammersmith and Fulham borough, they have a population of 165,242 Nationally Domestic Violent rate for Asian women. However, 58% of these women view themselves to be white British and only 25% declares to be Asians (Ealing Council, 2009) (appendix 1).

The motivation for this proposed change is necessary as services for ethnic minority women experiencing domestic violence in various areas in the country are under-funded or non-existence (Williamson, 2000). Mainstreaming Gender and Women’s Mental Health (DH, 2002) identify experiences of violence and abuse as a core theme in women’s mental health difficulties. Today’s mental health system manages diagnosis and accepts long-term disability consequently offering a label as an explanation for suffering instead of permitting service users to share their stories, experiences and their feelings.

The level of domestic violence amongst women has increased significantly in Ealing Borough. Recent figures revealed that Ealing is the ninth highest borough for reporting domestic violence between April 2007 to January 2008 Ealing Council (2009). It was highlighted that 41% of reported cases were of white European whereas the second highest reported cases were from Asian background (see appendix 3). It was also suggested that domestic violence is the highest crime reported nationally to the police, and 89% of domestic violence victims are women (Ealing Council, 2009). The cost of domestic violence on the UK economy is enormous; recent figures reported to be ?23 billion annually for the UK and ?280 million for London Borough of Ealing respectively (Ealing Council, 2009).

Furthermore, it is estimated that on average women are assaulted 35 times before they report to the police however; most women do not report and suffer in silence. This may be due to the psychological state known as battered women syndrome identified by (Walker, 2000) in which the victim feels powerless to change the situation.

Baggot (2004) argued that ethnic minority groups are faced with poorer health conditions than the rest of the population; people from certain ethnic background may be denied timely access to healthcare or offered lower standards of care than the rest of the population. 55% of Ealing’s population is predominately ethnic minority groups. The total South Asian population in Ealing is 41% compared to 24.7% in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. This significant difference in ethnic profile has a key impact on the overall health of the community.

According to Kandola & Fullerton (1998), diversity is the difference in ethnic origin, religion and other factors which cause people to have different perspectives on the same set of facts or issues. The culture amongst Asian communities makes it difficult for married women to disclose that they are victims of domestic violence; breakdown of marriages is often seen as the women’s fault hence they are likely to be rejected by family members and their community. It is culturally accepted that women should be abuse consequently becoming victims of domestic violence.

Additionally, Some Asian women may be subject to immigration control. This can influence their decision to take action against their husbands because of deportation from the UK. Moreover, most of these women do not speak English and finds it difficult to communicate. Women’s National Commission, (2009) report outlined that many of the victims are of insecure immigration status, having limited leave or no leave to remain within the country and are therefore subject to no recourse to public funds therefore are unable to obtain state benefits, hence limiting their access to services, social housing, legal advice and support.

Ealing Council, (2009) report, emphasised that currently Ealing has only two organizations offering emergency accommodation services. These services are limited as there are only eighteen adult bed places, the places available for counselling and advocacy services do not have adequate staff to provide support to accommodate the number of victims identified by the Council.

(WHO, (1997) cited in DH, (2006) states that violence against women is a public health issue which could be prevented. The Department of Health published a manual aimed at healthcare professionals in 2000 who contacted victims of domestic violence; the purpose was to focus on the need to treat vulnerable women with compassionate and holistic approach. These opinions were echoed by the participants of two surveys who identified the flaws in their treatment as being lack of advocacy and follow up interventions.

An individual’s ethnicity and cultural group remain useful points for understanding the motives behind domestic violence and the impact it has on their mental health. It can be argued that attending to the specific needs and conditions of Asian women by providing integrated culturally and gender-sensitive services highlights good practice. Hence, it becomes important that the individual’s perceptions of self care are identified in the context of their culture. Addressing issues of domestic violence in relation to mental health, health inequalities and other social problems which lead most women to social disadvantages would be easily addressed.

APPENDIX 1

The table below gives an indication of the different offences in the borough of Ealing and the UK National Average. Of the offences committed violence against the person is the highest in the borough.

Ealing Council
English Average

Population

305,000

–

Households

121,000

–
Violence against the person

25.0

15.0

Sexual offences

1.0

0.9

Robbery offences

4.4

1.0

Burglary dwelling offences

9.1

4.3

Theft of a motor vehicle offences

3.4

2.3

Theft from a vehicle offences

11.6

6.3

Source: Ealing Council, (2009).

APPENDIX 2

The diagram below gives an analytical breakdown of ethnicity for domestic violence victims in the Borough Ealing. It shows that 41% were of white European origin. The highest of all the ethnic groups as defined by police were those of Asian backgrounds at 28% and thirdly Afro-Caribbean groups with 22%.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE:

A BRIEF CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF IMPACT AND INTERVENTIONS

BUILT ON A DEFINITIONAL, HISTORICAL, AND THEORETICAL FOUNDATION

“And yet I fear you, for you’re fatal then

When your eyes roll so.

Why I should fear I know not,

Since guiltiness I know not, but yet I feel I fear.”

Introduction

The introductory quotation by Desdemona expresses her fear of Othello’s rage (Shakespeare, 1604, cited in Meyersfeld, 2003) at the same time eloquently conveying the terror implicit in domestic violence and demonstrating that domestic violence is not a new phenomenon. Neither is domestic violence a rare occurrence. According to the British government, domestic violence affects millions of lives. The following statistics are quoted from the official government website (CrimeReduction.gov.uk, Domestic violence mini-site, 2005):

one in four women and one in six men will be victims of domestic violence in their lifetime with women at greater risk of repeat victimisation and serious injury;
89 percent of those suffering four or more incidents are women;
one incident of domestic violence is reported to the police every minute;
on average, two women a week are killed by a current or former male partner; and
domestic violence accounts for 16 percent of all violent crime.

This essay will demonstrate that the issue of domestic violence is a complex one, much more complex than the term itself might convey. Indeed, domestic violence is complex in terms of its very definition, complex in terms of its theoretical explanations, complex in terms of gender relevance, complex in terms of its effects, and complex in terms of interventions to prevent and deal with its occurrence. The essay begins with a presentation and critique of various definitions for domestic violence, an exploration of the historical evolution of domestic violence as a societal concern, and a discussion and critique of theoretical explanations for domestic violence including consideration of the relevance of gender. This foundation will be used as a basis for exploring the impact of domestic violence upon its direct and indirect victims and the value and efficacy of the current resources, initiatives, and support networks used in combating domestic violence and assisting its victims. Finally, concluding remarks will be presented.

A Critique on Definitions of Domestic Violence

Finding a generally-accepted definition for domestic violence proved to be an elusive endeavor. This may be because there is no consensus definition of the term (Laurence and Spalter-Roth, 1996; Contemporary Women’s Issues Database, May 1996; Contemporary Women’s Issues Database, July 1996). Each writer seems to define the term to fit his or her topic or agenda. For instance, Chez (1994, cited in Gibson-Howell, 1996), in focusing on female victims of domestic violence, defines the term as “the repeated subjection of a woman to forceful physical, social, and psychological behavior to coerce her without regard to her rights.” Some definitions are basic and general: “a pattern of regularly occurring abuse and violence, or the threat of violence, in an intimate (though not necessarily cohabitating) relationship” (Gibson-Howell, 1996, citing Loring and Smith, 1994). Other definitions are comprehensive and specific (Manor, 1996; Neufield, 1996; Asian Pages, 1998; Josiah, 1998; Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1999; Danis, 2003; Verkaik, 2003). The more comprehensive definitions, although phrased differently, typically possess the following common elements:

a pattern of abusive behavior (as contrasted to a single event);
the abusive behavior involves control, coercion, and/or power;
the abusive behavior may be physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, and/or financial; and
the victim of the abusive behavior is a cohabitating or non-cohabitating intimate partner or spouse.

The British government has adopted one of the more expansive descriptions of domestic violence, one that includes all of the foregoing elements: “Any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality.” Beyond the basic definition, the government furnishes further description of domestic violence as “a pattern of abusive and controlling behaviour” by which the abuser attempts to gain power over the victim. The government contends that domestic violence crosses age, gender, racial, sexuality, wealth, and geographical lines. (CrimeReduction.gov.uk, Domestic violence mini-site, 2005) Interestingly, the definition offered by the government expands the description to include other “family members” in addition to “intimate partners.”

Historical Evolution of the Recognition of Domestic Violence as a Societal Concern

The issue of domestic violence, particularly violence against female spouses, was a topic of societal concern dating from the first marriage law instituted by Romulus in 75 B.C. But the concern was not in preventing domestic violence; to the contrary; the concern was in support of “wife beating”—legally and institutionally—a condition that existed through the early twentieth century. (Danis, 2003, citing Dobash and Dobash, 1979). English common law, until the late nineteenth century, “structured marriage to give a husband superiority over his wife in most aspects of the relationship.” This “sanctioned superiority” gave the husband the right to “command his wife’s obedience, and subject her to corporal punishment or ‘chastisement’ if she defied his authority.” (Tuerkheimer, 2004, citing Siegel, 1996) The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed the dismantling of laws specifically condoning control and violence; however, the laws were not replaced by codes that protected victims from abuse. Instead, “marital privacy” became the standard. Essentially, abuse was considered to be a family problem, not one in which society had an interest. (Turekheimer, 2004)

Not until the feminist movement of the late 1960s and 1970s was public interest in domestic violence piqued (Danis, 2003, citing Schechter, 1982). With little public or private funding, feminist activists set up shelters for female victims of domestic violence. They also pressed for laws to punish offenders and promoted training of social workers and other professions to recognize domestic violence and treat its victims. (Contemporary Women’s Issues Database, May 1996). From these humble beginnings, over the last thirty-plus years, public awareness has been enhanced dramatically, increasing amounts of public and private funding have been allocated for shelters, domestic violence laws have been strengthened, and social workers and other professionals (e.g. school personnel, healthcare professionals, police officers) have been trained to recognize signs of, and provide treatment to those affected by, domestic violence.

Today, in the early years of the new millennium, the way in which society views domestic violence is continuing to evolve. Physical abuse of wives was the initial focus of intervention initiatives. Drawing on research presented earlier, sexual, emotional, psychological, and financial abuse have been added to physical abuse as types of domestic violence. And, many definitions of victims of domestic violence now include, in addition to wives, husbands and domestic partners of the same or different sex. Increasingly, too, children in the domestic arrangement are being included as victims of domestic violence.

Theoretical Explanations for Domestic Violence and the Relevance of Gender

Just as there is a lack of consensus on a single definition for domestic violence, “there is no single recognized causal theory for domestic violence.” In the absence of a single theory, at least four theories are used to explain why domestic violence occurs: social exchange/deterrence, social learning, feminist, and the ecological framework. (Danis, 2003) These theories, with their relevance to domestic violence, will be presented and critiqued in this section. A discussion of the relevance of gender in domestic violence will close out the section.

Under the social exchange theory, human interaction is driven by pursuing rewards and avoiding punishments and costs. (Danis, 2003, citing Blau, 1964). Gelles and Cornell (1985, 1990, cited in Danis, 2003) contend that domestic violence occurs when costs do not outweigh rewards. Costs in this context include the potential for defensive physical action by the victim, potential of being arrested and imprisoned, loss of personal status, and dissolution of the domestic arrangement.

The social learning theory suggests that people learn to be violent by being immediately rewarded or punished after they commit violent behavior, through what is called reinforcement, and by watching the experiences of others, called modeling (Danis, 2003, citing Bandura, 1973). According to some experts, there is a correlation between people who witness abusive behavior in their earlier lives and those who commit domestic violence later. (Danis, 2003, citing O’Leary, 1987).

According to feminist theory, domestic violence emanates from a “patriarchal” school system which assigns men the responsibility for controlling and managing female partners (Danis, 2003, citing Dobash and Dobash, 1979; Yllo, 1993). Under this theory, domestic violence is attributed to a flaw in societal structure rather than to any specific individual male pathology.

Finally, the ecological framework theory, in contending that no single theory can be used in explaining or predicting domestic violence, proposes risk factors for domestic violence and interventions to address it at three levels—the micro level (e.g. batterer programs), the meso level (e.g. police and the courts), and the macro level (e.g. a coordinated community approach). (Danis, 2003, citing Crowell and Burgess, 1996; Chalk and King, 1998).

Each of these four theories offers valuable insight into domestic violence. For instance, the social exchange theory offers a basis for law enforcement and prosecution of offenders; the social learning theory helps to explain why children who witness abuse sometimes grow up to be abusers themselves thereby providing rationale for corrective interventions to “unlearn” abusive behavior; and the feminist theory supports interventions targeted at helping batterers to reform and helping to empower victims. But none of these theories seems to provide a comprehensive foundation on which a comprehensive approach for dealing with the many causal and outcome dimensions of domestic violence can be built. The more integrated ecological framework theory, however, seems to furnish the needed basis for such a comprehensive approach.

Now attention will turn to the topic of the relevance of gender in domestic violence. Historically, as mentioned earlier, wives were considered to be the only victims of domestic violence. Today, husbands as well as same- or different-sex non-married partners are considered to be victims as well (Cruz, 2003). Although the statistics vary significantly (Leo, 1994), some indicating that the same number of men as women are victims of domestic violence (Leo, 1994; Simerman, 2002), most experts agree than women are most often the victims and, when they are victimized, the damage is usually more serious. The indication that women are most often victims has now gained official recognition. The British government contends that, although domestic violence is not restricted to a specific gender, “it consists mainly of violence by men against women.” (CrimeReduction.gov.uk, Domestic violence mini-site, 2005)

The Potential Impact of Domestic Violence on Females, Mothers, and Children

According to the Contemporary Women’s Issues Database (January 1996), “the most common victims (of domestic violence) are women and children.” With the acknowledgement that domestic violence affects men as well as women, the focus of the discussion in this section will be on the potential impact of domestic violence on females, generally, and on females in their role as mothers as well as on their children.

Domestic violence against women can result in serious physical injuries, psychological trauma, and mental strain (Wha-soon, 1994). According to Wha-soon, physical injuries include “severe headaches, bruises, bone fractures, loss of eyesight, nervous paralysis, insomnia and indigestion,” and psychological trauma can include “anxiety, a sense of powerlessness, and a loss of self-respect and self-confidence.” Psychological effects can lead to suicide in some cases. Winkvist (2001) echoes these psychological effects and adds that battered women are also more likely to experience sexual and reproductive health disorders. Effects are not restricted to those that are physical and psychological in nature, however. Women can be financially impacted as well. Brown and Kenneym (1996) contend that women, in an effort to flee their attackers, may “give up financial security and their homes” in favor of safety.

Mothers may experience additional negative effects from domestic violence. Starr (2001) contends that domestic violence against mothers “is associated with harmful implications for mental health and parenting, as well as for the offspring.” According to Starr, mothers who are in an environment of domestic violence suffer worse outcomes for themselves and for their children. Isaac (1997) suggests that abuse of mothers and children are linked, stating that from thirty to almost sixty percent of mothers reported for child abuse were themselves abused.

Hewitt (2002) claims that ninety percent of occurrences of domestic violence are witnessed either directly or indirectly by children. Children can be affected in at least two ways by domestic violence. According to the British government, they can be traumatized by violence they witness against others in the relationship even when they are not the specific targets of the violence (CrimeReduction.gov.uk, Domestic violence mini-site, 2005). According to Hewitt (2002), children suffer low self-esteem, isolation, trauma, and homelessness that they may not manifest until later in life. They may also suffer from maladies such as worry, sadness, focus and concentration difficulties, forgetfulness, headaches and stomachaches, lying, and “poor impulse control,” according to Salisbury and Wichmann (2004).

Importantly, there is also a strong correlation between domestic violence and child abuse, a point which reinforces Isaac’s position mentioned earlier (CrimeReduction.gov.uk, Domestic violence mini-site, 2005). Edleson (1999, cited in Spath, 2003) takes the same position in stating that “numerous research studies over the last several decades have reported a connection between domestic violence and child maltreatment within families.” And, finally, as mentioned earlier, the social learning theory would suggest that children who witness violence learn that violence is an acceptable way to settle disputes. Supporting this, Wha-soon (1994) writes that the “learning of violence causes a cycle of violence.”

An Assessment of the Value and Efficacy of Domestic Violence Interventions

Methods for dealing with domestic violence generally fall into three categories: prevention, protection, and justice (M2 Presswire, 1998). As the terms imply, prevention attempts to avert incidences of domestic violence through methods such as education and counseling; protection involves attempts to prevent further injury through methods such as removing victims from the situation and ordering offenders to stay away from their victims; and justice involves retribution against domestic violence offenders.

The value and efficacy of prevention, protection, and justice methods used in dealing with domestic violence are difficult to measure. A reason for this was mentioned earlier: the lack of a consensus definition for domestic violence itself. (Contemporary Women’s Issues Database, May 1996). Nevertheless, there has been some attempt at measuring performance anecdotally. According to the Contemporary Women’s Issues Database (April 1993): “Currently, the two most common forms of social intervention are mechanisms that help her to leave (such as emergency shelters) and having him arrested…(but) neither of these interventions is ideal.” And, police and judicial interventions do not seem to fair much better as illustrated by the case of Samuel Gutierrez who killed his domestic partner, Kelly Gonzalez, in Chicago, Illinois in the United States after multiple beatings, arrests, and various court interventions (Hanna, 1998).

That domestic violence still exists as such a serious social problem is probably the best evidence that current methods for preventing it, protecting its victims, and exacting justice on offenders are not working especially well. Perhaps the future will be brighter. Newer perspectives, such as that offered by the ecological framework theory, offer some hope. It seems that taking a comprehensive, integrated approach could potentially be substantially more effective as the various public and private components work together in a cooperative, synergistic arrangement with one goal—the welfare of the potential or actual victim. One expert even suggests that this combined public-private approach could be enhanced further by adding a third component—the family (nuclear family, extended family, intimate family, close relationships)—to the formal, integrated support arrangement (Kelly, 2004).

Conclusion

Public and private organizations continue to increase their attention to domestic violence. In the United Kindgom, The Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 furnishes greater authority to police and the courts in dealing with cases of domestic violence and in providing protection to victims. Aditionally, the British government’s recently issued national domestic violence action plan sets forth ambitious goals (CrimeReduction.gov.uk, Domestic Violence, 2005) quoted as follows:

reduce the prevalence of domestic violence;
increase the rate that domestic violence is reported;
increase the rate of domestic violence offences that are brought to justice;
ensure victims of domestic violence are adequately protected and supported nationwide; and
reduce the number of domestic violence related homicides.

Returning to the introductory quotation, had Shakespeare’s Desdemona been alive today, perhaps she would have some hope that she would not forever be in such great fear of Othello’s rage.

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Dual diagnosis between drug abuse and mental illness is very common. The two problems affect and interact with each other. The number of people diagnosed with a mental illness and substance went from 210,000 to 800,000 between the years of 1998-2003. (Druss MD, Bornemann, Fry-Johnson MD, McCombs PhD, Politzer, & Rust MD, 2006) Substance abuse is the most common and clinically important dual disorder among adults with severe mental illness. Studies show that fifty percent of people with mental illness also have a substance abuse problem. (Saisan, Smith, & Segal, 2010) And more than half the persons with a substance abuse diagnosis also have a diagnosable mental illness. (Saisan, Smith, & Segal, 2010)

Clinicians believe that mental illness and substance abuse are biologically and physiologically based. “Although substance abuse and mental health disorders like depression and anxiety are closely linked, one does not directly cause the other.” (Saisan, Smith, & Segal, 2010) Both conditions can mirror each.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

More and more people are suffering from a combination of substance abuse and mental health problems. Alcohol and/or drugs are often used to relieve the symptoms of a mental illness, side effects from their medications or just to cure symptoms they are having at the time. Alcohol and drug abuse can increase original risk for mental disorders and can make symptoms of a mental health problem worse. Substance abuse and mental illness commonly co-occur due to genetic factors, environmental factors, a brain disorder and/or a development disorders. “Co-occurring disorders, two disorders or illnesses occur simultaneously in the same person, they are called dual diagnosis or co morbidity.” (Topics in Brief, 2007) Treatment for this dual diagnosis has not been well designed. Clients have to go a treatment facility for mental health treatment and a different facility for substance abuse treatment. This kind of treat is not successful because this leaves the client trying to cope/manger a disorder on their own. It is almost impossible for them to manger the other disorder because if they could quit on their own they would not need treatment.

It can be hard to diagnose a person with a dual diagnosis of mental illness and substance abuse. One of the things that makes diagnose hard is denial by the patient. “Substance abuse and mental disorders commonly co-occur because of overlapping genetic vulnerabilities, overlapping environmental triggers like stress, involvement of similar brain regions, and drug abuse and mental illness are developmental disorders.” (Topics in Brief, 2007) Having a dual diagnosis put a person at greater risk for relapse. Violence and suicide attempts are also more prevalent among the dually diagnosed population.http://www.onlinerecoverysupport.com/wp-content/uploads/borderline.jpg

BACKGROUND:

The problem of dual diagnosis became clinically clear in the early 1980s. (Drake R. P., 2001) Substance abuse and mental illness hinders your ability to function, handle life and have a healthy social life.

Mental illnesses are mental conditions that disrupt a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. “The World Health Organization has reported that four of the 10 leading causes of disability in the US are mental disorders.” (National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2010) Some of the major and the most common mental illness that occur with substance abuse are manic depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, generalize anxiety disorder and antisocial personality disorder. It is reported that about 57.7 million Americans experience a mental health disorder in a given year. (National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2010)

Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not need to sustain life or to make it better. “One in four US deaths can be attributed to alcohol, tobacco, or illicit drug use.” (Innovatory Combating Substance Abuse, 2010) The commonly abused drugs by people with a mental illness are alcohol, cocaine and/or marijuana. Substance abuse complicates some aspect of care for a person with a mental disorder. It provides challenges for the counselor to engage the individual in treatment.http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:HOCEVK5RjjC51M:http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb156/elgangster214/marijuana-2.jpg

About “50% of individuals with severe mental disorders are affected by substance abuse.” (Saisan, Smith, & Segal, 2010) “Thirty-seven percent of alcohol abusers and 53% of drug abusers also have at least on serious mental illness.” (Saisan, Smith, & Segal, 2010) See the chart below. The risk of developing a drug abuse problem while having a disorder goes as high as 15.5% for antisocial personality disorder and as low as 02.1% for phobias. “The mental health problems that most commonly co-occur with substance abuse are depression, anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorder.” (Saisan, Smith, & Segal, 2010) When a person has a dual diagnosis of substance abuse and mental illness the clinician has to determine what are the symptoms/signs of the substance abuse and what are the symptoms/signs are from the mental illness.

Disorders with Increased Risk of Drug Abuse
Disorder
Risk

Antisocial personality disorder

15.5%

Manic episode

14.5%

Schizophrenia

10.1%

Panic disorder

04. 3%

Major depressive episode

04.1%

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

03.4%

Phobias

02.1%

Source: National Institute of Mental Health.

(Drug Abuse and Mental Illness Fast Facts, 2006)

At least 60% of people fighting substance abuse or mental illness are fighting both at the same time. (Bouchex, 2007) Patients with mood, anxiety or drug disorders are about twice as likely to be diagnosed with the other as well. Figure 1 (Topics in Brief, 2007) The prevalence of these dual diagnoses does not mean that one condition caused the other, even if one appeared first. The high rates show the need for better treatment and treatment centers able to deal with both at the same time. http://www.nida.nih.gov/tib/images/tib_large_images/comorbid02.jpg

WORKING DIAGNOSIS:

Substance abuse can cause mental disorders due to the fact that,

“drug abuse can cause a mental illness,”

“mental illness can lead to drug abuse,”

“drug abuse and mental disorders are both caused by other common risk factors”

all three can contribute to the establishment of specific dual diagnosis of mental disorders and addiction. (Topics in Brief, 2007)

FRAMEWORK/METHOD OF ANALYSIS:

I began my search using Google and searched using the terms “Substance abuse and Mental Illness”. This resulted in nine articles that were relevant to my topic all of which I used as references.

I then went to the Pub Med Central database and searched using the term “substance abuse and mental illness” and found many articles. I used four of those articles as references. The other references were found on website such as National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Drug Intelligence Center.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION (LITERATURE REVIEW):

This review looks at progress made in understanding the relation between drug abuse and mental illness. Volkow found that the relationship between substance abuse and mental illness “is likely to reflect common contributing factors and brain substrates.” (Volkow, 2001) One of the main factors substance abuse and mental illness have in common is stress. A question that still remains is the role that drug abuse has on causing psychosis in individuals with no previous psychiatric histories. Stimulant drugs induce psychosis because they increase extracellular dopamine concentration in the brain. However it does not explain why psychosis can continue after the stimulant drug is no longer present in the brain.brain image

Regier, et al, broke his study down into specific mental disorders. This review found that of people with schizophrenia forty-seven percent has some form of substance abuse problem. People diagnosed with schizophrenia have a 4 times as likely then people who do not have schizophrenia to have a substance abuse problem. (Regier, et al., 1990) The odds for people diagnosed with anxiety disorders to have a substance abuse proplem were more than fourteen percent.

It is believe that substance abuse may trigger mental illness in vulnerable individuals. Evidence show a “complex explanation in which well-known risk factors- such as poor cognitive function, anxiety, deficient interpersonal skills, social isolation, poverty, and lack of structured activities combined to render people with mental illnesses particularly vulnerable to alcohol and drug abuse.” (Drake, 2009) People that already have a mental disorder probably appear to be extremely sensitive to the effects of alcohol and other drugs, due to having a form of brain disorder.

Drake, et al, explains the term dual diagnosis as misleading because people with a dual diagnosis are diverse and tend to have multiple illnesses rather than just two illnesses. Drake discusses how researchers have established some identical finding. First, co-occurrence is common. “Second, dual diagnosis is associated with a variety of negative outcomes, including higher rates of relapse, hospitalization, violence, incarceration, homeless and serious infections such as HIV and hepatitis.” (Drake R. P., 2001) Third, the mental health and substance abuse treatment system delivers fragmented and ineffective care.

RESTATEMENT OF WORKING DIAGNOSIS (Hypothesis):

There is evidence that substance abuse can lead to a mental disorder but also a mental disorder can also lead to a substance abuse, it is not known which comes first. Like the saying which comes first the chicken or the egg. It is said that having one of the diagnosis makes you vulnerable to the other. http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:2wcgJmOO5cR8aM:http://deepwarriors.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/chicken-egg.jpg

MANAGERIAL/POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS:

Why people who are having a mental disorder are so prone to drug abuse raises a lot of questions due to the limited research done on the topic. The research so far is inconsistent and has failed to address a number of issues. There is a need for more research as well as more treatment center that are equipped to deal with dual diagnosis. The patient has two brain diseases that influence one another, and which both need treatment, at the same time. This is when dual diagnosis treatment is need. It is an approach used by clinicians to treat individuals affected by two co-occurring or coexisting conditions simultaneously. Dual diagnosis affects a person physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally and socially. There is a need for an all-inclusive approach that identifies both disorders, evaluates both disorders, and at the same time treats both disorders. Many treatment centers now only treat one or the other. Substance abuse treatment are not recommended or designed to handle a mental illness and vice versa. Awareness about the problem needs to be made public, so that people know the signs to look for and how to approach the person about their disorder correctly. Patients also need to be aware of the help that is available to them and support groups like Dual recovery Anonymous. There also needs to be better training for the counselors and physicians so that they will be able to better and accurately diagnosis patients. For recovery to be successful you must treats a client’s addiction and mental health problem.

http://www.bghealth.org/images/support%20group%20gif.gif

The increase in the rate of divorce may be the most dramatic change in family life and divorce is being more and more common in the modern society. Demographers suggest that about 50% of first marriages would be voluntarily dissolved in recent years (Cherlin, 1992). Compared with statistics in the middle of 19th century which only 5% of first marriages ended in divorce (Preston & McDonald, 1979), the number is shocking. Moreover, slightly more than half of all divorces involve children and adolescences aged below 18. More than one million children experience parental divorce every year (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1998, Table 160), and Bumpass (1990) suggested that about 40% of all children will experience parental divorce before reaching adulthood. The statistics and experts’ opinions demonstrate the trend of increasing divorce rate, and thus there are more and more children experiencing parental divorce. In response to this, the essay is going to focus on the impact of parental divorce in different aspects if the event happens at the time when the children are in their adolescence and young adulthood. After that, the essay will discuss the impact on them when they grow up into young adults.

With the increasing rate of divorce, parental divorce happening at the time when children are in their adolescence and young adulthood is more commonplace. The parental divorce may affect the children in different aspects. The impact may also be widespread. A 25-year study of 60 post-divorce families with 131 children was conducted by psychologist Judith Wallerstein. Wallerstein (2001) finds out that the immediate effects of divorce on children may be different according to their gender, age and developmental stage. For adolescents which are one of the focuses of this essay, they will suffer depression. They will also have suicidal thoughts and express anxiety about having successful marriages. Sandford(2008) also suggests that some findings in 1990s indicated that children of divorce have lower academic achievement. They may also have some behavioral, psychological, relationship or even health problems.

Researches done over the past years have consistently shown that divorce has a negative impact on the academic achievement of children of divorce. (Wallerstein, Corbin, & Lewis, 1988; Popenoe, 1993). They are more likely to have low grades and score lower on academic tests. They also have lower educational aspirations and are two to three times more likely to be dropped out of school. The impact may continue to their adulthood and lower their social competence as they just achieve lower levels of education and thus lower occupational status. Thus, their income is usually less.

Adolescents experiencing parental divorce may also have different psychological problems. According to Wallerstein (2001), the level of depression and anxiety is higher in children of divorce. Their self esteem is also lower and they experience more often use of psychological services. It is found that girls from divorced families are much more depressed than girls from intact families in some cases. For boys, they are more hopeless and discouraged when there are more family distresses. It should be noted that some differences in psychological well-being may due to financial disadvantages. Compared with peers from married families, children of divorce may have a lower standard of living. It is due to two reasons. Firstly, living standard of women usually decline more than men’s after divorce (Ross, 1995). Secondly, most children live with their mothers after divorce (Smyth, Sheenhan and Felberg, 2001). Thus they usually live with a lower family income. They will probably move to new residences and to poor neighborhoods. Because of the difficult economic conditions, they would have another form of loss and become more depress.

Children of divorce are also prone to different behavioral problems. They may have disorders in conduct, difficulty with authorities and behaviors that are antisocial (Hetherington and Kelly, 2002). Compared with children from intact families, they are also two to three times more probably to engage in adolescent delinquency and the conduct problems are more common among boys than in girls. Jeynes (2001) also suggests that adolescent from divorced families have alcohol more often and in larger quantities. They are also more likely to take drugs, have pre-marital sex, end up in prison and commit murder, etc.

Apart from psychological and behavioral problems, relationship problems are common among children from divorced families. Sandford (2008) suggests that female adolescents that have experienced parental divorce are more likely to have earlier sexual activities and have more sexual partners than those without experience in parental divorce during their high school years. He also points out that they begin their menstruation earlier. And it seems to be some relationships between early menstruation and early sexual intercourse. It is suggested that the girls having earlier sexual activity have poor self-regulatory skills. It might be attributed to the avoidance of teaching the skills needed to gain self-control in divorced families. Moreover, it might be due to disengagement between these children and their parents at a younger age. Thus their relationship is not as good as that in intact family.

Divorced children’s relationship with parents is also weaker (Sandford, 2008). According to research done by Hetherington and Kelly (2002), similar proportion of children from divorced families and from intact families feel close to their mothers (70% vs. 80%). However, only less than one-third of children report such closeness with their father while 70% of children with married parents report these feelings. The findings coincide with other researches that there are high proportion of disengaged or totally absent fathers following divorces. It is the conflicts between the ex-spouses and custody arrangements that cause fathers to feel disengaged from their children. Avoidance of child support payments is also a reason for the fathers to stay away from their children. Because of the above reasons, adolescents from divorced families view their father to be less caring. Marital instability is also another relationship faced by children from divorced families when they grow up and it will be discussed later in the essay.

Although research found quite a lot of negative impacts on adolescents when they face parental divorce, positive consequences are also possible. A study by Arditti (1999) suggests that the children from divorced families, especially daughters, develop very close relationships with their custodial mother. It may be due to the extra care given by the custodial mothers as their fathers are disengaged from the families.

The impact of divorce on children may not be short term. It is possible that divorce will affect the children in different aspects even when they grow up into young adults. Several impacts are confirmed by Amato (2000) that they are consistent with prior research. Firstly, children with divorced parents are more likely to experience psychological problems in adulthood. Secondly, they have more problems in forming and maintaining stable intimate relationships with their partners. Thirdly, they have weaker ties to their parents when they grow up into young adults.

Amato (2000) suggests that divorce is undoubtedly “a risk factor for psychological problems during childhood and into adulthood”. It is agreed that there is a tendency of adults having parental divorce experience less satisfaction with their lives, higher rates of depression and lower self-esteem. Wallerstein, Lewis and Blakeslee (2001) findings also point out that about one third of the children had serious psychological problems such as clinical depression, poor performance in school or difficulty in maintaining friendships. Moreover, their 25-year in depth study also suggests that even 25 years after the divorce, the children (now adults) “still recalled the shock, unhappiness, loneliness, bewilderment and anger”. Higher level of depression has also been found to continue in adulthood. Both men and women report comparatively worse of psychological well-being. Although Amato (2000) argues that the adults who experienced parental divorce and are suffering from serious psychological problems are not as many as one third of them, the effects of divorce would probably persist into adulthood.

Weaker ties to their parents is another impact when children grown up into young adults. Weisberg and Appleton (2003) describe a survey carried out by a sociologist. 1500 adults who had experienced a divorce before the age of 14 and a comparison group of children from intact family were surveyed. It was found that children of divorce (now adults) felt they were outsiders in their own home. They also had frequent feelings of being alone and were less likely to seek comfort from their parents. The weak ties to their parents usually persist into their adulthood. Another research done by Hetherington and Kelly (2002) also found that less than one-third of children of divorce report close feelings to their fathers. And even when they grow up into adult, they doubt whether their fathers care or love them.

It is also suggested that children with parental divorce would have more problems in forming and maintaining stable intimate relationships with their partners (Amato, 2000). According to Hetherington and Kelly (2002), children of divorce are more likely than children of intact families to have marital instability and lower marital satisfaction. They generally have more thoughts about divorce and the divorce rates among children of divorce are also a bit higher when they grow up into adults. The phenomenon may be explained by the wariness to commit to a relationship, perceiving divorce as an alternative for unhappy marriages. Moreover, a contentious family life may result in generally weaker relationship skills.

Weisberg and Appleton (2003) also stated that a lot of studies have shown that parental divorce is a risk factor for other problems in adulthood. The problems include low socioeconomic attainment, poor subjective wellbeing, increased marital problems, and a greater likelihood of seeing one’s own marriages end in divorce (Amato, 1999). It might be hard to understand why the problems persist into adulthood. Weisberg and Appleton (2003) suggested that parental divorce may lead to financial crisis. The original plans to attend college may be abandoned, thus resulting in lower occupational attainment and wages throughout adulthood. For children who were exposed to poor parental models of interpersonal behavior, they might have difficulty when wanting to form stable, satisfying and intimate relationship as young adults. The above considerations suggest that it may be possible that some children show improvement soon after parental divorce in terms of behavior or relationship, however, some effects might only appear when the children reach young adulthood.

Although the essay focuses on the impact of parental divorce on children, it is also important to note some of the methods that the children can adopt in order to adjust to divorce and minimize the negative impacts brought. Kelly (2003) suggests that conflicts between parents should be diminished. Competent residential parenting such as warmth and emotional support and adequate monitoring to the children is also needed. The non-residential parents also have a role. They should offer stable financial support to the divorced family. Regular contacts with the children and involvement in issues related to their children should also be carried out in order to help with children’s adjustment to divorce. It is the effort made by the parents that can minimized the impacts mentioned above.

As discussed above, it is shown that parental divorce is an upsetting and disruptive event in the lives of the children. Although some scholars argue that children can develop successfully in a variety of family structures and view divorce as an escape from a dysfunctional home environment, more evidences and findings suggest that having experience of parental divorce may cause different problems such as psychological, emotional, behavioral and social problems. The children in divorced families may also deal with relationships in a disturbed manner. The effect may not be short term and can extent to adulthood in some cases. There may be intergenerational transmission of divorce and the adults may have difficulties in dealing with intimate relationship. The marriages of the adults with parental divorce experience would also be affected. It is arguable that not all children from divorced families suffer from these problems. And there are a lot of factors affect the impacts of parental divorce on children or the recovery process such as access to parents or parental support. Sex difference, the family structure or the relationship with parents may also be some of the factors. Although many factors should be considered, some negative impacts are proved that they would happen more frequently among children with parental divorce. And we should understand the impacts in order to find measures that can help the children adjust to divorce.

Diversity has become a popular topic in the 21st century all around the world. Diversity simply means differences. Diversity at work refers to a strategy that promote values, behavior and working practices which recognize the difference between people and thereby enhance staff motivation and performance and release potential, delivering improved services to customers (Thomas, 1991). Started with Fortune 500 corporations, the government agencies and non-profit organizations in 1980s, now more and more businesses are having diverse workforce. Diversity has been added to school curricula and courses that focus on this topic are being offered or required in many colleges.

In this assignment, an introduction about workforce diversity will be given first. The reasons for increasing diverse workforce will be discussed on the next. Following on is the discussion of how a diverse workforce is managed through fair employment practices and the key elements of diversity management. On the next part, the critical roles of each key actor – employers, labour unions, and the government, will be discussed. And finally a conclusion will be drawn.

Luthans (2008) summarizes a number of reasons that have led to increasing diverse workforce. These include changing working demographics, globalization, competitive pressure, the need for diverse viewpoints, and legal compliance.

Changing Workforce Demographics

Ageing population in many developed countries have caused more people to work at older ages. Women have increased their participation in the workforce in recent decades because of more educational and career opportunities as a result of socio-economic development in many countries.

Globalization

Globalization is the process by which firms operates on a global basis, organizing their structure, capabilities, resources and people in such a way as to address the world as one market. This encourages cross-border sales and employment. Employees that are made up of people with different cultures, customs and social norms are very common in global organizations.

Competitive Pressure

Diversity ends up with a more talented and capable workforce. Also, organizations that value diversity attract more talents. This usually results in improved product design or business strategies that make organizations more competitive.

Recognition and Desire for Diverse Viewpoints

Diversity leads to innovations. This is because of the specialized insights and knowledge from all walks of life, that is different genders, ages, ethnicities, races and sexual orientations. Innovation leads to breakthrough competitive advantages.

Legislation and Lawsuits

Many companies are under legislative mandates to be non-discriminatory in their employment practices. Organizations that fail to comply will result in fines and/or lawsuits. In such context, it is necessary for organizations to utilize a diverse workforce.

Managing Workforce Diversity

One of the principals underlying management of increasing diverse workforces is to promote fair employment practices. These include fair treatment to all employees based on merit and prohibition against all forms of illegal discrimination. Fair employment practices widen the pool of labour that employers can recruit from, and therefore increase the chances of recruiting the most qualified persons for the jobs. Fair treatment to employees also helps to retain valued employees and boost their motivation at work.

Fair employment practices intend to achieve equality of opportunity in employment policies and procedures. “Equal opportunities” has been traditionally described as rights-based, liberal, rooted in legal compliance, based upon equality through sameness and merit with a focus on non-discrimination, and equality for women and other under-represented groups in senior roles in organizations (Kirton and Green, 2000; Colgan and Ledwith, 1996). Dickens (in Bach and Sisson, 2000) defines equal opportunities initiatives as concerning policy and practice designed to tackle the differential distribution of opportunities, resources and rewards among workers, based on their membership of a social group.

Key Elements of Diversity Management Initiatives

Initiatives for managing a diverse workforce may vary among companies and countries, but the basic principals are very similar around the world. The followings are some common key elements of such initiatives summarized from the Fair Employment Statement of the Warrington Borough Council (2010) in United Kingdom, and the guidelines suggested by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices (2010) in Singapore.

Eliminate all forms of discrimination and harassment in employment

Discrimination refers to a difference in treatment or favor on a basis other than individual merit. Discrimination in employment can be under the following strands: age, gender (including gender reassignment), sexuality, race, ethnicity, nation of origin, marital status, disability, religion and belief, trade union activity, political belief, social class, and the rehabilitation of former offenders. The workplace should be free of all forms of discrimination and harassment.

Equal opportunities in recruitment, training, promotion and benefits

Equal opportunities should also apply to potential employees as well during the process of recruitment. Employee selection should be based on their skills, ability and experience regardless of other criteria such as age, gender, race, or marital status etc. All employees should have equal chances of receiving training and promotion. Benefits should be fair and equitable based solely on merit.

Reward employees fairly

Employees should be rewarded based on fair criteria, such as performance and ability. No one should be treated less favorable or is disadvantaged by unreasonable criteria that cannot be justified, such as race, gender, or social class.

Value and promote differences

Employees are different in strengths and weakness. They should be provided with suitable personal development plan based on their strengths and needs, which can help to achieve their full potential in their career.

Accommodate employees with their special needs

This include arrangements such as allowing flexibility in uniform requirements, allowing time off for caring for dependants beyond that required by law, or providing special equipment to facilitate work, such as Braille keyboards for the blind.

Legal compliance

Legal duties and responsibilities should be proactively complied in order to achieve fair employment practices.

Key Actors of Managing a Diverse Workforce

The trade unions, employers and the government all play a part in managing a diverse workforce. Each of them has its responsibilities in building a fairer workplace and a harmonized society that each individual is treated equally. The critical roles of each key actor will be discussed on the next.

The Role of Labour Unions

A labour union or a trade union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as equal opportunity at work or better working environment. Broadly speaking, labour union exits in order to protect employees, to further employee interests at the workplace and to work towards a fairer, more equal society. Their existence is underpinned by the assumption of inequalities of power between employers and employees, so that employees need independent representation and need to act collectively in order to improve their conditions through negotiations with management (Kirton and Green, 2005).

The Trades Union Congress (1998) is the national centre for British trade unions. It defines the six roles of the labour unions as: giving advice when members have a problem at work, representing members in discussion with employers, ensuring enforcement of members’ legal rights at work, helping members take cases to employment tribunals, fighting discrimination, and helping to promote equality at work.

Giving advice when members have a problem at work

Trade unions are able to give advice and information to their members about their rights when they have problems at work. Some even provide legal and financial support to members who experience discrimination at work or being dismissed by employers unfairly.

Representing members in discussion with employers

Equal opportunities, equal treatment and the fight against unfair discrimination are the foundation of trade union activity (MSF, 2001). Union recognition is where employers formally agree to negotiate terms and conditions of employment with trade unions, known as collective bargaining. Traditionally unions have been reluctant to recognize diversity because they feared that highlighting plurality of interests might undermine solidarity over bargaining issues and so weaken their influence power. However, unions now recognize that different groups prioritize different issues. For example, female workers are more likely than male workers to take career breaks, minority ethnic groups are more likely than white workers to take alternate religious holidays etc.

Making sure that members’ legal rights are enforced at work

Traditionally trade unions have focused their attention to fighting a better pay and better working environment for their members. But more recently unions are concentrating on protecting the legal rights of their members, making sure that their legal rights are being enforced in their workplace. This can be done through giving legal advice to the members, and representing them in negotiation with the employers.

Helping members take cases to employment tribunals

Employment tribunals are a kind of court that deal with employment issues. Lawyers are involved sometimes but trade union officers are used as representatives in more straightforward cases. Common cases that employment tribunals usually deal with are cases about unfair dismissal, but other kinds of cases such as unauthorized deduction from wages, sex, race and disability discrimination, and unfair pay etc are also covered. Usually the tribunal will order the employers to pay back compensation.

Fighting discrimination

Labour unions help workers to fight against discrimination. Discrimination still exists nowadays in various forms in many countries. For example, women and minority ethnic groups make a lower average earning, disabled and old workers represent a large proportion in low-paid, low-skilled, and low-status jobs. Many evidences have shown the success of unions that helped improving overall pay and narrowed the wage gaps between male and female, white and black, and between healthy and disabled workers.

Helping to promote equality at work

Trade unions usually have a policy statement that declares a commitment to equality. There are also equality committees that provide regular forums in which equality issues are discussed. Some unions hold annual equality conferences with a broad agenda containing a range of equality issues. Others hold conferences dedicated to particular groups, including women, disabled members, lesbian and gay members, and black and minority ethnic members. Such conferences intend to raise the awareness of equality issues, and provide a forum in which delegates from under-represented groups can gain experience of trade union processes and procedures.

The Role of Employers

The employers have responsibilities to promote equal opportunity and celebrate diversity within the organization. There is no doubt that breach of the discrimination legislation can be costly for employers, so it is also important for employers to make sure that they are complying with the laws.

There are five major roles of how employers act in managing a diverse workforce. They are eliminating discrimination & promoting equal opportunity, expanding the definition of diversity, developing a diversity policy, raising the awareness of diversity, and encouraging training for equality and diversity.

Eliminating discrimination & promoting equal opportunity

Discrimination still remains widespread in this era when all the political rhetoric presents difference as positive and valued. For example in the UK labour market, a recent study found that significant proportions of black and minority ethnic (BME) people have been declined a job on racial grounds. Discrimination can take different forms. It can manifest as a job or promotion refusal or it can involve harassment. Not only does discrimination have economic effects, but also impacts on psychological well-being and negatively affects the working lives. It is necessary for organizations to prevent occurrences of unlawful direct or indirect discrimination, harassment and victimization, by taking lawful affirmative or positive action where appropriate. Besides fulfilling legal obligations under equality legislation and associated codes of practice, employers should regard all breaches of equal opportunities policy as misconduct which could lead to disciplinary proceedings. Employers should examine and recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each employee, and assign suitable tasks that enable them to do their best abilities. This can allow greater chance of achieving success and minimize opportunities for failure

Expanding the definition of diversity and root it in all levels in the organization

Beside visible differences such as gender and race, employers can extend the meaning of diversity to other less visible aspects such as geographic background, sexual orientation, religion, language, physical disability, communication style and people who have family status. This concept should be applied to all processes within the organization, its core values and its strategic planning. This is a responsibility of every single division in an organization, rather than just the human resources giving the effort to enforce it.

Developing a diversity policy

Strategies and action plans are to be developed to ensure diversity is being respected. Any concern regarding diversity in the workplace should be addressed at the soonest and actions are taken to follow up. This will show the employees that diversity is being seriously considered as an important factor for the organization’s success. Such policies should be monitored and reviewed on a regular basis. For example, survey or meeting can be conducted with employees regarding the workplace environment. Employees should be encouraged to voice out their opinions and take part in the discussion. This can build up understanding between each other and any existing issues can be identified.

Raising the awareness of diversity

In order to raise the awareness of diversity in a workplace, employers should promote and appreciate the fact that a diverse workforce is existing in the organization. Promote the idea of how diversity is important to make a business more competitive to survive in the global market. It is important to show the employees that diversity is embraced so that they can be more comfortable with the working environment. As a result, greater productivity can be achieved. Employers should take initiative to learn about different culture, traditions and beliefs among employees. This can show to the employees that their race or ethnicity are being respected and appreciated.

Encouraging training for equality and diversity

Employers can actively look for training on topics for equality and diversity, and encourage employees on every level of the organization to participate. Government agencies or private HR consultant firms are sources of those training programs.

The Role of Government

Valuing diversity is not a concept recognized by law, and the UK legal framework does not on the whole promote diversity. However, recent legal development such as the Race Relations (amendment) Act 2000 (RR(A)A) which places a positive duty upon specified public sector employers and service providers to promote racial equality are arguably a move in this direction as promoting equality could require accommodating difference, in other words, this shift has made a closer stop to promote diversity.

The critical roles of government in diversity management are identified as: equality and human rights legislation, promoting good practices of equality and diversity, enforcing the equality law, and positive discrimination.

Equality and Human Rights legislation

The government that develops equality and anti-discrimination legislation can contribute to promote diversity in organizations. Until 1995, the law in Great Britain was narrowly confined to gender and race. Disability discrimination became unlawful in 1995, and transsexual people were protected from discrimination in employment from 1999. Sexual orientation and religion or belief have been grounds for discrimination claims since December 2003, and age discrimination became unlawful in October 2006. The roles of government also include enforcing such laws strictly, and taking legal cases on behalf of individuals as well as legal actions to prevent breaches of Equality and Human Rights Act.

Promoting good practices of equality and diversity

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in UK has a role to ensure people are aware of their rights. They work with employers and organizations to help them develop good practices aiming to minimize discrimination and promote equality of opportunity for all. They also work with policymakers, lawyers, and government to make sure that social policy and the law promote equality.

Enforcing the equality law

EHRC also have the responsibility to make sure that public authorities carry out their legal duties to tackle discrimination. This is done by launching official enquiries and formal investigations.

Positive discrimination

Positive discrimination refers to policies and practices which favor groups, such as minority ethnic groups and women, who have historically experienced disadvantages in employment and education. Advocates of positive discrimination argue that such policy is necessary in order to create equality of opportunities with historically privileged groups, given the existing structure of inequalities and stereotypes. However, it is highly controversial, and has generated much legal and political debate. There has been a recent trend in European Community anti-discrimination law toward tolerating positive discrimination in favor of women to redress under-representation of women in the workforce. There has been also a growing recognition of the substantive conception of equality in European Community law that could lead to increasing use of positive discrimination to redress inequality.

Conclusion

A diverse workforce enhances the performance of the business in many ways as discussed, such as greater innovation and higher morale among employees leading to higher productivity. Furthermore, diversity also helps to create a working environment where employees are respectful to each other. Discrimination is eliminated when equality of opportunity is being promoted throughout the organization. Diversity management has become a new organizational paradigm. There has been a growing number of organizations’ diversity statements in the corporate social responsibility section of their websites, most imply that workforce diversity is not only a moral issue, but critical to their success and future sustainability. Achieving workforce diversity cannot be done by the employers alone, it requires the effort also from labour unions as well as the government. Most importantly, employees also need to take part to help prevent discriminatory behavior by challenging and reporting potentially unfair or discriminatory behaviour. By celebrating diversity, the society will become a more equal and harmonious environment with minimum discrimination, and everyone can enjoy an equal opportunity.