Family Violence & Sexual Abuse

1. Family Violence & Sexual Abuse Chapter 13

2. Although not as dangerous as war zones or urban riot scenes, families & households are dangerous places. • A woman is beaten by her boyfriend or husband every 30 seconds. • Each year, at least a million American children are physically abused by their parents.

3. FAMILY VIOLENCE &ABUSE • Violence is "an act carried out with the intention or perceived intention of causing physical pain or injury to another person.“ • Other prevalent forms of abuse include neglect & emotional abuse.

4. Common couple violence refers to violence that erupts in the course of an argument as one partner strikes at the other in the heat of the moment. • Intimate terrorism occurs in relationships characterized by the desire of one partner to dominate & control the other. • Violent resistance encompasses what is often meant by • “self defensive" violence. • Mutual violent control encompasses the relationships in which both partners are violently trying to control each other &the relationship.

5. EXPLAINING FAMILY VIOLENCE • Several theories have been proposed to explain why family violence exists. • Patriarchy / male-dominance theory maintains that in societies where men hold the authority and in women and children are defined property, male violence against women and children is common. The personality theory of abuse maintains that the abuser's personality characteristics are the major determinants of family abuse. • Social- learning theory posits that aggression and violence are learned by observing the behavior of others. Resource theory assumes that the more social, personal, and economic resources people have, the more power they command. • Conflict theorists argue that women and children are victimized in the family not only because they have few individual resources but also because societal institutions rarely take violence against women and children seriously. • According to exchange theory, the assailant's violent behavior and the victim's tolerance of the abuse carries more benefits than costs.

6. PREVALENCE OF FAMILY VIOLENCE • Battering includes slapping, punching, knocking down, choking, kicking, hitting with objects, threatening with weapons, stabbing, shooting, & sexual abuse. • A man who systematically batters is likely to believe the myths about battering; believe in the traditional home; have low self-esteem; have a dual personality; be sadistic, passive-aggressive, or pathologically jealous; use sex as an act of aggression; or believe in the moral rightness of his violent behavior.

7. The three-phase cycle of violence involves the building of tension, the explosion, & the "honeymoon period" • The "cycle theory of battering incidents" (Walker) proposes that there is a three-phase cycle involved in marital abuse. • Beginning with the tension-building phase when the wife tries to prevent her husband's anger from escalating, • leading to the acute battering incident where the husband explodes into a rage of abusing his wife, • and ending with the calm that follows the incident where the husband begs his wife's forgiveness and promises that he will never hurt her again.

8. Marital rape is one of the most widespread & overlooked forms of family violence, but many people (including the victims themselves) have difficulty acknowledging that forced sex in marriage is rape. • Raping a wife has been a crime in all states since 1993.

9. I.Acquaintance rape (date rape) is the most common form of rape. • Alcohol or drugs are often involved. • 2. Physical violence often goes hand-in-hand with sexual aggression. Three-fourths of victims who were acquaintance rape victims sustained bruises, cuts, black eyes, & internal injuries. • 3. Much sexual communication is done nonverbally & • ambiguously, creating considerable confusion & • argument about sexual consent.

10. battered women • economic dependence, • religious pressure to submit to her husband's will, • belief that the children need a father, • fear of being alone, especially as she may have been cut off from all other ties, • belief in the American dream of family bliss, • pity for her husband, • guilt & shame, feeling that it is somehow her own fault, • duty & responsibility to stick it out, • fear for her life if she tries to escape, • love for the partner, despite the battering, • cultural reasons, and • nowhere else to go.

11. Learned helplessness • It is connected to low self-esteem & keeps battered women feelingthat they cannot control the battering • The woman's determination that the violence must cease is crucial to stopping it.

12. Characteristics of parents who abuse their children may include: physical punishment by one's own parents • Children who are abused are often labeled by their parents as "unsatisfactory" & may be: a "normal" child (who is the product of a difficult or unplanned pregnancy or who is the wrong sex) • The family ecosystem may include serious problems contributing to stress

13. Physical abuse refers to an ongoing pattern of bodily injurious acts. • In Munchausen syndrome by proxy, an adult feigns or induces illness in a child to attract medical attention and support for herself and her child. • Sexual abuse includes making a child watch sexual acts, fondling a child, forcing a child to engage in sexual acts for pornography and incest. • Child neglect is a failure to provide basic caretaking obligations. • Language neglect includes discouraging the child's communication skills. • Emotional maltreatment conveys to a child that they are inferior, worthless, flawed, unloved or unwanted. • This may include spurning (threatening to hurt, kill or abandon a child), isolating (denying a child opportunities to interact with peers or adults) or corrupting (modeling, permitting or encouraging a child's antisocial behaviors).

14. CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE • The incest taboo, which forbids sexual intercourse between close blood relatives, is a cultural norm in almost all known societies. • Incest is defined by law as sexual intercourse or marriage between family members. • A national survey found that 15% of adults said they had been victims of unwanted sexual intercourse and touching as a child. • Theories about the role of the mother in the incestuous family can be classified into three categories: • as colluder (sacrifices her daughter either intentionally or inadvertently), • as dependent (a helpless person who is suffering from a disabling condition like depression or a physical infirmity), • and as victim (fails to intervene because of her own victimization as a child).

15. Abused children are more likely to : • have parents who abuse drugs and alcohol • live in larger families • have parents who are experiencing economic stress and poverty, • live in homes where there is wife abuse and • have divorced parents. • Children who survive often suffer from physiological, social and emotional problems. • Incestuous relationships in childhood often lead to lack of trust, fear of intimacy and sexual dysfunctions in adulthood.

16. HIDDEN VICTIMS: SIBLINGS AND ADOLESCENTS • There are various forms of sibling abuse, including name-calling and ridicule (the most common form), degradation, promoting fear, torturing or killing a pet, and destroying personal possessions. • Most parents view sibling violence as a normal part of growing up. • However, 10% of all murders in families are sibilcides, killing of one's sibling. • Men, are more likely to be the perpetrators and victims of sibilcide and the average age of the victim is 33.

17. About 20% of teenagers are abused by their parents. • Being abused and witnessing domestic violence has twice the negative effect on children's development. • Adolescent victims are more likely to be victims of other crimes, problem drug users as adults, serious property offenders and serious violent offenders.

18. Baby boomers, now in their early forties to late fifties, are often referred to as the sandwich generation because they care not only for their own children but also for their aging parents. • Elder abuse, sometimes called elder mistreatment, includes physical abuse, negligence, financial exploitation, psychological abuse, and deprivation of basic needs, isolation from friends and family and failure to administer needed medications. • Elder abuse is called the hidden iceberg because 84% of cases are not reported. Elderly women are more likely to be abused. • Adult children are the largest group of elder abusers, followed by the victim's spouse. • Overall, men are more likely to be abusers. • Risk factors for elder abuse include shared living arrangement, weak social network, alcohol use and abuse, impairment of the care giver or care recipient, physical and emotional dependency in the abuser-abused relationship, medical costs, stress, negative personality characteristics, and the intergenerational transmission of violence.

19. Programs • Child abuse prevention (CAP) programs have aimed at teaching children that they have rights; including the right to control their own bodies & genitals, the right to feel "safe," & the right not to be touched in ways that feel confusing or wrong. • Other CAP programs are directed at parents to help them educate their children. • CAP programs for professionals encourage them to watch for signs of sexual abuse & to investigate children's reports of abuse. • In recent years, both the American Medical Association (AMA) & the federal government have become more actively involved in fighting domestic violence.