Week 8: Sin By Silence

This week we had two different objectives.
One was to watch the documentary "Sin by Silence" about a group of women in the California Institute for Women who killed their violent intimate partners when they saw no other escape , and write a paper on our reactions, and the second was to look up domestic violence deaths on mydeathspace.com.

"Sin by Silence"

Wow. just wow. I can't even begin to really explain how that documentary made me feel. I was angry, sad, hopeless and hopeful all at the same time. It was so awful to see these women, who had been terrorized and beaten and seeing no other escape, killed their violent intimate partners. Many people think, "well, these women should have found another way". Ok, yeah, that would have been great. However, being a victim of DV and being stuck with a partner who controls you, your money, sometimes your friends, isolates you and makes you believe there is no other escape, can be a real deterrence from seeking forms of help outside of the situation. Also, there are not always great advocates and resources in small communities. What then? If you don't have a car, access to a phone or internet, what is one supposed to do? There are so many factors that play into why these women took the actions they thought were right, it is hard (and in my opinion, not right) to pass judgment on them.

Some interesting facts I found while I was writing this paper that I think you might all want to know about is Intimate Terrorism (IT) and Violent Response (VR). IT is intimate terrorism is a pattern of fear-prodding and controlling behaviors that can be criminal (from assaults and stalking) to non-criminal (monitoring partners friends, activities, public humiliation, etc). These are some of the actions that these women in the documentary suffered and probably contributed to the reason they saw murder as their only means of escape. VR is violent self defense. Often times if a partner fights back it elicits a more aggressive and dangerous actions from the violent partner. This, again, can contribute to these women's reasons for escaping the situation the way they did.

Some of you might be wondering about Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS) that is sometimes a defense for women who do kill their partners in self-defense against DV. Some of these women, though, were convicted of murder before BWS began to talked about in the court setting. Also BWS is technically not a defense, but more of a testimony from professionals and the examination of DV as prior evidence. Many of these women were charged on the murder and the jury might not have heard all of the previous violence done to the victim, therefore, condemning these women to life in prison. Even with the "discovery" of BWS in the late 1980's, some of these women who ask for an appeal still were not freed. BWS is also loosing steam in the world today, there are a few problems with it. It's hard to prove for one, and it is also very gender biased. So while BWS might still be used in some contexts, it is not the great shield that some of us think of it as. Still, these women (and all victims of IPV) suffer.

However, there was something really empowering and hopeful about this documentary. One of the women, Brenda, founded CWAA (Convicted Women Against Abuse). In the California Institute for Women, Brenda led groups to help women who killed their partners like she had, understand DV, the causes, warning signs, and ways to protect oneself. She came back from her darkest spot to help these women, who in turn, help more women and so and so forth. Even from the bowls of  this California penitenary, these woman showing great reslience and  are fighting the battle against DV....and doing one hell of a great job!


All in all, this was a seriously impacting documentary I urge you all to watch. I really got me more invested in this research and kind of put more steam into my personal mission of dispelling social myths revolving around DV in my everyday life. 




Mydeathspace.com


So the second part of this week we had to look on this website, mydeathspace.com (a site for obituaries), and look up vicitms of DV. I found a few, very horrifying accounts which I am not going to recite here, you can look them up for yourself. However, it wasn't the articles that disturbed me, but the comments that people had. People would post horrible comments like "that bitch deserved it" or "that's not rape, he was her husband" that made jokes about these serious acts of DV that resulted in death and also backed up rape culture. I was completely horrified. In fact, I don't really remember seeing a lot of positive comments at all. It makes me upset to see this happening....




Anways, that's all I had for this week.


-Ciao
 

Week 7: IPV II

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:

 http://www.zeinabarakeh.com/images/CycleOfViolence1.jpg

or incase you need words:

 

 http://www.familycrc.org/images/cycleChart.gif

In case you need it more poignantly said:

 

 http://www.shepherdsrestministries.com/images/dvcycle.jpg

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

CIB 2.5 - Feelings in a Nutshell

This is what I was feeling when I read about the myth between child abuse and future abuse. This video included not only my frustration, but also shows some different forms of child abuse.


Smile Empty Soul - Nowhere Kids by AtlanticRecords

"Nowhere Kids"

in the land of dirt and plaster

lies an army of a thousand nowhere kids

losing ground and falling faster

into a life that no one should have to live

we are the people that you hate

we are the bastards that you created (the fucking bastards that you created)

a generation with no place

a generation of all your sons and daughters

behind the fake family image

behind the smile of a thousand moms and dads

inside the cage that we've been given

i see an image of the future that we don't have

[chorus]

and what did you expect ... a perfect child

raised by tv sets ... abandoned every mile

we never get respect ... never a fair trial

no one gives a shit ... as long as we smile 

CIB 2 - Abusive Myths

Hey All!

So today I read the chapter on abusive mythology in “Why Does He Do That”. Of course I picked out this chapter because I wanted to bust social myths revolving around DV, because our society has a lot of them. Anyway, the first myth Bancroft brings up is “He was abused as a child and therefore he abuses”

 After reading this first myth I became highly skeptical. Granted, I am usually really skeptical at books that don’t show a lot of facts and a written by one author. So I did some extra research.

Bancroft talks about how the correlations between past abuse and future abuse is weak. He doesn’t really bring up his other reasons he believes people abuse other than that they have an abuse problem. However, I remember reading from the textbook from this class that brought up a study that said direct physical or sexual abuse or exposure to interparental violence is associated with later aggression. I also searched around the resources in the library and found a study done on a large sample of folks through a three part longitudinal study that analyzed if past abuse would lead to adolescent dating violence and therefore result in adult interpersonal violence. The study discovered, again, that yes, there is a moderate correlation between former abuse and future abuse.  (That study can be found here: http://ida.lib.uidaho.edu:5053/content/43/1/171.full.pdf+html). I also read some of the abstracts from another article that said the same thing. Gender differences also play a role in the correlation between child abuse and future abuse. I found this great study here if you all want to check that out as well! (http://ida.lib.uidaho.edu:6233/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b44e5e1a-3401-4c81-b621-3dab5ab83bbb%40sessionmgr114&vid=2&hid=123)

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are definitely other factors that play into a person’s life that leads them to become abusive or not (resilience is a very overlooked factor). However, I think Bancroft really threw this out the window as a complete myth, which from my research shows that it is not. Of course, you are more than welcome to form you own opinion, and I urge you all to do studying and research for yourself as well! Don’t take me as a soul source of information, but rather a good start to future knowledge. Anyway, if you want to take a look at Bancroft’s ideas and information you can check out his website here: (http://www.lundybancroft.com/)

While I don’t want this post to be too big Bancroft does go over many other myths that I totally want to cover in a future post (if you can’t wait that long please e-mail me!!) But I wanted to talk about this one solely today since it is a big one and one that needs to be covered with some depth.

And, as in last post, here’s a video of me explaining the association between child abuse and future abuse:

Week 6: Intimate Partner Violence I

This week in class we are covering Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). A HUGE topic that’s going to take over my next few posts. But anyways, onto the info:

IPV used to be known as battering which was “the instilment of fear, oppression, control of a partner, and assault.  Today IPV includes all of the above plus stalking and economic exploitation, which is oftentimes not seen as violent.

IPV is also a more correct, umbrella term since it uses the terms “Intimate Partner”. It includes people that are sexually intimate, married or unmarried, cohabitating (living together), or formally cohabitating, dating or formally dating. The legal definition excludes those partners that are under 18 years of age where it delves into child abuse.

As a term IPV is gender neutral. This means that this term covers same-sex partners, transgender partners, etc. However, it can be problematic because these couples are not acknowledged as intimate partners in most states. That means they are often not protected by IPV laws that they need. This just one reason it is super important to have equal rights when it comes to marriage and domestic partnerships.

Also, to get protection under some IPV laws, one must have evidence. Usually this means physical evidence…so something bad must happen. This is, for very obvious and frustrating reasons, e x t r e m e l y  p r o b l e m a t I c.

However, one thing I am very interested in that this chapter really didn’t cover well (and that I could not find even on EBSCO) was interracial couples and DV. The book labels some statistics that black women are victims of IPV about 35% more than white females. The book also lists a study that shows that Native Americans and Alaskan Natives reported the most IPV and that Pacific Islanders reported the least. While I understand it is extremely hard to capture the true extent of IPV, we can assume it is much more in all of these populations. However, one question really keeps echoing in my mind. Are these IPV victims’ perpetrators the same race or of a different race.

My theory is that since racism can still exist in interracial relationships, that rates of IPV in interracial relationships would be higher than those of monoracial relationships. Of course there are other factors involved in IPV than racism, however I think this added factor could play a part in IPV in interracial couples. This, again, is an extremely understudied area and one that we don’t even really have small look. Maybe I’ll come across more information on this soon. If I do, I’ll post it. If any of you have links or books I can take a look at shoot me a comment or e-mail!

All in all this chapter was stocked full of information, however this was what was pressing on my mind at the time. Again, if you any of you have comments or questions I more than welcome them.

-Alex

Week 5: Child Protective Services and Risk Factors

This week we were to read about the field of work dealing with the issues of Child Maltreatment.
In this section I want to focus on what i learned about Child Protective Services (CPS) and also about risk factors and what they really mean.

So as I mentioned in my last post, I want to be a social worker. I've always thought of CPS as the area I wanted to go into. I want to be an advocate for children and teens that don't have the voice or power to help themselves or their situations. CPS helps children in 4 ways.

1)By investigating reports of maltreatment
2)By providing treatment services
3) By Coordinating services offered by other agencies in the community to child victims and their families,
4) By implementing preventive services.

These roles are broken into two different categories as well: Preventative and Post-investigation services.
Preventative services are supposed to increase parents knowledge of proper childhood development and give them them (and in my opinion children too) the tools they need to identify an abusive situation and how to prevent and stop theses situations. This is an area that I really feel is super important. Preventative actions for anything is not only cost-effective for those of you who are money oriented, but also help more people over a longer amount of time because you are stomping on a problem before it even gets started! If I had the choice to decide a budget for these services (like I did in a project for my Juvenile Delinquency class a few years ago) I would put most into preventive services. These services include day care, parent education, counseling and other many other volunteer programs. This is definitely the area of CPS I would like to work in.

The second role CPS has is Post-investigation services. These are where we help increase a child's safety through assessing family strengths, weaknesses, and needs. Post-investigation services include individual and family counseling as well as foster care and other legal services. However I don't think that these two forms of CPS are necessarily separate. If I were to advocate for a child who has been in an abuse environment, I would also be out there in the community providing information wherever I go about these issues to help prevent these kinds of abusive environments.

CPS is not however, without problems. Due to funding issues as well as the lack of properly trained social workers there are problems with investigating within' the proper about of time (anywhere from 24-48 hours). A worker can be given more caseloads that would stretch their ability to help individuals with the time and quality they need. While CPS still have these problems today, these services still do good in our society. Though I hope someday we can see it work to the capacity I know it can and should. Maybe I'll be working and making that difference while I'm in the field of Social Work.

Now for a little bit of a jump.

In discussions, Dr. B brought up the important topic of risk factors. Risk factors surrounding the different forms abuse increase the chances that abuse can happen. HOWEVER, just because a family has risk factors and other extra hurdles to jump does not mean that they are abusive. For example, it is more common for a family of young parents to become abusive as well as families in a low SES (socioeconomic status) bracket. That does not mean that young low SES parents are going to be abusive. Yes, it increases their risk, but these parents can often times be resilient in others ways. They might have help they are seeking, or have different cultural or community support to move past these obstacles. It's really hard to keep this in mind with the language we use when we talk about perpetrators and victims of abuse in the media and in everyday life. We definitely do need to be aware of risk factors, however, we must make sure we are not labeling or condemning families or individuals with these risk factors. Labeling can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies, and then what? Instead we should be acknowledge these risk factors, and if we know someone with them, we should talk to them about it. Just keep this in mind when you're reading my posts and even when watching tv, the news, reading a paper, anything. You'll be doing our society a bit of good. :)

Anyways, I think that covers what I wanted to talk to y'all about today.

-Alex

CIB 1.5 - Feelings in a Nutshell

Since my CIB #1 blog was really long I decided to post my video/song feelings are going to be posted here in the CIB .5's. So here is how I felt and what came to mind in CIB #1:

This is what always comes to mind when I think about DV in general, and especially Abusive Mentality.

Hey, girl, you know you drive me crazy

one look puts the rhythm in my hand.

Still I'll never understand why you hang around

I see what's going down.

Cover up with makeup in the mirror

tell yourself, it's never gonna happen again

You cry alone and then he swears he loves you.

Do you feel like a man when you push her around?

Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?

Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end

as your lies crumble down, a new life she has found.

A pebble in the water makes a ripple effect

every action in this world will bear a consequence

If you wade around forever, you will surely drown

I see what's going down.

I see the way you go and say you're right again,

say you're right again

Heed my lecture.

Do you feel like a man when you push her around?

Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?

Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end

as your lies crumble down, a new life she has...

One day she will tell you that she has had enough

It's coming round again.

[x2] 

Do you feel like a man when you push her around?

Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?

Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end

as your lies crumble down, a new life she has...

Face down in the dirt, she said,

"This doesn't hurt", she said,

"I finally had enough."

[x2]