Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

Define

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) refers to assaulting and coercive behaviors adults use against their intimate partners. Holden (2003) describes IPV childhood exposure as: (1) prenatal violence, (2) a child’s intervening in violence in an effort to stop it, (3) being directly victimized during violence against mother, (4) participating in the assault on the mother, (5) being an eyewitness to violence, (6) overhearing violence, (7) observing the initial effects of violence, (8) experiencing the aftermath of violence, and (9) learning about a violent event. For the purposes of this paper both permanent caregivers and parents are considered and used interchangeably. Studies show that children are present during 75% of IPV occurrences.

Integration

The cycle of violence that IPV families often experience goes through 3 phases: tension building, violence, and honeymoon (Jacobs 2014). During the tension building phase family members in the household stay out of the perpetrators way, try to control the environment to avoid an escalation in violence, deny past abuse, excuse perpetrators behavior “He’s really stressed at work” and begin to withdraw because of the tremendous stress. A child may be asked to play quietly, not to disturb the perpetrator, stay out of the way, or told that the abuse is in the past if they can all “behave appropriately”. The next phase, the violence phase lasts a few minutes to a few hours and is typically marked by loss of control, deciding if medical treatment is needed, feeling trapped, and defending the perpetrator to law enforcement out of fear. During the violence phase, children are at a high-risk of abuse themselves. A child may try to defend the victim and the perpetrator’s rage is directed toward the child. The final phase, before the cycle starts again, is called the honeymoon phase. In the honeymoon phase the environment becomes less stressful, an illusion of stability, belief that the violence was the victims fault, and believing that the perpetrator will never commit violence again. During this phase children can become confused by the events and learn to bury their feelings about IPV, furthering trust issues within the

System- Change in IPV, changes the entire system and all members must readjust- what will the “new” family look like if mom and kids leave? What does it look like if they stay and dad gets help? How does this effect family members? Mother’s return to those whom have committed acts IPV against them a mean of 5 times before permanently leaving (Cohen, Mannarino, Iyengar 2011). During this time the child may not receive the support needed to fully understand their emotions and move forward emotionally. For that reason the child may self-blame for the abuse or the change in family. When one partner leaves the roles within the family change exorbitantly. The partner that has left, often feels lost, insecure and relies heavily on those around them for support, including children. Many IPV victims find it difficult to leave because of economic reasons and lack of resources to leave the abusive relationship. How do the roles