Structural Family Theory On Domestic Violence

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Historically, domestic violence has been a devastating social problem affecting individuals from every segment of the American society irrespective of race, class, age, religion, sexual orientation, nationality and economic status. Although, men to a smaller extent experience domestic violence, it is usually understood as a women 's issue; which inadvertently affects children. Approximately, 85 to 95% of victims are females (Laney, 2010). Every 9 seconds in the United States, a woman is assaulted or beaten (National Domestic Violence Statistics, 2014). 72% of all murder-suicides involve an intimate partner and 94% of the victims of these murder suicides are females. Moreover, 9.4% of women in the United States have been raped by an intimate partner in their lifetime (National Domestic Violence Statistics, 2014). Intimate partner violence …show more content…

272). Every family is described as having a family structure which entails functional demands that dictates the interactional process of the family. Key theoretical principles of structural family theory include clear, rigid and diffuse boundaries, triangulation, power, rules and roles. Treatment techniques used include joining-tracking, mimesis, confirmation and accommodation; reframing, unbalancing, boundary making and working with spontaneous interaction. Unbalancing is looked at as “a procedure by which the therapist supports an individual or subsystem against the rest of the family” (Gladding, 2011, p. 280) while working with spontaneous interaction places an emphasis on the process and not the content. The role of therapists is thought to change as treatment progresses where the change is considered gradual but steady where the “overall structure of the family is altered and reorganized” (Gladding, 2011, p.

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