Hurting The Ones That We Love

“If the numbers we see in domestic violence were applied to terrorism or gang violence, the entire country would be up in arms, and it would be the lead story on the news every night” Rep. Mark Green

It is estimated that there may be up to six million victims of domestic violence each year. One in four women will experience domestic violence within their lifetime, and 3 out of 4 people will know someone who is or was a victim of domestic abuse (Domestic Violence Statistics, 2011).

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), “domestic violence is a pattern of behavior in which on intimate partner uses physical violence, coercion, threats, intimidation, isolation, and emotional, sexual, or economic abuse to control the other partner in a relationship” (as cited from Glossary-domestic violence). Although women are most commonly the victim, men are also victims of domestic violence. When men and women are separated or divorced they are more likely to be victims of domestic violence. Domestic violence can also turn into murder. In 2000, domestic violence accounted for 30% of murders of women and 5% of murders of men (Domestic Violence Statistics, 2011).

People who are victims of domestic abuse have a hard time coming forward and reporting the abuse that they live through. Society’s view that only women can be victims of domestic violence makes it difficult for most men to get help. To some men admitting that their partner is abusing them is like giving up part of the manhood.

Being a victim of domestic violence has a large impact on a person’s life, whether they are a man or woman. They can suffer from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder which can come in the form of “flashbacks, significant anxiety, depression and fatigue” (Domestic Violence). Other reactions to the violence may include anger, embarrassment, chronic physical complaints, substance abuse, hyper vigilance, social withdrawal, and low self-esteem (Domestic Violence).

Living through domestic violence can lead to psychological disorder called Battered Woman Syndrome. It was first thought to only apply to women, hence the word “woman” in the name, yet it can also apply to men and children who are abused. With the disorder women go through stages. The first stage is denial, when the person will not admit that there is a problem. They justify each action in their head. The next stage is guilt where the person blames their self for the problem. The third stage is enlightenment where the person realizes that the abuse they are living through is not their fault, and should not be happening, yet they still remain with their partner. The last step is responsibility where the person decides that they are not going to allow their partner to abuse them anymore (Psychology).

With Battered Woman Syndrome there are two main outcomes the can happen. The first outcome is when the person decides they are no longer going to let the abuse occur, they leave the situation. They move out of the home or end the relationship so the abuser can no longer hurt them. The second outcome is what led to the discovery of this disorder. The person may see no way out of their situation besides harming or killing the abuser.

Domestic violence is something that effects more people than some realize. A couple that seems happy on the outside could be hiding a terrible secret and more should be done to help these victims stand up for themselves and stop the abuse.



References

Domestic violence. The National Center for Victims of Crime. Retrieved from http://www.ncvc.org/
ncvc/main.aspx?dbName=DocumentViewer&DocumentID=32347.

Domestic violence statistics. (2011).Domestic Violence Resource Center. Retrieved from
http://www.dvrcor.org/domestic/violence/resources/C61/.

Glossary- domestic violence. Sloan Work and Family Research Network. Retrieved from
http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/glossary_entry.php?term=Domestic%20Violence,%20Definition%28s%
29%20of&area=All.

Psychology of the battered woman syndrome. Women’s Rural Advocacy Programs. Retrieved from
http://www.letswrap.com/dvinfo/psych.htm.

Motherhood While Incarcerated

Jails and prisons control most of an inmate’s activities, including visitation with family. For this reason, incarceration can lead to strains in relationships. Mothers, who are known for their close relationships with their children, may feel this strain more intensely than other inmates. An incarcerated mother’s relationship with her children is altered, no matter the age of the child.

In a majority of households, mothers are the main care givers for children. When the mother is removed from the household and incarcerated, the children lose their caregiver. When a mother is incarcerated a majority of the children live with a relative besides their father, one third live with their father, and one tenth are placed in foster care (Incarcerated parents and their children, 2009, p. 5).

For a mother to remain in constant contact with her children it takes the effort of who ever has custody of the children. Children who live with either the father or a relative have a higher chance of having frequent visitation with their mother. A child placed in foster care has to rely on their foster parent to take them to visit their mother which can be made difficult if the foster parent has other foster children.

Willingness to go visit the incarcerated mother is not the only reason it is difficult for women to keep a strong relationship with their children. Many women’s prisons are located away from where the children may be staying. If the prison is too far children may only be able to visit once a month or less. Also, planning trips to visit a mother around the child’s school schedule, the guardian’s scheduale and visitation hours is also difficult.

Some women go into jail or prison while pregnant. For these women there is less time for them to bond with their newborn. This lack of initial bonding can lead to a weaker bond later in the child’s life. The reason the bond between mother and newborn is so strong is that there is a higher level of oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone that is found in all people which gives them the bonding feeling when hugging or touching others (Palmer, 2002). If prisons or jails do not give female inmates who have just given birth the time to bond with their child, when they are released and reunited with their child the bond may never be strong.

There are some jails and prisons that realize the necessity of a mother bonding with their child. Programs in some prisons and jails allow mothers to spend more time with the child after birth. Where they get to spend the time with and for how long is different with each program. By giving the mother the chance to bond with her child it may give her the desire to turn her life around for the child and no longer do what caused her to be incarcerated.

References

Incarcerated parents and their children. (2009, February). Retrieved April 18, 2011, from The Sentencing Project: http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/publications/inc_incarceratedparents.pdf

Palmer, L. (2002). Bonding matters... the chemistry of attatchment . Retrieved April 18, 2011, from The Baby Bond: http://www.thebabybond.com/BondingMatters.html

A Day in the Childhood of Jeff: Living with a Bipolar Mother

A group of brothers comes home from school to a mother who seems caring and attentive. After going outside to play, their mother calls them inside to have a snack. When they come in there is a change in the mother. She is no longer caring and attentive, but is yelling at the youngest for having a dirty shirt. The mother’s rage becomes so intense that she locks herself in her room, threatening the young child until he is terrified of what may happen to him. This is the life of some children growing up with a bipolar parent. For Jeff, a 23 year old successful mechanic, this would be a good day relative to his daily life growing up.

Bipolar disorder is another name for manic depression. People suffering from bipolar disorder have drastic mood swings, which go from very low depressions to very highs where they feel extremely happy (Maya Clinic Staff). Jeff’s mother was not only diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but also had brain tumors that had to be operated on. During the surgery there were complications that may have made her bipolar disorder worse. His mother also suffered from alcoholism, which is well known as a major factor in child abuse.

It is impossible to truly understand what Jeff has gone through. Although Jeff was the youngest of his mother’s three boys, he dealt with most of the abuse. There were times that his older brother helped his mother abuse him, in order to escape being abused himself. Jeff did not stand up to his mother until he was 13, even though the abuse started when he was a toddler. His mother hid the abuse from his father until Jeff was 16, so his father told him that if he hit his mom there would be severe punishment, and Jeff feared his father, who knew many martial arts, more than he feared his mother.

Although there were many instances where Jeff was abused, there are two that he still remembers as if they happened yesterday. The first time was when he was 13 and his older brother was arrested. His mother was in a manic mood and was under the belief that Jeff was going to hurt her. She took a gun from her room and started walking towards Jeff pointing it at him, ready to shoot. His older brother stabbed his mother in order to save Jeff’s life. When the cops arrived they arrested his older brother, and there were no repercussions for his mother.

A second memory was when he was 16 and his father realized that abuse was occurring and decided to leave his mother. Jeff was playing a computer game and his mother started walking behind him with a butcher knife. Luckily, his father and a friend walked into the house just before his mother attempted to slice his throat. These two separate occurrences led to a large distrust that Jeff has for most people. The fact that his mother attempted to kill him multiple times, and the police never protected him when they were brought into the picture made Jeff realize that he had to look out for himself.

Even after the childhood Jeff was forced to live with, anyone meeting him today would never know. According to a study by Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has found that children of parents with bipolar disorder are more likely to have psychiatric disorders than children of mentally healthy parents (Reuters Health, 2010). Jeff does not have any psychiatric disorders. Although had an anger problem growing up, he now has control of his anger. Instead of using anger to deal with issues with people in his life, he distances himself from them. He has grown from the abuse he lived with, and now tries to help others not have to live through the same situations he did.

References

Maya Clinic Staff, Initials. (n.d.). Bipolar disorder. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bipolar-disorder/DS00356.

Reuters Health, Initials. (2010, January 28). Kids of bipolar parents at risk for mental woes. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/01/28/us-bipolar-parents-idUSTRE60R5SM20100128.

Impact of Child Maltreatment

Child maltreatment, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is “all types of abuse and neglect of a child under the age of 18 by a parent, caregiver, or another person in a custodial role,” which includes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse ("Injury prevention”). Child maltreatment occurs in all types of households and affects millions of children. The types of abuse may be committed by either one or both of the parents. Biological parents made 80% of the perpetrators in child maltreatment (U.S. Department of Health, 2009). Child maltreatment has an impact on the victims throughout their lives.

In adolescence, child maltreatment changes the child in ways that  may not have happened if they were not abused or neglected. The outlook on life for maltreated children tends to be more negative than other children (Trickett & al., 2011, p. 9). These children are also more likely to be “disliked, physically and verbally aggressive, withdrawn, and less pro-social” than other children (Trickett & al., 2011, p. 6). Peers of these children also notice the difference in their personalities and rate them as aggressive and less cooperative (Trickett & al., 2011, p. 6). Maltreatment is also shown to be a risk factor to delinquent behavior and drug use in adolescence (Trickett & al., 2011, p. 10).

Effects of child maltreatment are shown in adults. These effects may not be seen at first, but after time they become apparent.  Psychiatric disorders are common with victims of child maltreatment. Over 75% of adults who were victims of child maltreatment have at least one disorder, and around half of the adults have three or more (Impact of child abuse). Along with psychiatric disorders, adults who were victims of child maltreatment have higher chances of having chronic pain, depression, eating disorders, sexual dysfunction, unintended pregnancy, or abusing their own children (Newton, 2001).

Child maltreatment causes harm to more than just the victim. The effects of the treatment to the child impacts the other children they interact with at school. There is also an impact on the victim’s spouse when they are an adult, whether it is abuse or marital issues. The impact the treatment has on the victim’s children is very unfortunate because many times the cycle of victimization continues. Understanding the effects of child maltreatment is a step to finding a way to help the victim cope and stop the abuse from taking over their life.

Reference

Impact of child abuse. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.asca.org.au/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=11

Injury prevention & control: violence prevention. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/childmaltreatment/.

Newton, C.j. (2001, April). Child abuse: an overview. Retrieved from http://www.findcounseling.com/journal/child-abuse/survivors-childhood-abuse.html

Trickett, P. , Negriff, S. , Ji, J. , & Peckins, M. (2011). Child maltreatment and adolescent development. Journal of Research on Adolescence (Blackwell Publishing Limited), 21(1), 3-20.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (2009). Child maltreatment 2009 Washington, DC: Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm09/cm09.pdf.

  

Blog #1

Issues within a family affect the members of the family, people close to the family, and governmental agencies. Issues include parental imprisonment, spousal abuse, and child abuse.

More than half of state inmates (52%) and almost two thirds (63%) of federal inmates have children under the age of 18.  The 1,706,600 children of these inmates make 2.3% of the U.S. population. The number of imprisoned parents has increased 79% and the number of children with incarcerated parents has increased 80% between 1991 and 2007. The increase of mothers in prison (131%) has been greater than the increase of fathers in prison (77%) (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008).

With one or both parents in prison, there is a large impact on the child. Contact with the parent is important to how the child handles the incarceration. A study by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1993 showed that 20% of mothers in state prisons see their children less than once a month, and 8% see their children once a week (as cited in Parke & Clarke-Stewart, 2001).  Children of incarcerated mothers have a high chance of emotional problems, psychological problems, or poor academic performance (Baunach, 1985; Stanton, 1980; as cited in Parke & Clarke-Stewart, 2001).

Parental imprisonment may be an important factor in family issues, but it is not the one. In terms of violent crimes, in 2007 23% against women and 3% against men were domestic abuse cases (Domestic Abuse). In the years where teenagers are suppose to be learning how to form safe and healthy relationships, 15% of those teens report being a victim of abuse by their boyfriend or girlfriend (Domestic Abuse). In his paper “Child Abuse and Welfare Abuse,” Mark W. Smith states that there is a “strong association between childhood abuse and later use of welfare programs” (p. 90). With nearly six million children being involved with child abuse cases or allegations in 2007 (National Child Abuse), there could be a large reliance on welfare programs when these children are older. Without understanding the impact these issues have on the family, there are repercussions not only for the lives of the family members but governmental agencies also.

References

Domestic violence. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbName=DocumentViewer&DocumentID=38711. 

Glaze, L. E., & Maruschak, L. M. (2008). Parents in prison and their minor children. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics (Special Report).

National child abuse statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.childhelp.org/pages/statistics

Parke, R.D., & Clarke-Stewart, K.A. (2001). Effects of Parental Incarceration on Young Children. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (National Policy Conference). Retrieved from http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/prison2home02/parke&stewart.pdf.

Smith, M.W. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, (2004). Child abuse and welfare abuse Retrieved from http://www.aeaweb.org/assa/2005/0107_0800_1201.pdf.