A Criminological Analysis Of Domestic Violence Essay

A Criminological Analysis Of Domestic Violence - Essay Example Child abuse and domestic violence often occur in the same family and are linked in a number of important ways that have serious consequences for the safety of all family members as well as for members of the larger community. First, where one form of family violence exists, there is a strong likelihood that the other one does too. Second, research shows that the impact on children of witnessing parental domestic violence is strikingly similar to the consequences of being directly abused by a parent, and both experiences are significant contributors to youth violence. Third, many of the factors highly associated with the occurrence of child abuse are also associated with domestic violence, and many of these are the same factors that put children at risk for youth violence and adult violent crime. Overlapping all these problems is substance abuse, which is associated with each form of violence as a co-factor. These linkages have important implications for intervention and prevention efforts. Researchers have also found that men who as children witnessed their parents' domestic violence were twice as likely to abuse their own wives than sons of nonviolent parents.(Straus, Gelles and Smith 72) A significant proportion of abusive husbands grew up in families where they witnessed their mothers being beaten. Clearly, domestic violence and child abuse are spawning grounds for the next generation of abusers, as well as for violent juveniles. In 1994 there were an estimated 2.9 million reports of suspected child abuse and neglect.(McCurdy and Daro 81) Data from a 1995 Gallup Poll of family violence suggest that from 1.5 million to 3.3 million children witness parental domestic violence each year. These are sobering statistics in light of the known impact of child abuse and witnessing domestic violence on each child, the social costs associated with it.(Gallup, Moor, Schussel 19) Social isolation characterizes many families in which either domestic violence or child abuse is present, although it is not always clear whether the isolation causes the abuse or whether the abuse causes the isolation. A study of the social support and social network relationships of neglecting and non-neglecting, low-income, single, mothers found key differences in the mothers' perceptions of their relationships and interactions. The study found that negative relationships were an important differentiating factor between neglecting and non-neglecting mothers. The relationships of neglecting mothers were characterized by conflict, distrust, and lack of mutua lity, while non-neglecting mothers experienced satisfying supportive relationships which emphasized a sense of mutuality and fairness.(Beeman 431) The separate institutional and grassroots responses to child abuse and domestic violence which have taken place over the last two decades in the form of intensive services for battered women and abused children, while critical, have proved woefully inadequate. In fact, both of these problems continue unabated. However, despite more than 1800 domestic violence programs across the country, the media reports almost daily grisly stories of battered women doing all the right things: calling the police, obtaining restraining orders, getting divorced, moving away - only to be murdered (often along with their