Analyzing a Major Issue, Domestic Violence as an Whole Essay

Although there are now laws against domestic violence, the issue still seems to be present in the 21st century. Once given an blind eye to is existence for decades people are now forced to face the fact that domestic violence is an major issue no matter when and where it may occur. In this essay I will be addressing the issues of: What is has been done to try and stop this violence and help the victims involved? What psychological issues that may fuel the particular act of violence? What challenges that law enforcement agencies and victims face pertaining to domestic violence and how might these challenges be addressed. And whether are not if I agree with the external peer reviewed references arguments based on domestic violence? Throughout the years domestic violence in our country was never a topic that was spoken about outside of our homes. It wasn’t until 1984 that Congress decided to bring this issue out of the darkness by inventing the Family Violence Prevention and Service Act (P. L 98-457) ( https://www. hildwelfare. gov/pubs/usermanuals/domesticviolence/domesticviolencec. cfm). This act was proposed to assist States with their efforts to increase public awareness about domestic violence and to find ways to provide government funding to provide shelter and victim assistance. I for one think that congress did the right thing for this time period in our history. But it wasn’t until ten years later that the Violence against Women Act (VAWA) (h ttps://www. childwelfare. gov/pubs/usermanuals/domesticviolence/domesticviolencec. cfm) came into play. This law helped the government establish the four titles that are within the VAWA act: Safe Homes for Women, Civil Rights for Women and equal Justice for Women in the Courts, Protections for Battered Immigrant Women and Children, and the Safe Street Act. A few years after that a new act was set into place called Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWOR). This act addresses the restraint put on battered individuals looking for work and support due to their domestic violence circumstances. This amendment give each state a loop hole to â€Å"temporarily exempt identified victims of domestic violence from meeting certain time limits and other work requirements. † (https://www. childwelfare. gov/pubs/usermanuals/domesticviolence/domesticviolencec. cfm) These acts as also helped to lead the way for â€Å"Congress to pass a law making it a federal crime for people convicted of domestic violence to own a gun (18 U. S. C. 922(g)(9)), hoping to reduce the injuries that repeat domestic violence offenders might inflict. The U. S.  Supreme Court upheld the law in the case of United States v. Hayes (2009), ruling that the law applied to any conviction based on an act of domestic violence, even if a defendant was not convicted explicitly of the crime of domestic violence. †( http://www. nolo. com/legal-encyclopedia/domestic-violence-33813. html). Domestic violence according to our Psychology 110 textbook (Franzoi, 2009) could be linked to self-regulation failure (P. 66), ambivalent sexism behavior (P. 213), and aggression associated cues (P. 441) experienced in the home. Self-regulation failure seems to become present in any situation where one spouse or the other is putting aside his/her wants to do what is considered important to the relationship, this kind of sacrifice sometimes only back fires later. Any minor incident or disagreement could cause an individual to snap that has been given up their leisure time to do something else that was thought to be important. Let’s consider the psychological concept called ambivalent sexism behavior that is found on page 213 of Franzoi, 2009. This behavior is described as â€Å"behavior directed against women based on both positive and negative attitudes including hostility and benevolence, rather than uniform dislike. The example given stated that Turkey and Brazil men and women who endorse hostile and benevolent sexist beliefs towards women justify violence against wives when they challenge their husbands’ authority or violate traditional gender roles. †(Franzoi,2009). But this is not the case in aggression-associated cues located on page 441. These particular cues seem to trigger domestic violence in the households. Some of the well-known aggression cues are weapons such as: baseball bats, sticks, knives, and guns. The less recognized cues would be hostile physical characteristics, and negative attitudes coming from either party involved in a dispute. When domestic violence is present in a home it often goes unreported. In these situations it becomes hard for police officials to step in and protect the victim. â€Å"Police and prosecutors face two common problems when it comes to arresting, charging, and prosecuting domestic violence. First, victims of domestic violence are often reluctant to report the abuse. Abuse victims may hope that the abuse was an isolated act that will not be repeated. Are secondly they may be fearful that reporting the violence will only goad their attacker into further violence. If a woman and her children are dependent on their abuser’s income, the mother may fear that reporting the violence will result in loss of financial support. Understandable though such reactions may be, the result is that most crimes of domestic violence go unreported. The last thing that makes these kinds of cases hard to prosecute is that even when victims of domestic violence report attacks to the police, victims often refuse to testify against their attackers at trial. As defendants have a constitutional right to confront and cross-examine their accusers, prosecutors usually cannot offer domestic violence victims’ statements to the police into evidence in lieu of the victims’ actual testimony in court. As a result, prosecutors must sometimes dismiss domestic violence charges. The combination of failing to report and refusing to cooperate with prosecutors makes domestic violence one of the hardest crimes to successfully prosecute. (http://www. nolo. com/legal-encyclopedia/domestic-violence-33813. html). † Victimized individuals of domestic disputes could help themselves and others by reporting the crime to the proper authorities no matter how big are small the dispute. But I can’t argue against the statement of: â€Å"domestic violence has been a constant despite differences in cultures or political regimes.. Whether it takes the form of sexual assault, physical assault, homicide, or one of the other myriad forms of abuse, societies struggling with defining otherwise criminal and abhorrent behavior rooted within a domestic, oftentimes familial, relationship. Attitudes of shame, silence, guilt, and fear battle against centuries of entitlement, tradition, and even theological tenets. (Shelley M. Santry, 2012). Often making it harder for the victim to report the crime sense he/she in so many words are â€Å"hoping that the abuse was an isolated incident† that won’t happen again. I do agree with the statement of â€Å"reporting the crime lets the abuser know that his/her behavior will not be tolerated by you or law enforcement. † (Sherman & Berk, 1984). I would also recommend that the victim of domestic violence should look for support programs and organizations that offer the help to get out a bad situation. These sorts of support groups and organizations could be run by protection agency and law enforcement to secure the safety and wellbeing of the victims involved. Prosecutors and other agencies involved in the criminal justice program could provide a service similar to witness protection for the victims of domestic violence to ensure that he/she goes to court to testify against their attacker. I agree with the statement made in (JENNETT, 2012) stating that â€Å"Changing policing practices reflect these attitudinal changes and police play a crucial role in ensuring that the rights of the battered are upheld. † Although this isn’t an easy process let’s consider the fact that everyone doesn’t see eye to eye on the issue of domestic violence. What if a police officer is an abuser him/herself? Then of course the officer that is called out isn’t going to do too much to protect the victim from the abuser. But I do disagree with the statement of â€Å"Police are not called on to protect victims of domestic violence until someone reports an incident. † (JENNETT, 2012). This is not always the case more than likely if an officer sees domestic violence in public he/she will intervene and try to settle the conflict. But these recommendations would be useless if you were a resident that resided inside the Topeka, Kansas. City limits. I honestly disagree with the decision of this city council â€Å"to decriminalize misdemeanor domestic violence cases. † (Shelley M. Santry, 2012). According to the information published this decision â€Å"came in response to the Shawnee County District Attorney, Chad Taylor, notifying the city that the District Attorney’s office would no longer prosecute such cases arising within Topeka city limits due to budgetary constraints. And my question to this article is â€Å"What about the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? †( http://www. loc. gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/14thamendment. html). And the answers to these questions are yes! Depending on where you live and the state in which you reside. In my conclusion the main issue at hand goes further than domestic violence, there are criminal and civil procedures that exist in all states and countries that may or may not view this issue as a priority compared to other crimes.