M5A2

Draft of Final Project

Name

Institution

Date

Selected criminal behavior

The selected criminal behavior is domestic violence against women. Violent against women can be defined an act of gender-related violence that has the possibility of result in, or actually results in mental, sexual, or physical suffering or harm to women, including coercion, threats of violent acts, or absolute loss of liberty, whether in private or public life. In some cases, men are abused by partners (Saili, Mahfoz, Labong, & Putit, 2014). However, domestic violence is in most cases directed toward women. Abusive relationships often involve an imbalance of control and power. The perpetrator uses intimidating, hurtful behaviors and words to control their partner (Saili, Mahfoz, Labong, & Putit, 2014). It might be easy for one to identify domestic violence at initial stages. While some relationships tend to be clearly abusive, abuse often begins subtly and worsen over time.

Domestic violence is about control and power. The perpetrator usually wants to dominate the survivor/victim and wants to secure all the power in the relationship and employs violence to maintain or establish power and authority (Ellsberg, et al., 2015). Perpetrators of domestic violence are often not deranged or sick, but have learned, manipulative and abusive behaviors and techniques that allow them to control and dominate others and obtain the desired responses (Ellsberg, et al., 2015). In most cases, an abuser will restrict the outlets of a victim, forbidding them from maintaining outside employment, family ties, and friends. This has an isolating impact, creating dependency and leaving victims with no external support. Perpetrators also limit the options of a survivor by disallowing access to credit cards, checking accounts, or other sources of financial independence or money.

Domestic violence has for many years been a big problem in the United States. According to many surveys in the United Sates many female experience 80% of domestic violence against them as compared to the small percentage of men that have experienced domestic violence. We are specifically going to focus on domestic violence against women statistics in California. Recent surveys indicate that about 32.9% of women in California experienced domestic violence from their intimate partners. There are about 4.5 million women who reside in California, and most of them have at least experienced domestic violence at some point in their life.

The results of domestic violence against women in California is said to be very much higher than even the nationwide average of 1 women in 4 who indicated that they had experienced intimate partner violence (Wintemute, Frattaroli, Claire, Vittes, & Webster, 2014). Many women who reported violence against them were the non-white as compared to the white women in California. Many young women that are between 18 to 29 years reported the highest rate of intimate partner violence. Women with a higher income also recorded the lowest rate of violence as compared to those who earned a lower income.

Etiology theories pertaining to domestic violence against women

Many of the research regarding the causes of perpetration of domestic violence against women are drawn from the literature on general violence and aggression (Devries, et al., 2013). Both the theory on general violence as well as that on domestic violence against women maintain that violence emanates from interactions among individual psychosocial and biological factors and social processes, but it is not clearly known how much overlap exist in the development of violent acts and behavior against women. Research on male perpetrators of domestic violence have found that some perpetrators confine their violent behavior to their intimates while others tend to be violent in general (Devries, et al., 2013). The most common causes of domestic violence against women include constant argument with one’s partner, refusal to have sex with the perpetrator, neglect of the children, going out of home without informing the partner, failure to cook properly and on time, infidelity, among others (Devries, et al., 2013). In some cases, inability to bear children also results in domestic violence against women. Alcoholism is also another major cause of domestic violence against women.

Relevant prevention, intervention, and treatment

Women who have experienced incidents of domestic violence often seek health care for various reasons, including for the sustained injuries, even if they might hide the associated violence or abuse (Heise, Ellsberg, & Gottmoeller, 2012). A healthcare provider is therefore likely to be the first professional contact for victims or survivors of sexual assault or domestic violence. Research indicates that abused women often use health care services more, as compared their non-abused counterparts (World Health Organization, 2016). They also consider healthcare providers as the professionals that they can trust with the disclosure of sexual assault or abuse. From the perspective of the public health, interventions can be categorized into primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Primary prevention aims at decreasing the number of new cases of a given issue, illness, or disease. The aim of secondary prevention is usually to decrease the prevalence of a particular phenomenon within the population. Lastly, tertiary prevention usually aims at decreasing the level of disability or harm associated with a given phenomenon (World Health Organization, 2016).

Studies need to have clear post/pre-intervention evaluative element in order to be able to analyze its efficiency. Furthermore, the interventions need to emphasize on efforts targeted toward the primary or secondary prevention of domestic violence against women or its associated health outcomes, including efforts geared towards the prevention of initial re-victimization or victimization in defined settings and population (Kiss, et al., 2012). The goal of primary intervention is to prevent initial violence against women and secondary intervention is geared towards the prevention or reduction of ongoing domestic violence against women or its associated health outcomes. Possible interventions include individual interventions, population-based interventions, community-based interventions, group-based interventions, singe-component or multi-component interventions ad other programs (Jewkes, 2012). Types of interventions geared towards the prevention of domestic violence against women may include psychosocial support, advocacy, survivor care, group training, educational programs, police advocacy, cash transfers, personnel interventions, community mobilization, livelihood strategies or interventions, security and systems, interventions, and legal strategies.

Individual-level interventions

Peer support groups and individual counseling are probable services that most victims of domestic violence against women use. Counseling services are usually available for couples in which the female partner have been victimized, or otherwise battered, but there remains considerable debate in the area over the advisability and merits of couples counseling (Krantz & Garcia-Moreno, 2017). Many researchers and practitioners argue that couples counseling tend to be inappropriate when violence is presence since it tends to endanger women. However, other counseling human service providers maintain that couples counseling specifically designed for addressing the use of violence and aggression may be useful for couples in mildly violent or discordant relationships (Krantz & Garcia-Moreno, 2017). These studies support the idea that treatment for victims of rape can be beneficial and that specific forms of treatment may be more efficient for certain symptoms.

Preventive interventions

Preventive interventions have largely comprised of school-based programs on spouse abuse, sexual abuse, dating violence, violence prevention in general, and conflict mediation. Rape and sexual assault education programs seem to be common of colleges; conflict resolution programs have been implemented in various high schools and middle schools. The programs tend to vary in degree of theoretical underpinning, content, and length (Piosiadlo, Fonseca, & Gessner, 2014). The few evaluations performed by these programs help in testing students’ attitudes on and knowledge about relationship violence prior to and after the prevention program, in addition to evaluating their personal experience with dating violence. These programs help in changing their attitude towards violence and lowering the possibility of their involvement in intimate partner violence, thus helping in the reduction of cases of intimate partner violence.

Deterrence

The threat of criminal justice sanctions usually deters individuals from engaging themselves in violent behaviors or actions, which makes deterrence an applicable preventive intervention. The theory of deterrence is established in the criminal justice field, and suggests that increasing certainty of stringent sanctions increases their deterrent effect of the sanctions (Jewkes, 2012). From this perspective, the compulsory arrest of perpetrators of domestic violence, increasing prosecution rates for intimate partner violence and rape, and stricter enforcement of protection order are effective preventive interventions against domestic violence against women.  

References Devries, K. M., Mak, J. Y., Garcia-Moreno, C., Petzold, M., Child, J. C., Falder, G., . . . Rosenfeld, L. (2013). The global prevalence of intimate partner violence against women. Science, 1527-1528. Ellsberg, M., Arango, D. J., Morton, M., Gennari, F., Kiplesund, S., Contreras, M., & Watts, C. (2015). Prevention of violence against women and girls: what does the evidence say? The Lancet, 1555-1566. Heise, L., Ellsberg, M., & Gottmoeller, M. (2012). A global overview of gender-based violence. International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, 78(S1), 5-14. Jewkes, R. (2012). Intimate partner violence: causes and prevention. The lancet, 359, 1423-1429. Kiss, L., d'Oliveira, A. F., Zimmerman, C., Heise, L., Schraiber, L. B., & Watts, C. (2012). Brazilian policy responses to violence against women: Government strategy and the help-seeking behaviors of women who experience violence. Health and human rights, 14(1), 64-77. Krantz, G., & Garcia-Moreno, C. (2017). Violence against women. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 59(10), 818-821. Piosiadlo, L. C., Fonseca, R. M., & Gessner, R. (2014). Subordination of gender: reflecting on the vulnerability to domestic violence against women. Escola Anna Nery, 18(4), 728-733. Saili, J., Mahfoz, N., Labong, E. P., & Putit, Z. (2014). Domestic Violence against Women. Wintemute, G. J., Frattaroli, S., Claire, B. E., Vittes, K. A., & Webster, D. W. (2014). Identifying armed respondents to domestic violence restraining orders and recovering their firearms: process evaluation of an initiative in California. American journal of public health, 104(2), e113-e118. World Health Organization. (2016, November). Violence against women. Retrieved from World Health Organization : http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs239/en/