In the United States, family violence covers a range of behaviors committed by an individual against a family member. All the behaviors aim at controlling a family member through fear and include economic abuse, intentionally damaging property of a family member, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and any other behavior that makes a family member feel that their security is jeopardized. Violence is a reality in many households across the globe. Additionally, an act of violence occurs if a kid sees, hears, or lives in a family that experiences violence. The law safeguards that kid and family member who was the victim of the violence. Family violence can affect anyone irrespective of their location, status, wealth, religion, ability, cultural background, sexual identity, gender, or age. Family violence is among the main factors to illness, disability, and even death to women aged 15 to 44 years. Family violence is an essential social issue since it has a large negative effect on the victims. Even though either females or males can cause family violence, it is normally caused by a male because of large physical identity.
Family violence is intimidation, force, threats, or violence to manipulate or control a partner or a family member. There is a significant gap in such relationships as far as power is concerned where violence or abusive behavior is used to control others. Research by Fitz-Gibbon et al. (2018) has revealed that men are the most the perpetrators of family violence, and women and children are the victims. One in three women across the globe experience violence from their partners. Family violence can occur in any relationship, including between homosexual, and heterosexual relationships, family members, couples, and against persons who are disabled or elderly. Family violence can affect every person irrespective of their economic or social status or cultural and racial background.
Causes of Family Violence
Family violence is all about control and power. Abuse can be experienced by anyone irrespective of religion, sexual orientation, gender, or race. Being hurt by a spouse or an intimate partner can be a very traumatizing and confusing experience for victims. Persons on the outside might wonder why victims do not “simply go away.” Still, violent or abusive relationships are often marked by complicated dynamics that make it complex when it comes to getting away. Additionally, despite cultural and societal stigma around who may experience family violence can occur to anyone. About ten million people in the United States experience family violence annually. If you are going through family violence, you mustn’t be at fault for your partner’s behavior. Victims of family violence do not make their abusers punish or target them with psychological or physical abuse. Perpetrators use family violence as a tool for gaining control and power over their targets. Family violence is a choice on the part of the perpetrator. However, some underlying aspects may at times contribute to the propensity of a person. Family violence causes worsened physical and psychological health, decreased quality of life, decreased productivity, and mortality in some cases. It can be complex to identify. Many cases of family violence are not reported to legal authorities or healthcare providers. It is normally the victimization of a person with whom the perpetrator takes advantage of their victim in the quest of having control and power over them.
The rates of family violence are higher in remote, rural, and regional areas. Social and geographical frameworks in these societies and unique social norms and values result in particular experiences of family violence. The issues mentioned above affect responses to family violence in rural societies and the ability of women to look for help and access services. Poor understanding of family violence by legal, social, and health services in remote, rural, and regional communities has been identified as an important matter as far as victims of family violence are concerned. It is complex when it comes to ascertaining accurate rates of family violence in any context since most victims do not report the cases to the authorities. Additionally, family violence is less likely to be disclosed to involved parties in non-urban communities. However, several types of research have revealed that women in remote, rural, and regional areas are more likely to have experienced family violence from their partners. Straus & Smith (2017) pointed out that the higher rates of family violence in non-urban communities were most times due to the higher indigenous population in the areas mentioned above. On the other hand, in recent research, most family violence cases in the United States included certain predominantly white agricultural areas. Family violence has to be understood in the context of a history of colonization, discrimination, racism, forced child removal, and the resulting intergenerational trauma from this history. There are many shared aims in victims of family violence and the barriers to leaving a toxic relationship between victims in rural societies and victims from other geographical areas. These include family pressure to remain in a relationship, limited means of leaving, economic concerns, and fear of the partner’s threat as if they move from a relationship. On the other hand, there are geographical and social issues that are particular to the experience of family violence for victims living in rural areas.
Interventions to Address Family Violence
In today’s world, most societal efforts to address family violence in the United States have focused on crisis intervention through community organizations. While the agencies mentioned above offer important help when addressing family violence, this is at most times only appealed for the greatest cases. Government apparatus rely on notification of family violence from outside sources. Consequently, they might be responding to only ten percent of family violence cases. Healthcare professionals are in a good position to affect victims of family violence before the abuse goes to unmanageable levels. Healthcare professionals come into contact with victims of family violence for routine healthcare services. The victims visit healthcare facilities to seek routine treatment (Segrave et al., 2020). As a result, healthcare providers can help the victims to seek help from the involved parties so that perpetrators can be made to face the full force of the law. They are in a good position of engaging in early identification, support, and referral of victims before the abuse reaches unmanageable levels (Douglas & Nagesh, 2021). When we talk about family violence, we normally think about family violence, yet the experience of abuse affects spiritual, social, and mental health equally. There is nothing new when it comes to family violence (Bozzay et al., 2020). What is new in violence within families is to treat it as a health issue and develop interventions and policies to prevent it from taking place. The guidelines mentioned above are part of that emerging intervention structure. Healthcare professionals are progressively recognized as having an important part in the early intervention and avoidance of violence within families. In the United States, health strategy and consultation with clients, family violence has been regularly positioned as among the top priorities for social workers and healthcare professionals to address.
Long-term Outcomes of Family Violence
If you are a victim of family violence, it can hurt you in numerous ways – sexually, emotionally, socially, mentally, physically, and more. Additionally, family violence may affect the relationship you have with other family members. It can have a significant impact on the love and attention needed by the family members mentioned above. If you are in the situation mentioned above, you need to be aware that family violence is not your fault. The perpetrators of family violence are responsible for it and how it affects the day-to-day activities with other family members (Fitz-Gibbon et al., 2018). Family violence has a significant effect on the relationship with other family members. This can occur if the perpetrator uses emotional abuse to undermine the relationship with other family members. The perpetrator may use family violence to say nasty things to other family members, force them to disobey others, and prevent them from being happy (Douglas & Kerr, 2018). Additionally, it might affect the mental health of the victims. It is common for persons subjected to family violence to go through sleep problems, post-traumatic stress disorder, stress, anxiety, depression, and self-medication with substance abuse. Family abuse has numerous serious impacts on households. It can result in injury or even death in extreme cases.
Additionally, it can result in ongoing issues for family members living or have lived in a violent family. A person who has lived in a violent home learns to address their issues violently instead of developing strategies for solving problems amicably. Some long-term effects include copying violent means and behaving similarly when faced with stressful issues (Reeves, 2020). They might learn that there is no problem behaving in a manner that is degrading to other persons, as they have seen this occur in the violent situations they witnessed. Proper counseling and support will help them to learn how to treat others with respect and trust. Some people who depend on alcohol and other drugs cannot relate with other family members with the necessary respect. For some, drug and alcohol dependence is overwhelming to the extent that it takes priority over everything else without excluding looking after the needs of other family members. It is important to note that family violence does not resolve itself. If you look for reinforcement to take action against family violence, it shows other family members that abuse is unacceptable and should be brought to an end. Social workers and other involved parties can help stop family violence at the end of the day. In other words, victims of family violence should seek the assistance of social workers trained to help them overcome the experience they have been made to go through by their perpetrators. Reports of family violence continue.
Reports of family violence continue to strain the capacity of medical facilities, social services agencies, courts, and law enforcement agencies. Simultaneously, many prevention and treatment programs are offering services to perpetrators and victims. Limited research knowledge exists concerning the efficiency of the programs mentioned above. However, such information is inaccessible, scattered, and complex when it comes to getting it. Social workers and other involved parties aim to increase the uptake and evidence-based health promotion interventions and programs that are important for the prevention and looking at the issues that contribute to family violence (Reeves, 2020). The programs mentioned above are meant to prevent and address family violence and support the health of the victims. The programs should have the capacity to support scale-up and sustainability of strategies that are thought to be effective.
In summary, in the United States, family violence covers a range of behaviors committed by an individual against a family member. All the behaviors aim at controlling a family member through fear and include economic abuse, intentionally damaging property of a family member, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and any other behavior that makes a family member feel that their security is jeopardized. Violence is a reality in many households across the globe. Additionally, an act of violence occurs if a kid sees, hears, or lives in a family that experiences violence. The law safeguards that kid and family member who was the victim of the violence. Family violence can affect anyone irrespective of their location, status, wealth, religion, ability, cultural background, sexual identity, gender, or age.
References
Bozzay, M. L., Joy, L. N., & Verona, E. (2020). Family violence pathways and externalizing behavior in youth. Journal of interpersonal violence, 35(23-24), 5726-5752.
Douglas, H., & Kerr, K. (2018). Domestic and Family Violence, Reproductive Coercion and the Role for Law. Journal of law and medicine, 26(2), 341-355.
Douglas, H., & Nagesh, R. (2021). Domestic and family violence, child support and ‘the exemption’. Journal of Family Studies, 27(4), 540-555.
Fitz-Gibbon, K., Elliott, K., & Maher, J. (2018). Investigating adolescent family violence in Victoria: Understanding experiences and practitioner perspectives. Monash University.
Reeves, E. (2020). Family violence, protection orders, and systems abuse: views of legal practitioners. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 32(1), 91-110.
Segrave, M., Hedwards, B., & Tyas, D. (2020). Family violence and exploitation: Examining the contours of violence and exploitation. The Palgrave International Handbook of Human Trafficking, 437-450.
Straus, M. A., & Smith, C. (2017). Family patterns and primary prevention of family violence. In Physical violence in American families (pp. 507-526). Routledge.
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