This week we covered chapter 11 on IPV Abusers.
The first thing that I came across that I want to relate to you all is the “Cycle of Violence”. This is the confusing spiral that traps victims and makes it hard to leave. I’m sure most of you have heard (or even experienced) this cycle, but for everyones purpose it is thus:
or incase you need words:
In case you need it more poignantly said:
Can you imagine how confusing it is to have all this violence against you and then be with the “person you fell in love with” again? To answer honestly, I would be seriously confused.
The rest of this chapter goes on to talk about risk factors for perpetrators of IPV such as being socialized to believe that some forms of violence is ok or normal, behavioral problems (antisocial behaviors, etc). Which are very important, but not what’s really on my mind right now (so ask later, ok? J) What’s really pressing on my mind is the small lines in the book about military IPV.
To begin, I love our soldiers!!! I support them 100%!! The war….not so much. Regardless, I care for all our people and after having friends in the armed forces and ROTC roommates, there’s no way in hell I couldn’t love our troops. However, members of the armed forces do seem to have added risk factors when it comes to IPV.
The book states that some research shows that there is a small significant difference compared to deployed and non-deployed personnel in that deployed personnel were more likely to be severely violent. The book also shows that reports of IPV among the armed forces has increased over the last few years. The same section goes on to show reports that members of the armed forces show significantly higher rates of sever IPV than civilians. However, I really want to see more studies done in this area. What is really causing this disparity?
The book says that some of the reason could be an community that values hypermasculinity and aggression and traditional sex roles. But maybe there is more than that?
I did do some extra research about specific prevalence rates in the armed forces but the results and reasons greatly varied. Again, I really hope more studies are done in this area.
On promising note however, the book did show some research on recidivism rates of IPV in military offenders. The study shows that military offenders have a much lower rate of recidivism (returning to the pattern of abuse) than civilians! This study went further to research what kinds of treatment were best but found that the type of treatment had no significant difference but still 83% of participants did not recitivate. That’s seriously huge!! I wonder what factors account for this as well?
Anyway, that’s what I found interesting in this chapter. Again, if y’all have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear your feedback!
-Alex
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