Category: Free Essays

Understanding family violence in the military is an important concern because of the unique stresses faced by military families on a daily basis that could place them at greater risk for family dysfunction. Long separations, such as Deployment to war, can create a stressful lifestyle for military families. In the mid to late 1990s advocates and activists, were able to persuade policy makers that domestic violence constituted a social problem specifically for the military. American foreign policy has resulted in the deployment of U.S. military personnel to nations around the world, providing servicemen opportunities to meet and socialize with local women. Immigrant status keeps many women from seeking help or leaving the abusive relationship, fearing they can’t ask for help and deportation. The servicemen tried to prevent their immigrant wives from gaining independence or leaving the marriage. The military’s approach to prevent, identify and intervene with domestic violence relies heavily on the Family Advocacy Program (FAP).

Introduction

Family violence may be more common in the military population compared to the civilian population because of higher overall stress levels associated with the military lifestyle (e.g., frequent separations, long work hours, dangerous work environment, etc.). Long separations, such as Deployment to war, can create a stressful lifestyle for military families. Studies have proven long deployments increase the chances of returning with combat trauma, as a result heightens the risk of domestic violence (Rentz et al., 2006).

Understanding family violence in the military is an important concern because of the unique stresses faced by military families on a daily basis that could place them at greater risk for family dysfunction. Members of the armed forces are often required to relocate to another city, state, or country, often resulting in a disruption to family life. They also tend to work long hours and are subject to extended separations in the form of schooling, temporary assignments, or deployment, all of which may interfere with family obligations (Alvarez & Sontiag, 2008).

Domestic Violence in the Military: The History

The Department of Defense has taken a clear stance against family violence. In 1981, Department of Defense Directive 6400.1 required each branch of military service (Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps) to establish (a) a Family Advocacy Program to prevent and treat child maltreatment and spouse abuse and (b) a confidential central registry to collect and analyze

Family Advocacy Program data (Department of Defense, 2004).

It is unclear whether or not family violence would be more common among military families than among civilian families. Family violence may be more common in the military population compared to the civilian population because of higher overall stress levels associated with the military lifestyle (e.g., frequent separations, long work hours, dangerous work environment, etc.). Soldiers are subject to deployments and relocations that can often lead to a separation from peers and community support networks. Frequent and extensive separations may have a profound impact on marriages, particularly those of short duration, because they present a window of opportunity for the spouse left behind to explore independence and develop other relationships. For those relocated to installations located outside of the continental United States, social and cultural isolation is fairly common (Rentz et al., 2006).

There is an increasing number of active duty military (ADM) women, like their civilian counterparts, at risk for domestic violence (DV). This study illustrates active duty military women’s attitudes and choices concerning the military’s policy on domestic violence. 474 ADM women from all services were interviewed via telephone. Nineteen of whom had experienced DV during their military service (Gielen et al., 2006).

During the study, ADM women were afraid if they were to report domestic violence it would jeopardize their job. In fact, a higher proportion of military women thought regular screening would intensify future abuse (Gielen et al., 2006). This may be related to the military context in which there is mandatory reporting and a lack of confidentiality.

United States Military Culture

Gender-based violence, such as sexual harassment, rape, and domestic violence, is a global phenomenon that occurs among military families and within military communities, during peace time” and in time of war. A number of researchers and activists have argued that military culture, shared norms, for example, regarding masculinity, sexuality, violence, and women, is “conducive to rape” and sexual harassment, as well as domestic violence (Adelman, 2003).

In the United States, however, it was not until the mid to late 1990s that advocates and activists, working both within and outside of the military, were able to persuade policy makers that domestic violence constituted a social problem specifically for the military. Widespread media coverage of military-generated sexual harassment and sexual assault scandals as well as reporting of high rates of domestic violence in the U.S. military in Time magazine’s and 60 Minutes’s motivated the Department of Defense to address domestic violence in the military (Adelman, 2003).

Civilian advocates for battered women as well as military personnel warn that domestic violence harms servicewomen and civilian women (and their children) who are married to military servicemen. It also has been argued that domestic violence goes against the “institutional values of the military” and negatively affects military readiness (Adelman, 2003). These include creation of a task force, strengthening of reporting protocols, enhancement of the Family Advocacy Program, and encouragement to create public notice between civilian and military authorities.

Military policies regarding domestic violence diverge from civilian approaches in several significant ways. What constitutes a criminal violation, for example, and who substantiates a complaint of domestic violence conform to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ, n.d.). Privacy and confidentiality are not guaranteed within the military system, which mandates the reporting to unit commanders of suspected cases of domestic violence regarding personnel under their supervision. Military responses to domestic violence differ most clearly from civilian, state-based responses in that the social control mechanism doubles as the offender’s employer.

In the United States, the military or the military base constitutes a relatively isolated and autonomous social and legal entity that produces and is governed by its own language, norms, and laws. This reflects the idealized distance and legal division between military and civilian life in the United States, and as a result, studies of domestic violence in the U.S. military are based on a separation between the civil and the military, making it difficult to conduct comprehensive or comparative research. Orders of protection obtained in a civilian court, for example, may not be enforced within the federal jurisdiction of a military base and vice versa. Much of the concern with and research on military culture and relationships between military culture and domestic violence have been generated in the United States or in countries that host U.S. military bases, due to a number of high-profile cases of sexual harassment, rape, and domestic homicide in the U.S. military (Adelman, 2003).

Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence

Although the Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence (DTFDV) has made a serious attempt to address many of the concerns related to domestic violence in the military, its analysis of battering is highly flawed in key sections of the report. As a result, the report includes inappropriate recommendations for interventions and remedies. Battering is described as an individual, clinical problem in the section on training of military officers and the section on offender accountability. No attention is given to the societal attitudes and belief systems that support such violence and no distinctions are made between normal marital disputes and the pattern of power and control that characterizes domestic violence (DOD, 2004; Rosenthal & McDonald, 2003).

The DTFDV report strongly recommends that training be provided to military officers and presents information that should be included in such training. However, there is a troublesome emphasis within this information on anger management as a remedy in some domestic violence cases. The information states that “anger management classes should only be utilized in ‘low level’ emotional maltreatment cases where there has been no physical violence”. Classifying any domestic violence case as “low level” is problematic and indicates confusion about the dynamics of this specific pattern of behavior. Domestic violence is not about everyday arguments and irritabilities between couples. The pattern of behavior that is generally defined as domestic violence involves coercive, intimidating, frightening, and controlling behavior by one partner toward another. Situations in which such a pattern is present generally involve not only emotional maltreatment but also threats of violence that can quickly escalate into physical abuse (Rosenthal & McDonald, 2003).

Reports of Parental Spousal Violence

In the military, family violence directly jeopardizes the family’s financial security. A battered wife often protects the military husband against legal proceedings initiated by the military. The military also may be more likely to protect officers accused of spousal violence as compared to enlisted soldiers.

Studies indicate that children can accurately report on spousal violence. In the military, 95% of spousal violence occurs in the home and 43% of victims report that children witness the abuse. The study demonstrated that there was as general trend for more spousal violence in the military families with slapping, throwing objects, and an overall measure of violence distinguishing between the military and civilian groups. These differences persisted even when controlling for ethnic background and military rank. Spousal violence was significantly higher in commissioned officers as compared to enlisted personnel. The current study does not address whether the military environment contributes to increased spousal violence or whether individuals prone to abusive behavior are more likely to join the military (Cronin, 1995).

Immigration and Domestic Violence

Each year, hundreds of thousands of women enter the United States as a spouse of a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident, coming to the United States with significant disadvantages in social status and resources compared with their male partners. Women whose immigrant status is attached to their husbands’ U.S. citizenship enjoy somewhat greater legal protection than do undocumented immigrant women, but they too are vulnerable due to the structure of immigration law (MSCFV, n.d.).

Immigrant status keeps many women from seeking help from abuse or leaving the abusive relationship. Undocumented women fear that if they ask for help, the health or social service provider will turn them in for deportation. However, even battered immigrant women with legal immigrant status feel vulnerable to deportation should they seek help. Asian and Latino immigrant women with spousal visas tied to their abusers also report that fears of deportation maintain their involvement with their batterer (Erez & Bach, 2003).

The United States is considered “a nation of immigrants.” Nevertheless, who is allowed to legally immigrate has varied over time. U.S. immigration and naturalization laws have shaped the resulting immigrant pool in terms of gender, race or nationality, sexual orientation, and marital status. Subsequent changes in immigration policy, including an amnesty initiative in the mid-1980s, led to heterosexual family reunification and an increase in the numbers of women and children who migrated to the United States. Such gendered and sexualized patterns reflect how immigration and naturalization law serves to police the purported moral as well as political boundaries of the nation. These immigration laws affect why, when, how, and with whom women immigrate and their experiences of domestic violence subsequent to arrival in the United States (Erez, Adelman, & Gregory, 2009; Raj & Silverman, 2002).

Some women reported that the increase in emotional, sexual, and physical abuse coincided with immigration-specific activities such as entering the country, filing immigration papers, or accessing social welfare systems. The majority of women who came with their spouses reported that the transition and move to the United States altered the dynamics of the relationship: “He has had more power to manipulate in the U.S. because I am illegal and depended on him and I didn’t have any rights here” (Erez et al., 2009). Although law is not intentionally gender biased, one that creates a status-marriage dependency, such as immigration law, makes immigrant women more vulnerable to the domestic violence power dynamic.

Military Brides

American foreign policy has resulted in the deployment of U.S. military personnel to nations around the world, providing servicemen opportunities to meet and socialize with local women. Some members of the Armed Forces stationed overseas form intimate which they are deployed, making these women “military brides,” namely, foreign-born women who marry U.S. military personnel. For instance, the deployment of U.S. troops in Asian countries has resulted in more than 200,000 Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, and Filipino women marrying U.S. service members and immigrating to the United States since World War II. On arrival in this country, military brides become immigrants and are subject to U.S. immigration laws, which generally give, with few exceptions, a spouse (or parent) control over the immigration status of their dependents (Erez & Bach, 2003).

The servicemen tried to prevent their immigrant wives from gaining independence or leaving the marriage. Some husbands prohibited the women from looking for employment. One woman stated that the violence occurred while she was on the telephone discussing a job. Another woman noted that she could only work when her abuser was out of the house. Attempts by the women to take some actions to stop the abuse also triggered violence: “[Violence occurred] following meetings with an attorney or military officials” (Erez & Bach, 2003).

Without exception, the women interviewed reported that their husbands (or fiance in one case) used their immigration status as a weapon against them. The abuse tactics included threats to report them to immigration authorities, to inform the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) about presumed law violations, to take away the children, or to deport the women (Erez & Bach, 2003).

Without any close family or friends nearby, the women did not have any semblance of the social and cultural support networks that are available to other military wives. The immigrant women could not travel home, nor could they call or communicate with relatives or friends. They were not familiar with the civilian community around them and did not have the benefit of an immigrant community to turn to for support or advice. Without the presence of family, friends, or community, the isolation and powerlessness intensified (Raj & Silverman, 2002).

Lack of language skills increases immigrant women’s isolation, precludes access to information, and further limits their employment prospects. In responding to domestic violence in the military, special attention should be paid to women whose circumstances involve multiple vulnerabilities, such as military brides. Marital ties of immigrant women to abusive men combine military and immigration-related abuse and dependency, whether real or perceived. The study demonstrates that immigration status can become an additional weapon in the arsenal of abusive military partners. As immigrant women are often not aware of or informed about legal protections and available services, 10 immigration-related abuses can become an effective tool of control and domination. In light of the large number of intimate partnerships formed between American military personnel stationed abroad and foreign-born women, the abuse potential inherent in such relationships warrants special attention by the military in its efforts to address domestic violence (Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence, 2002).

It is important to remind all who work with battered women and immigrant communities that we must do what is necessary to improve the lives of battered immigrant women and their children. Members of immigrant communities, battered women’s advocates, researchers, policy makers, and most importantly, battered immigrant women must collaborate in designing these efforts.

Defense Department’s Family Advocacy Program

The Department of Defense created a Family Advocacy Program (FAP), providing victims with resources that would help get to safety and back on their feet. The program is available on each military base, and consists of coordinated efforts designed to prevent, identify, report and treat all aspects of child abuse and neglect, and domestic abuse. Each base also has a victim’s advocate who work with the unit’s FAP (DOD, 2004).

Licensed counselors, psychologists and social workers make up the military victim advocate. They are knowledgeable about the process military personnel and their families can take to address domestic violence. They also have available a list of resources, therapists, and shelters that will assist victims and their families. Advocates and consultants work with the victim, advising the individual of available options (DOD, 2004).

Commanding officers are ultimately responsible for maintaining good order and discipline among military personnel. Although all the Military Services provide training to assist commanding officers in understanding their roles and responsibilities related to command, the curricula and duration vary by Service. Department of Defense Directive (DoDD) 6400.1 mandates that the Family Advocacy Program (FAP) office notify a service member’s commanding officer when an act of abuse has allegedly occurred. The directive mandates the education and training of key personnel on policy and effective measures to alleviate problems associated with child and spouse abuse. The directive, however, does not define key personnel (Klimp & Tucker, 2001).

The services have implemented this policy in varying ways, to include everything from individual briefings with commanding officers once they have assumed command positions on an installation to a group training format. The Army provides specific instructions on briefing commanding officers via Army Regulation 608-18, the Army FAP. The Navy’s guidance is outlines on OPNAVINST 1752.2A, FAP, noting that commanding officers shall ensure that the command is trained on the identification and prevention of family violence, reporting requirements, and command, community, and FAP response awareness as regular professional development training (Klimp & Tucker, 2001).

The Air Force provides guidance in Air Force Instruction 40-301, FAP and the Marine Corps provides guidance for commanding officer training in MCOP 1752.3B, Marine Corps FAP Standing Operation. Unit commanders at installations with a family service center should obtain a FAP brief from the FAP manager within 45 days of assuming command (Klimp & Tucker, 2001).

The Department of Defense does not mandate domestic violence training specifically for military commanding officers. However, the DOD advises the Services to provide education and training for key personnel. Installations vary in their interpretations of the directive, and, as a result, some programs have more depth than others. The military’s approach to prevent, identify and intervene with domestic violence relies heavily on FAP. Given they operate under the guidance of qualified mental health professionals they are readily available to assist those military personnel and their families with their needs.

Summary

Domestic violence includes but not limited to the willful intimidation, physical assault and battery against an intimate partner or child. It also includes emotionally abusive and controlling behavior that establishes a pattern of dominance and control (NCADV, 2005). Even though domestic violence is never acceptable, mental health professionals know firsthand how the kind of intense stress experienced by military members often leads to abusive behaviors.

In the 2008 New York Times article “When Strains on Military Families Turn Deadly,” the authors state that studies illustrate the relationship between combat experience, trauma, and domestic violence. The article cited a 2006 study which focused on veterans at a Veterans Affairs medical center who sought marital counseling between 1997 and 2003. They found that those with PTSD were significantly more likely to perpetrate violence toward their partner. Studies like these, and reports by those who work with military personnel and their families, have many mental health practitioners, military leaders, and policymakers concerned, and determined to find solutions for countless victims, before it’s too late. The NYT article mentioned several instances where mental health problems associated with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars led to devastating, deadly homicides, with a service member killing his spouse, or child, and sometimes turning the gun on himself afterwards (Alvarez & Sontiag, 2008).

Future research is needed that explores family violence in all branches of the military. Studies should also focus on the simultaneous occurrence of child maltreatment and spouse abuse in military families. The civilian and military communities are urged to work toward using common definitions and practices to facilitate comparison of rates among the populations. It is important to further examine service availability and utilization to determine the impact on family violence.

References:

Adelman, M. (2003). The Military, Militarism and the Militarization of domestic violence.

Violence Against Women, 9: 1118-1152. DOI: 10.1177/1077801203255292.

Alvarez, L. & Sontiag, D. (2008, February 15). When strains on military families turn deadly.

The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/us/15vets.html?pagewanted=2HYPERLINK “http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/us/15vets.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1?&HYPERLINK “http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/us/15vets.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1?_r=1

Cronin, C. (1995). Adolescent reports of parental spousal violence in Military and civilian

families. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 10: 117-122. DOI: 10.1177/088626095010001008.

Department of Defense. (2004). Department of Defense Directive 6400.1. Retrieved from

http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/640001p.pdf

Erez, E. & Bach, S. (2003). Immigration, domestic violence, and the military: The case of

“Military Brides.” Violence Against Women, 9: 1093-1117. DOI: 10.1177/1077801203255289.

Erez, E., Adelman, M. & Gregory, C. (2009). Intersections of immigration and domestic

violence: Voices of battered immigrant women. Feminist Criminology, 4: 32-56. DOI: 10.1177/1557085108325413.

Gielen, A., Campbell, J., Garza, M. A., O’Campo, P., Dienemann, J., Kub, J., & … Lloyd, D. W.

(2006). Domestic Violence in the Military: Women’s Policy Preferences and Beliefs Concerning Routine Screening and Mandatory Reporting. Military Medicine, 171(8), 729-735. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Klimp, J. W. & Tucker, T.T. (2001). Domestic violence. Arlington, VA: Task Force

Mid-Shore Council on Family Violence. (n.d.). Domestic violence immigrant victims. Retrieved

from http://www.mscfv.org/dvstat.html

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. (2005). Domestic Violence. Retrieved from

http://www.ncadv.org/aboutus.php

Raj, A. & Silverman, J. (2002). Violence against immigrant women: The roles of culture,

context, and legal immigrant status on intimate partner violence. Violence Against Women, 8: 367-398. DOI: 10.1177/10778010222183107.

Rentz, D.E., Martin, S.L., Gibbs, D.A., Clinton-Sherrod, M. Hardison, J. & Marshall, S. (2006).

Family violence in the military: A review of the literature. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 7: 93-108. DOI: 10.1177/1524838005285916.

Rosenthal, L. & McDonald, S. (2003). Seeking justice: A review of the second report of the

defense task force on domestic violence. Violence Against Women, 9: 1153-1161. DOI: 10.1177/1077801203255549.

Uniform Code of Military Justice. (n.d.) Retrieved from

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ucmj.htm

Part II: A Reflection Piece

“The Family Justice Center”

Abstract

The Family Justice Center (FJC) is just that, a multi-agency service center for victims of family violence and their children. FJC is comprised of multiple community partners. With my legal background interning with the legal network was the best fit. My role consisted of screening domestic violence (DV) victims, assisting in the process of obtaining a temporary restraining order (TRO) and providing court support. As a certified paralegal and currently studying forensic psychology I am finding it somewhat difficult to overstep my boundaries in performing dual roles. The most challenging policy to adhere is the qualifications for obtaining a TRO. It is difficult to determine what qualification constitutes someone as being qualified for a TRO. Does a victim have to get beaten before applying for a TRO? At what point do we justify what qualifies? One of the laws that we do follow is the Dr. Jackie Campbell’s Danger Assessment. The Danger Assessment (DA) was originally developed by Co-Investigator Campbell with consultation and content validity support from battered women, shelter workers, law enforcement officials, and other clinical experts on battering. As every multi-disciplinary team is unique, it is important to be aware of strategies to address challenges related to working in multi-disciplinary teams. Whether it is defining roles, setting boundaries, or ensuring all team members can contribute equally, strategies like these can help multi-disciplinary teams address challenges they often encounter.

Introduction

There are many forensic psychology settings in which forensic psychology professionals may work. Forensic psychology professionals may work with offenders in the courts, in prisons, in halfway houses, or in community settings. Forensic psychology professionals may also work with crime victims in settings such as domestic violence shelters. There are many reasons why I chose the forensic psychology setting I did for my field experience.

The Family Justice Center

The Family Justice Center (FJC) focuses on creating a network nationally and internationally minimizing family violence. The center also provides, training, consultation and host conferences. The FJC is comprised of multiple professionals and services such as a military liaison, mental health services, a law enforcement department, and a legal department.

The FJC is just that, a multi-agency service center for victims of family violence and their children. This center offers children with close working relationships, shared training and technical assistance, collaborative learning processes, and coordinated funding assistance (FJC, 2009).

The FJC legal network’s mission statement is to “provide convenient and free legal services to victims of domestic violence” (FJC, 2009). FJC goes above and beyond their mission statement. They provide additional resources and center’s their attention only on the individual client. They provide a child care center for clients with children, a waiting room filled with drinks and snacks is provided as well as small therapy rooms equipped with comfortable sofas. The therapy room is where assessments are conducted for privacy purposes.

Roles and Responsibilities

FJC is comprised of multiple community partners. With my legal background interning with the legal network was the best fit. My role consisted of screening domestic violence (DV) victims, assisting in the process of obtaining a temporary restraining order (TRO) and providing court support at court hearings. Once the screening is conducted, I consult with my supervising attorney to determine if the client has qualifying elements to proceed with a TRO.

To qualify for a TRO through FJC, a client must have one of the following relationships to the person they want restrained:

Spouse or former spouse

Person with whom you share(d) a living space

Have or had a dating/engagement relationship

Parents of a child

Relative to the second degree (grandparents, but not cousins)

The person they wish to have restrained must ALSO have committed one of these acts:

Recent physical violence

Recent threats of physical violence

Harassment

Recent sexual assault or molestation

Stalking

Verbal abuse (only when very severe) (FJC, 2009).

Ethical Issues

The FJC takes every precaution to follow all ethical codes set upon all professionals within the organization. As I mentioned before the FJC is comprised of various professionals such as detectives, counselors/psychologists and attorneys. Each professional has its own ethical codes to follow.

The legal department follows same ethical codes related to confidentiality and release of information (APA, 2010: Ethical Standard Code 4; AP-LS, 2008: Specialty Guideline 10). Each client is required to go through two screenings before they move forward with the legal department. A psychologist screens them and if there are visible injuries, the client is seen by a forensic medical examiner. At this time, a release authorization form of the photos is signed by client. This gives the organization permission to use the photos as evidence for court hearings. Each client is required to sign a confidentiality agreement form prior to meeting with the legal department.

As stated above the organization is also comprised of police officers and detectives. Police officers and detectives have their own ethical codes to follow. At times a client would arrive and would also like to file a police report. At the moment the client is allowed to file a report. At no time can the psychologist or attorney be present during this time. If a third party was present during this time, the third party is entitled to testify in court as a witness for the criminal case. It can get pretty complicated. I ran into this problem when assisting with the client that was a detective.

As a certified paralegal and currently studying forensic psychology I found it somewhat difficult not to overstep my boundaries in performing dual roles (APA, 2010: Ethical Standard Code 3; AP-LS, 2008: Specialty Guidelines 6). Part of my responsibility prior to assisting with the TRO I have to screen them to determine if they have enough evidence to move forward with a TRO. Sometimes I find myself steering towards a psychological assessment only to remember that I’m screening for legal purposes.

Legal Issues

With the legal field come many laws, regulations and procedures. The most challenging policy to adhere is the

Domestic violence: a brief critical analysis of impact and interventions built on a definitional, historical, and theoretical foundation.

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.

References

Asian Pages (1998) What is domestic violence? November 14, 1998.

Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Cited in Danis, Fran S. (2003) The criminalization of domestic violence: What social workers need to know. Social Work, April 1, 2003.

Blau, P. M. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Danis, Fran S. (2003) The criminalization of domestic violence: What social workers need to know. Social Work, April 1, 2003.

Brown, Karen R. and Kenneym, Catherine T. (1996) Report from the front lines: The impact of violence on poor women [Part 1 of 5]. Contemporary Women’s Issues Database, January 1, 1996.

Chalk, R., & King, A. (1998). (Eds.). Violence in families: Assessing prevention and treatment programs. Washington, DC: National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences. Cited in Danis, Fran S. (2003) The criminalization of domestic violence: What social workers need to know. Social Work, April 1, 2003.

Chez, N (1994) Helping the victim of domestic violence. American Nursing 1994;94(7):32-37. Cited in Cited in Gibson-Howell, Joan C. (1996) Domestic violence identification and referral. Journal of Dental Hygiene, March 1, 1996.

Contemporary Women’s Issues Database (1996) Domestic and sexual violence data collection [Part 3 of 9], July 1, 1996.

Contemporary Women’s Issues Database (1996) Measuring the costs of domestic violence against women and the cost-effectiveness of interventions [Part 1 of 6], May 1, 1996.

Contemporary Women’s Issues Database (1993) Men beating women: Ending domestic violence—a qualitative and quantitative study of public attitudes on violence against women [Part 3 of 7], April 1, 1993.

Contemporary Women’s Issues Database (1996) You or someone you know may live in a home where domestic violence is a problem, January 1, 1996.

CrimeReduction.gov.uk (2005), Domestic violence http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/domesticviolence51.htm, April 4, 2005 [April 11, 2005].

CrimeReduction.gov.uk (2005), Domestic violence mini-site http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/dv01.htm, April 4, 2005 [April 9, 2005].

Crowell, N. A., and Burgess, A. W. (1996). (Eds.). Understanding violence against women. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Cited in Danis, Fran S. (2003) The criminalization of domestic violence: What social workers need to know. Social Work, April 1, 2003.

Cruz, J. Michael (2003) Why doesn’t he just leave? Gay male domestic violence and the reasons victims stay. The Journal of Men’s Studies, March 22, 2003.

Danis, Fran S. (2003) The criminalization of domestic violence: What social workers need to know. Social Work, April 1, 2003.

Dobash, R. E., and Dobash, R. (1979). Violence against wives: A case against the patriarchy. New York: Free Press. Cited in Danis, Fran S. (2003) The criminalization of domestic violence: What social workers need to know. Social Work, April 1, 2003.

Edleson, J. L. (1999). The overlap between child maltreatment and woman battering. Violence Against Women, 5(2), 134-154. Cited in Spath, Robin (2003) Child protection professionals identifying domestic violence indicators: implications for social work education. Journal of Social Work Education, September 22, 2003.

Gelles, R. J., & Cornell, C. P. (1985). Intimate violence in families. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Cited in Danis, Fran S. (2003) The criminalization of domestic violence: What social workers need to know. Social Work, April 1, 2003.

Gelles, R. J., & Cornell, C. P. (1990). Intimate violence in families (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Cited in Danis, Fran S. (2003) The criminalization of domestic violence: What social workers need to know. Social Work, April 1, 2003.

Gibson-Howell, Joan C. (1996) Domestic violence identification and referral. Journal of Dental Hygiene, March 1, 1996.

Hanna, Cheryl (1998) The paradox of hope: the crime and punishment of domestic violence. William and Mary Law Review, May 1, 1998.

Hewitt, Kim (2002), Silent victims of violence in home. The News Letter (Belfast, Northern Ireland), September 14, 2002.

Isaac, Nancy E. (1997) Response to battered mothers in the pediatric emergency department: a call for an interdisciplinary approach to family violence. Pediatrics, February 1, 1997.

Josiah, Ivy (1998) Education through radio. Contemporary Women’s Issues Database, January 2, 1998.

Kelly, Kristin A. (2004) Working together to stop domestic violence: state-community partnerships and the changing meaning of public and private. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, March 1, 2004.

Laurence, Louise and Spalter-Roth, Roberta (1996) Research-in-brief: Measuring the costs of domestic violence against women [Part 1 of 2] Contemporary Women’s Issues Database, January 1, 1996.

Leo, John (1994) Is it a war against women? U.S. News & World Report, July 11, 1994.

Loring, M. T. and Smith, R. W. (1994) Health care barriers and interventions for battered women. Public HealthReports 1994;109(3):322-329. Cited in Gibson-Howell, Joan C. (1996) Domestic violence identification and referral. Journal of Dental Hygiene, March 1, 1996.

M2 Presswire (1998) Home Office: Prevention, protection and justice: A comprehensive approach to tackle domestic violence, June 16, 1998.

Manor, John H. (1996) Helping abusers out of the domestic violence equation. Michigan Chronicle, January 30, 1996.

Meyersfeld, Bonita C. (2003) Reconceptualizing domestic violence in international law. Albany Law Review, December 22, 2003.

Neufield, Brenda (1996) SAFE questions: overcoming barriers to the detection of domestic violence. American Family Physician, June 1, 1996.

O’Leary, K. D. (1987). Physical aggression between spouses: A social learning theory perspective. In V. B. Van Hasselt, R. L. Morrison, A. S. Bellack, & M. Hersen (Eds.), Handbook of family violence (pp. 31-55). New York: Plenum Press. Cited in Danis, Fran S. (2003) The criminalization of domestic violence: What social workers need to know. Social Work, April 1, 2003.

Salisbury, Sarah and Wichmann, Lee Anne (2004), Seen or unseen, domestic violence traumatizes children. The Register-Guard, August 29, 2004.
Schechter, S. (1982) Women and male violence: The visions and struggles of the battered women’s movement. Boston: South End Press. Cited in Danis, Fran S. (2003) The criminalization of domestic violence: What social workers need to know. Social Work, April 1, 2003.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer (1999) Domestic violence: Give us statistics we can work with. July 16, 1999.

Shakespeare, William (1604), Othello act 5. sc. 2. Edited by Sanders, Norman. Cambridge University Press, 1984. Cited in Meyersfeld, Bonita C. (2003) Reconceptualizing domestic violence in international law. Albany Law Review, December 22, 2003.

Siegel, Reva B. (1996), The rule of love”: Wife beating as prerogative and privacy, 105 YALE L.J. 2117. Tuerkheimer, Deborah (2004), Recognizing and remedying the harm of battering: A call to criminalize domestic violence. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, June 22, 2004.

Simerman, John (2002) Men, too, fall victim to abuse in big numbers. Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, November 25, 2002.

Spath, Robin (2003) Child protection professionals identifying domestic violence indicators: implications for social work education. Journal of Social Work Education, September 22, 2003.

Starr, Raymond H., Jr. (2001) Type and timing of mothers’ victimization: effects on mother and children. Pediatrics, April 1, 2001.

Tuerkheimer, Deborah (2004), Recognizing and remedying the harm of battering: A call to criminalize domestic violence. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, June 22, 2004.

Verkaik, Robert (2003) One man in six `a victim of domestic violence’. The Independent, September 24, 2003.

Wha-soon, Byun (1994) A study on the prevention of and countermeasures against domestic violence [Part 1 of 2]. Contemporary Women’s Issues Database, January 1, 1994.

Winkvist, Anna (2001) Researching domestic violence against women: Methodological and ethical considerations. Studies in Family Planning, March 1, 2001.

Yllo, K. A. (1993). Through a feminist lens: Gender, power, and violence. In R. J. Gelles & D. R. Loseke (Eds.), Current controversies on family violence (pp. 47-62). Newbury Park, GA: Sage Publications. Cited in Danis, Fran S. (2003) The criminalization of domestic violence: What social workers need to know. Social Work, April 1, 2003.

Introduction

Domestic violence is a universal phenomenon and more and more governments play importance on it. There are three major types of domestic violence including violent against women, child abuse and elder abuse. Since domestic violence includes primarily of violence against women, we will going to review the situation of violent against women in Hong Kong in this paper.

In this study, the term of “violence against women” will be used instead of “wife abuse” because “violence against women” consists not only women who are married legally with the abuser, but also the co-habitees or separated partners, since violence could be continued even the relationship ended.

Definitions of violence against women

Although the United Nations found violence against women as the ‘major obstacle’ to the achievement of equality, development and peace for women in 1985 (1), the nations didn’t seem to emphasis it. Research showed that every one of three women in the global had ever experienced violence in an intimate relationship. (World Health Organization, 1997)(12)

Generally speaking, violence against women refers to those acts totally committed violent against women. In the United Nations General Assembly 1994, violence against women had been defined as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.” UN had a rather feminist view that violence against women is an expression of sex inequality and is used to uphold the domination over women and to keep discrimination against women by men. (UN, 1995)

The severity of violence against women

According to the data of Social Welfare Department of HK, there is an increase in the number of spouse battering from 1,906 in 1998 up to 6,483 in 2008. (SWD, HK. 2008) Over 80% of them are women abuse. The researches related to violence against women in Hong Kong were very rare, they asserted that the situation is getting worse and the government should take it seriously, however. It is about two-third of Tang’s survey respondents had at least one time of verbal abuse, (Tang, 1999) Researches showed that around 10% of the survey respondents had experienced at least one time of physical abuse by their male partners. (Tang, 1999; Chan, 2005) Chan (2000, 2005) also noticed that a rather high proportion of victims were having little schooling as well as homemakers. Studies revealed the fact that over 50% of battered women were at the age range of 31 to 40 (Harmony House Report 2007; Chan, 2000) and over 80% were new migrants from Mainland China. (Harmony House Report 2007)

Majority of women who experience intimate violence do not report it to the police. (Backman and Coker, 1995)

Outline of this paper

In the following, we will first go through the forms of violence against women including physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse. Then, the theories related to violence against women – Family perspective and Feminist perspective will be discussed, and the idea of Patriarchal ideology and Confucianism will be addressed. After that, we will look deep into the existing situation in Hong Kong which consist the services provided for the victims and the abusers, the difficulties the victims face, and how Hong Kong government handle domestic violence. In the last part, the intervention strategies like resource allocation, legislation and education that combating this violence issue will be encountered.

Forms of violence against women

There are three forms of abuse: Physical abuse, psychological abuse and sexual abuse, in which physical abuse is the most common form that abuse men give to their female partners.

Physical abuse

Physical abuse refers to a physical assault or violent act that attacks the victim’s physical integrity, like pushes, slaps, pinches, punches, spits, kicks, burns, fractures, locked women in the house, put women in an unsafe places or murder. (Chan, 2000) Dobash et al., (1985) stated that only 3% of assaults are ‘low’ in physical severity the rest are ‘medium’ or ‘high’. (as cited in Mullender, 1996) Physical abuse usually accompanied by emotional abuse.

Psychological or emotional abuse

Psychological abuse, also referred to as emotional abuse, is a kind of emotional or psychological attacks or the neglect of psychological or emotional needs, described a person subjecting or exposing another to behavior that is psychologically harmful. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_abuse) Actually, there is no universal accepted definition for emotional abuse. Here I adopted the definition from U.S. Department of Justice that emotional abuse is “causing fear by intimidation, verbal or non-verbal, threatening physical harm to self, partner, children, or partner’s family or friends, destruction of pets and property, forcing isolation from family, friends, or school or work.”(U.S. Department of Justice, Edleson, 1984) Emotional abuse, differ from physical abuse and sexual abuse, is a continued and repetitive behavior, used to harden fear to reinforce the control of the abuser so as to strengthen the obedience and passive acceptance to the abuser.

Sexual abuse

Sexual abuse is a dissented and pressurized sexual behavior or acts, forced by one person upon another. Sometimes the abuser compels unwanted sexual activity without physical force by using their position of trust but mostly physical abuse comes with sexual abuse. According to Chan (2000), those behaviors includes rape or sexual assault, incest coerced by force, inappropriate touching, exposure of genitalia, force the partner to have sexy dressing or ignoring one’s sexual character. Russell (1990) reminded us that spousal sexual abuse is one kind of domestic violence which may sometimes constitute marital rape or an assault.

Causes of the problem
Theories related to Violence against women

The universality of domestic violence caused many scholars to explore the reasons for violence against women.

Family perspective

Family perspective is one of the perspectives the scholars like to adopt. This approach believed that the behavior of a family member is influenced by the responses or feedback of other members. It seemed violence as a symmetrical between both sexes, and viewed individual and family relation as the core for the explanation for domestic violence, suggested a reduction in structural stresses and work on individual pathologies in dealing with the problem. Obviously the Hong Kong government had adapted this perspective in explaining the causes of domestic violence as it stressed on maintaining the function of the family or improving marital relationships. (Leung, 2008)

Feminist perspective

On the other hand, some scholars explained violence against women abuse from the view of feminist theory which locates the root of violence against women in a social-structural context rather than a private or family problem. (United Nation, 1989; Adam, 1998) This approach believed that women do not have equal rights and do not have institutional power, instead, women are considered as inferior and subordinate, and more serious, the properties to men. (United Nation, 1989)

As the tolerance for violence act against women are vary across culture, the feminist give explanation that it is due to different levels of patriarchal values across cultures. (Bui & Morash, 1999; Nayak et al.2003) The endorsement of the beliefs regarding rape and spousal physical violence and the tendency of blaming the victim showed that both gender and sociocultural factors had great impact on the attitudes toward violence against women. (Nayak et al. 2003) Tang (1999) recommended patriarchy theory in explaining violence against women in Chinese societies.

Patriarchal ideology
Patriarchy

Patriarchy is a system of society in which men holding the determination power over women and children of the household. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchy) Feminists believed that violence against women is rooted in a patriarchal system which men keep women in a subordinate position through the use of control, usually enhanced through existing economics, social, and political, and legal dimensions. Socialization process help strengthen men to subordinate women. (Sugarmen and Frankel, 1996) Many scholars agreed that the social structure created and maintained under the patriarchy keep on justified the male dominant beliefs of women’s inferior status. (Tang, 1999; Anderson, 1988; Sugarmen and Frankel, 1996)

Patriarchal ideology and Confucianism

Confucianism which strengthens patriarchal system had great impact in Chinese society. Women lived under the ethical norms of Confucianism were suppressed into inferior, dependent, and submissive status, and are expected to obey the men. In the past thousand years, Chinese women followed womanhood decencies like san cong si de (three obedience and four virtues) and xian qi liang mu, (a virtuous wife and a good mother) (Tang, 1999) see contributing male offsprings to their husbands’ lineage and serving her husband as her responsibilities.

The social norms in Chinese society accept using physical force to discipline female family members, for those fail to live up their prescribed roles will result in patraiarchal brutality under the “rules of the family”. Therefore, it is legal for a man to afford all forms of violence against women, usually physical abuse. On the other hand, the Chinese culture of interpersonal harmony forced wives to keep on tolerating the inequality so as to protect the reputation and stability of their families. Research showed that around half of the surveyed women mentioned cultural reasons for staying with their partner. (Adam, 1998) Therefore, the extent of violence against women has been largely hidden and widely denied by our society.

Though Chinese women had greater opportunities for education in recent decades, and there is an increase in the acceptance of a greater flexibility of gender norms, decision making power in the household matter still holding in the men’s hand. More and more female go out to work, yet they have to do most of the housework. (Choi and Lee, 1997) Chan and Lee believed that traditional patriarchal values are deeply permeated into Chinese family system. Therefore, when wives ask for more gender equality, the husbands may understand as their domination and superiority in the family had been defied, and may react with use of violence. Tang (1999) As the society tolerate towards domestic violence, and the experience of being discrimination when seeking for help, the abused women remained in the relationship.

The existing situation in Hong Kong
Violence against women in Hong Kong

In the past 10 years, there was a rapid increase in spousal abuse. Importantly, more than 80% of victims of spousal abuse in 2008 were female, 60% of the female victims were suffering from physical abuse (SWD, HK, 2008) Harmony House reported that 71% of women had been subjected to violence for over three years. (Harmony House Annual Report 2008-2009) Pahl(1985a) and Binneyet al. (1988) got similar findings. (As cited in Mullender, 1996) Harmony House (Harmony House, 1996/1997 Annual Report) pointed out 41.7% of female victims suffered from both physical and sex abuse, and 24.1% suffered physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the same time. Chan (2000) found that 63.6% of his survey respondents viewed male chauvinism as the major cause of domestic violence which request obedience of the women. It is concluded as influenced by the traditional culture of patriarchal ideology in which female were in an inferior status.

It is rather problematic that the mass as well as the front-line professionals such as police officers and social workers were likely to endorse that wife abuse is a private matter or family issue. (Tang, 2005; Leung, 2008) Leung (2008) stated that the occurrence of domestic violence, in the current view of Hong Kong society, is due to lack of communication between family members or because of individuals under pressure. The mainstream believed that both men and women have equal chance of spousal abuse. Therefore, the government did not consider the hidden gender power imbalances in domestic violence during the policy formulating process.

Under such ideologies, the services related to domestic violence focus on how to maintain the unity of the family rather the safety of the victims; the police officers view domestic violence as low priority to handle, and discouraged abused women to file their complaints (Leung, 2008), and legal system continue to treat battering as an individual problem rather than criminal behavior (Ferraro, 1989; Leung, 2008) In result, the victims who are in the subordinate status would rather keep quite, while the abuser’s violent act was intensified. (Leung, 2006)(Tam and Tang, 2005)

Service provided for the victims and the abusers

There are certain NGOs in Hong Kong care and pay effort in the fighting against domestic violence, providing shelters and services for victims and male batterers, arranging prevention programmes and community education. Due to limited resources, their services are unable to handle the needs.

Leung (2009) explained the Hong Kong government has increase the budget on family service in the past years in order to recruit more staff to carry out the family support projects, nevertheless, the fund did not specifically designate to the use of handling cases of domestic violence. SWD had increase resources on the accommodation beds in the shelter from 180 in 2007-2008 to 260 in 2008-2009, and to prolong the working hour of the shelters so as to provide better service for the victims. But it is regrettable that there are too little resources for measures to combat gender-based violence in the home.

The difficulties the victims face

Researchers found that the abused women in Hong Kong had great difficulties in seeking help from neither police officers nor social workers. (Leung, 2008; Hong Kong Women’s Coalition on Equal Opportunities, 2005; Tam and Tang, 2005) It is very common for the front-line professionals to endorse that wife abuse is a private matter or family issue. (Tang, 2005; Leung, 2008) Leung (2008) pointed out that abused women always had bad experience when they seek help from the police. Most of the police perceive violence against women as a family issue and pay less attention to it, they usually persuade the victims to close the files. Even though the police are willing to handle the case, for domestic violence usually seems as family disputes which may not involved in criminal act that the police could take action, the case would most be disregarded. On the other hand, some front-line social workers paid inadequate support and empathy to the victims. It is largely because of the common bias attitudes towards the abused women especially those came from Mainland China. Some other social workers use family therapy that emphasis unity of the family to handle domestic violence cases that force the abused woman to go back to the abuser. It is inevitable that rare of legislator, social worker or police may suggest the abused women to apply injunction order. It revealed that the front-line professionals were lack of gender sensitivity in dealing the cases.

The abused women often found housing problem. Compassionate rehousing could only offer by the social workers of SWD which relied on strong social ground defined by the social workers themselves. However, most social workers had bias that those women were taking advantage during the process. The policies of CSSA restrict the application for those new arrivals that were lived in Hong Kong for less than seven years even those they suffered from abuse.

How Hong Kong government handle Domestic Violence

There was a great reaction in the society after Tin Sui Wai Family Tragedy happened in 2004 and the government was forced to deal with it. According to the ‘Report of Review Panel on Family Services in Tin Shui Wai’ (2004), 25 suggestions were addressed, including the measures of three-tiered structure established by the police provide a graded response to investigating domestic violence. Relevant information is input into the Central Domestic Violence Database, district supervisory officers will look into those repeated cases occurring within 12 months. However, the prosecution rate of spouse battering remains low. In 2005, the police recorded 1,274 cases of spouse battering, in which 1,159 cases were arrested due to their criminal act, but only 10% were finally convicted. (Hong Kong Amnesty International, 2006)

The Domestic Violence Ordinance (DVO) was enacted in 1986 in Hong Kong. At that time, the scope of definition of domestic violence is narrow to those live in matrimonial home, but excludes some other intimate relationships like co-habitees, separated partners or same sex partners. And the domestic violence is seemed as ‘molest’ in this ordinance that restricted domestic violence to civil act. The limited scope of definition of domestic violence led to low utilization rate of DVO and low application of injunction order. Amendments of DVO came after more and more criticism in recent years in 2008 and 2009. Amendments includes the scope of definition of domestic violence extend to co-habitees, separated partners and same sex cohabitants and the Batterer Intervention Programme was enforced.

The Women’s Commission, a central mechanism plays a strategic role in advising Hong Kong Government on policy direction on women issues, addressed a policy paper in 2006 to outline a strategy to address victims’ empowerment, prevention of violence, timely and effective intervention, community education and support. The paper provided a lot of suggestions related to various aspects, including legislation reform, services, promotion, database, training for professionals, training on gender mainstream, early identification and intervention and community networks. The paper is comprehensive, yet the Commission has not legal authorities to implement the suggestions.

In response to the rapid increase of domestic violence in past decades, Working Group on Combating Violence (WGCV), coordinated by the SWD, comprises representatives from related bureaux, government departments and non-governmental organizations, is formed for mapping out strategies to address the problem of spouse battering and sexual violence. (www.swd.gov.hk) Due to limited authority, the WGCV seems unable to coordinate the cooperation among different sectors of the government departments that no body function in policy making, coordination, and supervising (Leung, 2008)

Leung (2008) criticized that the work done by the Hong Kong government in the fighting against domestic violence was unsatisfactory, the most critical problem is that the Hong Kong government and most of the policy makers did not view violence against women at home as a gender issue or human right issue but only family issue. For this reason, no comprehensive policy base on the gender mainstream was set to handle the domestic violence. (Leung, 2006; Hong Kong Women’s Coalition on Equal Opportunities) The SWD report (2005) confirmed that domestic violence is a family matter by mentioned that ‘family violence …amongst those who used violence, such as low self-esteem, lack of empathy, alcohol or drug addiction, a history of abuse and neglect as a child, social isolation etc…..’ Such viewpoint makes people ignore how serious women abuse is in Hong Kong, and force the abused women to remain in the relationship. Actually domestic violence rooted in patriarchal ideology that is widespread over the community that the violent act of the abuser is literally an offense of manipulation of male against women.

Leung (2008) found that there are two main obstacles in putting the concept of gender mainstream into the domestic violence policies. The first one is that both the front-line professional and the policy makers were lack of gender sensitivity; secondly, inadequate resource and service coordination is put and insufficient staff and authority of coordinating framework to organize, and to coordinate and supervise the policies of domestic violence and its implementation. (Leung, 2008, P70) Besides, the government has not made any specific action plan on how to carry out the gender mainstreaming policy.

Intervention strategies to combat the violence issue
Legislation and judicial procedures

It is necessary to review the current measures on domestic violence if we want to resolve the issue of violence against women in the long-run. In the aspect of legislation and judicial procedures, the government should take a deep review the law on domestic violence so that violence against women could be classified as criminal act. Simplify and improve the judicial protection orders like lengthen the duration of injunction order would be helpful. Also, improvement to the measures of support for victims of domestic violence would reinforce the prosecution. It is rather difficult for the victims to testify against their husbands face to face in the court. The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (2007) thus suggested providing supporting worker for the victims who would accompany with victims during the hearing, provide relevant legal information actively, and contact with the prosecutors and the court to keep updated the process of the case. Comprehensive information for victims is vital. For most of the victims do not know their right, it is rather helpful if the front-line professional would provide appropriate information and service such as shelters and application for injunction order.

Resources

It is certainly that government should enhance the availability and accessibility of the shelters at the same time. For the perpetrators, compulsory batterer intervention program (BIP) seems to be effective and should be enforced. On the other hand, Tin Sui Wai Family Tragedy revealed that professional training for handling domestic violence must be strengthened. As a matter of fact, social welfare agencies are lack of resources and support from the government to combat gender-based violence in the home. Therefore, it is unable for them to deepen the intervention and therapies on domestic violence. The government should add the specific matching grants of domestic violence. Although extra HKD 22 million has budgeted to recruit additional staff to implement family support projects, no designation for the fund to handle cases of domestic violence, in result, no advancement to the service on domestic violence.

The change of ideology

Other than resource and legislation and judicial procedures, the change of ideology is most significant. In recent years, governments in many western countries agreed that domestic violence is a gender issue and bring it to the criminal level. Similar arguments also found in Hong Kong (The Women’s Commission, 2006; Leung, 2006, 2008)

Leung (2008) stressed that the best way to protect women from abuse is to take the concept of gender mainstream into account when handling the issue of domestic violence. The concept of gender mainstreaming having been developed after the 1985 3rd World Conference on Women in Nairobi and was formally featured in the Platform for Action of the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. (centers.law.nyu.edu) Gender mainstreaming is defined as the public policy concept of ‘the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.’ (United Nations, 1997)

In response to the ineffective of WGCV, Leung’s suggestions are worthy to mention. Leung (2008) suggested the government should adopt the definition of gender mainstreaming and its practice guidelines offered by international organizations; to develop a comprehensive policy of domestic violence and strategy execution according to gender mainstream; and to establish a high ranking coordinating body to work out an action plan for combating and preventing domestic violence; to improve the central data collection and the information dissemination systems; to consolidate the collaboration system between government and NGOs to ensure the resources had been used in combating against violence, to set up crisis intervention team with the collaboration of police and social workers; to meliorate the service coordination within different social service organizations; to strengthen the education on gender sensitivity for the frontline professionals.

Reference
Chan, K.L. (2000) The Impact of Family Violence to Women and their Children, Hong Kong: Hong Kong Christian Family Service and Hong Kong University, Department of Social Work and Social Administration.
Leung, L.C. (2008) The possibilities of Gender Mainstreaming Domestic Violence Policy in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong, Department of Applied Social Science. (centers.law.nyu.edu/jeanmonnet/papers/00/000201)
United Nations. “Report of the Economic and Social Council for 1997”. A/52/3.18 September 1997.
Backman, R., & Coker, A. (1995). Police involvement in domestic violence: The interactive effects of victim injury, offender’s history of violence, and race. Violence and Victims, 10(2), 91- 106.
Other information
Definitions of domestic violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV), also termed domestic violence, is the most common form of violence against women. (Watt and Zimmerman, 2002) Wesley defined domestic violence as “any behavior which is intended to cause unwanted harm, either physical (e.g., sexual or physical assault, and murder) or nonphysical (e.g., intimidation & malicious insults) to a romantic partner”. (Wesley et al, 2006) Adams gave a rather completed definition, “the repeated, habitual or random use of aggression, whether physical, verbal, social, sexual, emotional, psychological or economic, by an individual on a partner or ex-partner in an existing or previous domestic relationship to force submission to that person’s demands, thus depriving the partner of personal liberty and basic human rights”. (Adam, 1998)

Continuums of abuse

Apart from the forms of abuse, we should consider the level of severity of abuse when we look into a case whether it is an abuse or not. The following table showed different levels of abuse from least to most severe.

Assumed relationship between Patriarchal ideology and Attitude towards violence against women

Sugarman and Frankel (1996) in their study examining how wide the patriarchy ideology molds the individuals’ experiences in terms of domestic violence, showed that previous researches on wife abuse done by Dobash and Dobash (1979), Kurz (1989) and Schechter (1982) conjectured that “acceptance of traditional gender ideals and expectations about women serves to maintain subordination of women and is a primary source of violence against women” (Sugarman and Frankel, 1996) Pagelow (1984) even suggested that traditional gender belief system could be retain since the assaultive husbands adopt the patriarchal conception of family. (Sugarman and Frankel, 1996) Findings verified that assaultive husbands showed more positive attitudes toward marital violence than nonassaultive husbands (Sugarman and Frankel, 1996)

However, until 2005, the United Nations still found that women subjected to violence, including physical violence, psychological violence or sexual violence is a very common phenomenon. Research report

Health Canada (1996) tended to believe that “emotional abuse is based on power and control” and characterized it into six forms: rejecting, degrading, terrorizing, isolating, corrupting/exploiting and “denying emotional responsiveness”

Tomison and Tucci (1997) mentioned that “emotional abuse is characterised by a climate or pattern of behaviour(s) occurring over time’. Physical abuse always accompany with emotional abuse contains words and actions to break the woman’s spirit and destroy her self-image and self-esteem. (Mullender, 1996)

It also includes imposing any kind of intimacy while the woman is still hurting from the violence, and physical or verbal harassment. (Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2001, Alic, Margaret; Burstow; Mullender, 1996; Wikipedia)

Most of the scholars explained violence against women from mainly two different views of theories, one is from the view of individual or family ground, and another is from the view of society or social structure. Psychological theories emphasis on assertively uncontrollable anger which “is seen as rooted in unresolved family conflicts, primitive aggressive reactions, the submerged fear of the bully, insecure dependence on women, or any other form of internal stress” (Mullender, 1996, summarized by Dobash and Dobash, 1992, p237)

Feminists view that violence against women as a typical behavior and brooked by the society with the approval of social rules supporting male domination. (Adam, 1998) United Nation (1989) believed the interconnection of economic, social and political factors creating a structure placed the women with low economic status in a weakness position to violence within the household. Adam stressed that the masculine values in capitalist system apt to value women as “mother, housewives or sexual objects”

Nayak et al. (2003) examined the attitudes of undergraduates from four countries toward violence against women, and discovered that groups with different values or attitudes also differ in violence acts, and would have different level of acceptance of violence.

It refers not only the power of male in the household, but also refers to the dominance of men in social or cultural systems. Feminist theory stresses that the structure of modern cultural and political systems under patriarchy are totally ruled by men. (Wikipedia) (Castro, Ginette. American Feminism: a contemporary history, p. 31.)

Obviously, violence against women seemed as ‘normal’ under the development of dominant-submissive power relations.

“such that they have little or no independent status and transgressions outside the family and male authority expose them to swift retributions and confirm their vulnerability.” Adams (1998)

Researches demonstrated that patriarchy involves concepts of feminism and male domination in society and within the family. (Tang, 1999; Adam, 1998; Sugarmen and Frankel, 1996)

The violence against women is the product of the interrelated and complex values wherein women are considered as inferior and subordinate to men, in result male is allowed to view female partners as his properties, and ‘handling’ it within the privacy and autonomy of the family. (United Nation, 1989)

Adams (1998) agreed with Mama that women are strongly fixed into the familial structure and hierarchic gender relations in the socialization process.

Yllo also found that there is a positive correlation between more patriarchal social structure and higher level of women abuse. (Yllo, 1983, 1984) Research also found that traditional gender role soc

Working with Individuals

AGENCY PROFILE

The student social worker is placed with Bharatiya Mahila Federation (BMF). Bharatiya Mahila Federation (BMF) is an all-India organization women’s mass organization, working with the victims of Domestic Violence. BMF was established by many leaders including Aruna Asaf Ali. Mahila Samasya Nivaaran Kendras (Family Counseling Centers for Women) are located in Thane, Kalyan, and Bhiwandi. In the purview of socially relevant issues, it also takes care of the education of the slum children through a non-formal approach towards education, under the name of ‘Disha Classes’. BMF has vigorously campaigned against female foeticide. It is also working in tandem with Malati Vaidya Trust to start a Resource Center in Ganeshwadi, Badlapur.

The student works with the Family Counselling Center in Thane. The center is run by para-professionals, some of whom were themselves victims at some point in time.

CASE

For the purpose of explanation of the various aspects of working with individuals, the student will like to mention the case of a 30 year old women named Sanaa (name changed). Sanaa is Muslim by religion and was married off at the age of 26 as her husband’s second wife. He remarried after giving divorce to his first wife. Sanaa is residing with her parents, brother and sister-in-law in Mumbra. She has four children. The first two are twin daughters and one of them named Aalia(name changed) is intellectually challenged because of the injuries inflicted on Sanaa during pregnancy. The other daughter named Nazia was forcefully taken away by her father Khalid with him since unlike the first daughter she is normal. Clearly, the father has left the entire responsibility of the child who is intellectually- challenged on the mother, without giving any maintenance from his side. The third child, who is a boy, Naseer (name changed), is physically challenged and can’t walk normally. The fourth child, Ali, is 7 months and is chronically ill has been hospitalized many times.

Sanaa approached the agency’s Family Counselling Centre. She complained of being beaten up by her husband, brother-in-law and sister-in-law and the atrocities committed against her at the time of her pregnancy. Due to the injuries, she had a miscarriage the first time she got pregnant.

The agency wanted the trainee to do a home-visit and verify the facts. The home visit revealed that the client is staying in a chawl in unhygienic conditions. The trainee interviewed the client and her mother. Her husband has refused to accept her and the children back and wants a divorce, but Sanaa wants to stay with him. Her husband has put a condition that he will let her come back only if she and her family give in writing that they will not file a police complaint against him and will not approach any NGO/agency for further help as they did earlier. Sanaa wants to be with him despite all the physical and mental tortures that her husband makes her go through. She does not wish to burden her parents with her and her children’s responsibility. As far as her education his concerned, she has obtained education till the secondary level. Before marriage, she used to teach kids of the primary level. The trainee tried to counsel her that staying with her husband would not change her conditions. Instead she should file a case on him demanding maintenance for herself and her kids. The trainee also suggested that she takes up a job. Before a case could be filed, the trainee paid a visit to her husband to come for a meeting at the agency but he refused to all efforts of negotiation and said that he will confront her directly in the court.

Later on, when the student called her up to know her decision about filing the case, she said she was ready to go ahead with it. Hence, she was asked to come for the meeting with the agency’s advocate on the given date. The advocate asked the trainee to submit Sanaa’s case history so that the petition could be filed in the court.

The student social worker also figured out that Sanaa’s case has a lot of scope of medical intervention apart from assistance at the legal level. While the trainee was planning the further course of action for the case, the client took up a teaching job in a neighbourhood school in her locality. This indeed came as a happy news for the trainee as it reflected that mere triggering an idea can actually motivate the client to help herself. The client was also encouraged to further continue her studies.

For the medical help for Sanaa’s kids, the trainee decided to take them to a BMC Hospital. After waiting in the queue for two-and-half hours outside the OPD for Skin Diseases, Naseer was diagnosed, medicines were prescribed and the doctor asked to bring him in the coming week for follow-up. The prescribed medicines were not available in the hospital’s pharmacy. So, the medicines were bought from outside. Naseer was also examined for his swollen abdomen. The doctor told that there is a doubt of him suffering from Langerhans cell Histiocytosis (LCH) and hence he needs to be admitted. Sanaa was apprehensive about admitting Naseer, since she would not be able to afford it. The trainee could observe an expression of fear on her face. It was time for the trainee to counsel her about the urgent need to get her son admitted. On the way back home, while talking to the client, the trainee found out that Sanaa’s mother wants her to quit the teaching job since its taking a lot of her time and it becomes difficult for her mother to handle three kids when Sanaa’s is out for work in the afternoon school. As an alternative, her mother had suggested her to take up tailoring work. For the same, she expressed the need for a sewing machine.

So now, there was a need to look for a donor for Naseer’s treatment and for the machine. The supervisor suggested that Sanaa’s case can be referred to another organization who is involved into such kind of work. After brainstorming, the trainee decided to refer Sanaa’s case to MESCO – an organization in Mumbra.

The visit to MESCO turned out to be quite fruitful. In the meeting with its representatives, it was planned that the after submitting required documents the financial assistance would be provided for Naseer’s treatment. However, one constraint was that MESCO provides help only on first three days of every month so the trainee had to really pace up the process of arranging all the documents. For Sanaa’s tailoring venture, the representative mentioned that she will have to appear for a skill test after which she would be given a sewing machine.

The documentation process can actually kill a lot of time and the trainee already had limited one in hand, since the end of the field work for the year was approaching. After running from post-to-post for one signature from the doctor at the hospital, trainee had a cost certificate in hand which turned out to be of no use since the social worker at the hospital asked to get another one for the total estimated cost of treatment, running around for which was postponed to another week by the doctor. In the meantime, the student was struggling with herself as to find a way to convince the client to get her son admitted. Every week he was falling ill and the medicine for the skin disease seemed to have an effect only in the first week. Follow-ups to the doctor after that did not make much of a difference. This led the trainee to ponder as to why this was happening and the speculation was that it is possible that the skin disease could be a symptom of LCH. After reading up on LCH, the doubt was confirmed. For weeks, Naseer was being treated for the symptom! But now the field work year was over! So what should one do in such a situation? The client cannot be left midway in the helping process. It raises a lot of ethical issues.

STAGES IN WORKING WITH INDIVIDUALS

1. Social Study 2. Social Assessment 3. Intervention 4. Termination 5. Evaluation

The initial description of the case is clearly a Social Study of Sanaa’s case. Social Study is a systematic study of the client and her/his circumstances in relation to her/his problem Information is collected and organised with regard to the following: Problems (the initially stated problem and associated problems if any), Age, sex, marital status, Educational qualification, Nature of employment, income, Health conditions, Personality features, Home and neighbourhood, Family constellation, Family history (significant events, attitudes,relationships, etc.). Sanaa’s case was constantly assessed for the purpose of necessary intervention. Each course of action had to be simultaneously evaluated to check for loopholes. However, the case cannot be called to have reached the termination. But the intervention done so far has proved to be be fruitful to the extent that Sanaa took up a job on her when encouraged and motivated. The trainee could locate an organization who could provide her with a machine for starting tailoring work and fund the treatment of her child. Naseer did receive some OPD treatment, which revealed the need for a long term treatment. The trainee was also able to facilitate the process of providing legal assistance to the client.

TOOLS & TECHNIQUES

Tools can be defined as the ways through which a particular profession, occupation or form of trade is practiced. In social casework, tools are the means of establishing and developing contact with the clients. Through casework tools, one can have access to the information about the client, her concerns, her family, her environment. The student made use of all the five casework tools, namely, Listening, Observation, Relationship, Home-Visit and Interview. According to Grace Mathew, the last three tools mentioned here, are the channels to make the casework techniques operative. Mathew has defined casework techniques as the systematic procedures of helping. These are- Acceptance, Assurance, Facilitation of Expression of Feelings, ,Allaying overpowering feelings, Accrediting and Building Self-Confidence, Encouragement and Reassurance, Being with the Client, Emotional Support, Action-Oriented Support. Then Grace Mathew listed down certain other techniques for the purpose of enhancing resources. These are – Providing or Procuring Material Help, Change of Physical Environment, Enhancing Information and Knowledge. There are also techniques for changing the internal processes- Counselling techniques (Reflective Discussion, Advice, Motivation, Clarification, and Correcting Perception), Anticipatory Guidance, Modelling, Role Playing, Reality Orientation, Remove Guilt Feelings and using them constructively, Interpretation, Partialisation, Universalisation, Setting Limits, Confrontation, Reaching Out, Renewing Family Links, Improving Communication Patterns, Changing Attitudes.

Listening as a tool is effective only if it is active and attentive to understand the client’s emotions and to know what she/he is conveying. Effective listening is facilitated by maintaining an eye contact with the client. Distractions, wool gathering and selective listening obstruct the listening process.

Observation is used in casework to note the client’s facial expression, body language and signs of uneasiness in the process of interaction with the client.

Relationship between the worker an the client is a professional one and is positive in nature. The positivity of the relationship is manifest in the rapport the caseworker has with the client.

Home Visit is an instrument, which enables the social worker to verify the facts of the case being handled. It also conveys a message to the client about the social worker’s interest in his/her welfare. Sometimes home-visits can be be highly revealing and at times, may change the shape of the course. The facts me be turned upside down.

Interview facilitates face-to-face interaction between the caseworker and the client. The objectives in such an interaction are to obtain information from the client or to impart some to the client, to study and assess the situation of the client’s problem unique to her/him and to give assistance.

Drawing from the above case, first of all the caseworker had to evoke the confidence of the client since the constant victimization to the domestic violence had made her doubt her own capabilities. The client had to be told that she can regain her lost confidence by keeping herself busy and taking up a job. She was encouraged and motivated enough to take up the teaching job again. The caseworker has been working towards making provision for material help for the treatment of kids and for the required equipment so that she can take up tailoring work at home. The caseworker did a lot of advocacy work in Sanaa’s case such as visiting the hospital for procuring the certificate, meeting with the referral organization’s representatives for seeking financial assistance for the client. Many counseling techniques as Correcting Perception, Advice, Removing Guilt Feelings, Universalisation were made use of. In the beginning, when the Home-Visit was made the caseworker advised Sanaa on the way to come out of her situation, how the agency would facilitate the process. When her son was taken for treatment, so due to waiting in the long queues and the whole documentation process of OPD treatment, Sanaa started feeling

guilty that why did she marry in the first place, had she not married she would not have had to face such problems. In such a situation, she had to be told that marriage was not the fault and she does not need to be guilty about something for which she is not responsible. She was married off to a man, the background and other details of whom were not at all confirmed by her family. As it came to the caseworker’s amazement while talking to the client’s mother, the latter used to see a girl frequently in the locality and got acquainted with her and on her proposal, married off her daughter to her brother. When the caseworker asked the client to get an income proof from her school, without which she would not have received financial assistance from the referral organization, she did not do so for weeks despite repeated reminders. The social worker had to then step in and find out what the matter was and what came out was that she had a misconception about it. The client thought that if she would submit an income proof, then she would not be provided any help since, according to her, they may think if she is earning then she does not need help. The caseworker then had to correct her perception that the income proof is a formality and because her income is meager to afford the treatment of her son she would definitely be provided with financial assistance. Once the client was very thwarted with herself. At that time, the caseworker brought to light the examples of many other woman who have been and who are in worse situation than hers.

THEORETICAL APPROACHES USED

The student trainee made use of the Empowerment and Advocacy Approach. It has been said that empowerment seeks to help clients gain power of decision and action over their own lives by reducing the effect of social or personal blocks to existing power, by increasing capacity and self-confidence to use power and by transferring power from the environment to clients. Advocacy seeks to represent the interests of the powerless clients to powerful individuals and structures. For Furlong, empowerment is an essential objective of casework because it avoids a crude polarization of social action and individualized perspectives, placing work with individuals and families in a context of concern for social objectives. In 1994, Anderson et al, presented a model of empowerment for social development in Africa concerned with the five dimensions of practice: personal, social, educational, economic and political. These dimensions are intertwined with each other and looking at them so allows people to meet individual needs (personal power), improve their capacity to influence others (interpersonal power), which in turn creates an ability to influence the power distribution more widely (political power). Rees came up with a set of ideas with regard to empowerment, viz., a) biography b) power c) Political understanding d) Skills e) Interdependence of Policy and Practice. For Rees, the basic aim of empowerment is social justice, greater security, political and social equality to people, through mutual support and shared learning. Kondrat emphasized upon the value of local knowledge, specifically the one coming from the clients. One intricacy of advocacy lies in the duality of its interrelated meanings of ‘representation’. The representation in advocacy is in term of the acting and arguing for the interests of the clients. However, for Phillip (1979), advocacy entails ‘representation’ in terms of interpreting and displaying the value of clients to the powerful groups in the society. Advocacy, in part, is said to be an aspect of empowerment, since it can be used to argue for resources, or change the interpretation which powerful groups make of clients. Anderson’s model of empowerment was crucial for application in Sanaa’s case, since socio-economic, personal and educational aspects were focused upon at the level of assessment as well as intervention.

The caseworker also made use of Rees’s understanding of empowerment in terms of the Skill enhancement. The client’s tailoring skills was tapped on to enable her choose a suitable livelihood option. Advocacy work was also done by initiating the process of legal assistance and facilitating the process of financial assistance by MESCO.

CHALLENGES, DILEMMAS & RESISTANCE

One of the challenges encountered was that not all three kids could be taken for consultation together since no one from the client’s family could accompany her to the hospital. So there was a lack in terms of human resources. Social Case Work Practice is a huge responsibility, especially when any form of medical intervention is involved, especially, when one’s target system involves infants. Another challenge was the unavailability of the prescribed medicines in municipal hospital’s pharmacy. Those who cannot afford to buy the expensive medicines from outside are not even able to start the treatment. At the macro level, this remains a big loophole in the health care sector of the country. It is an obstacle for the low-income group in accessing health care services. This also paralyses the government health care sector at a very basic level. Looking for a donor or an organisation where Sanaa’s case could be referred for another challenge.

The biggest ethical dilemma was about the leaving the treatment process midway. The follow-up in the case is being planned to overcome the dilemma.

The client has been very resistant to the idea of admitting the child in the hospital despite repeated reassurance that the financial assistance would be taken care of.

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%.