Lenore Walker's Theory Of Domestic Violence

ety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, drug and alcohol de

This is not the only criticism offered for the VAWA. Lenore Walker (1979) has long been an advocate of a multilevel and systematic approach when providing domestic violence services. Her three levels of intervention begin with a primary issue, which focuses on the big picture including prevention, education about domestic violence, and societal violence. Personal needs and early identification are necessary for service options and the goal of secondary intervention. The third form of intervention involves therapy, safety, and shelter. Most victims move from shelter back to their relationship an average of three to five times before leaving permanently. Research shows that often

violence continues even after a couple are separated from each other, and if the two have children together, legal issues such as child support or visitation may link them together for decades. Not being able to get away from this contact with the abuser has been shown to be a big factor in the high rates of depression among many survivors of domestic violence. (Collins 2006:9-12)

IMPACT

Some goals of domestic violence agencies include increasing survivor safety, providing information to survivors about their future options, managing survivor’s distress, providing support, and placing the personal situation in a larger context, so that the survivor can understand that abuse is not the victim’s fault. The purpose of these points is to provide empathy and a nonjudgmental environment from which survivors may derive empowerment to make their own decisions about their future while having their confidentiality maintained. Service providers often share many of the same situational conflicts including watching women return to dangerous situations and hearing the horrific tales of past occurrences. These providers may also fear for their own safety and feel personally responsible for the safety of the women they work with, which is a huge responsibility. It’s not too far-fetched to easily recognize that these feelings can easily carry over into the professional’s personal and intimate relationships. In the context of American society, gender-based violence is often minimalized and victim blaming is rampant. This has a direct impact on survivors by creating barriers to help seeking efforts. Service providers also run into problems such as insufficient resources, minimal training, and poor cooperation with other resources in the community. All of this together can undermine the provider’s work and hinder their ability to provide quality care, which can lead to burnout because a society that minimizes the effects of domestic violence provides resources for addressing the aftermath of such instances (Bell et al. 2013, pg. 114-115)

Physical Implications of Domestic Abuse
It is thought that sexual and physical abuse play a key role in the development of mental and addictive disorders among women. Abused women frequently come into contact with the health care system, but they often do not present with obvious trauma. Despite the obvious short term physical harm, domestic violence also have long term negative health effects which occur even after instances of abuse have ended. This is seen through poor health, poor quality of life, and frequent use of health services. One of the most common causes of injury in women is from intimate partner violence. Injuries to the head, face, neck, thorax, breasts, and abdomen were more common in abuse victims than other injuries. In North America, 40-60% of women murdered are murdered by their intimate partner. Other health problems such as chronic pain, gastrointestinal and gynecological problems, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are seen frequently in abused women. Pregnancy can occur in instances of domestic violence, and this has been shown to have detrimental outcomes to both mother and child. Chronic health problems such as chronic pain (backaches, headaches) and central nervous system symptoms (fainting, seizures) often occur in instances of abuse. This could be the result of recurrent injury and stress, changes in neurophysiology, or both. Frequent instances of choking or blows to the head can lead to loss of consciousness, which has highly negative impacts on future health including neurological sequelae. Chronic stress also leads to increased gastrointestinal symptoms and gastrointestinal disorders in battered women. Abused women also report certain cardiac symptoms such as hypertension or chest pain. A well-documented direct result of stress is the suppression of the immune system so it is reasonable to assume battered women would present with more illnesses such as colds or the flu. It is well documented that domestic violence has both long term and short term negative effects on health. (Campbell 2002: 1332)

Mental Health Issues in Domestic Violence
The two most frequent mental health issues seen in women who have been in abusive relationships are depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The risk for both disorders in cases of domestic violence was seen to be even higher than in cases resulting from childhood sexual assault. The depression seen in victims is often associated with other life stressors that tend to accompany domestic violence situations such as childhood abuse, daily stressor, many children, residential changes, rape, marital separation, child behavior problems, and negative life events. The depression may be chronic and worsened by abuse events, but there is also evidence of violence triggering the first depressive episode with depression lessening with decreased violence. Post-traumatic stress disorder is also much more prevalent in women who have been abused than women who have not, with a weighted ratio of 3:74. How severe the abuse was, previous instances of trauma, and partner dominance are all important precursors of post-traumatic stress disorder that results from domestic violence. Suicide and suicidal thoughts are also prevalent in domestic violence situations. Women were also found to suffer anxiety, insomnia, and social dysfunction in higher numbers than women who had not been abused. Physical violence was also shown to have a more profound impact than psychological violence in these instances. Alcohol and substance abuse is, along with depression, the most frequently observed issue in

abuse victims in Western nations. In studies conducted in emergency departments, it was found that alcohol and drug abuse was established after domestic abuse situations had been occurring in most instances. One proposed explanation for the development of substance abuse in these cases is the result of post-traumatic stress disorder. If affected, these women may use drugs or alcohol to cope with the specific set of symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress. Population studies found that substance abuse is both a risk factor and an effect of post-traumatic stress disorder in all forms of abuse. Another explanation for substance abuse is the woman wanting to escape the realities of living with partner violence. When diagnosing and treating substance abuse, it is important to both recognize and address the factors of partner violence and how they may play a role on mental health (Campbell 2002: 1333)

How domestic violence impacts low income earning women and their work participation and financial self-sufficiency has been recently studied (Lloyd, 1997; Raphael, 1995; Riger, Ahrens, & Blickenstaff, 2001). Women who receive public assistance have been shown to have a higher incidence of partner violence. These women are negatively impacted by recent welfare reform policies such as benefit time limits and work requirements. One study found that women in violent relationships only had one third of the odds of keeping a job for at least three months compared to other women not in violent relationships. This inability to keep a job can potentially cause the woman to be denied benefits and stay in the relationships for financial reasons. (Riger et al., 2001). Economic dependency and a lack of economic resources are frequently cited as obstacles to leaving abusive relationships. (Kirkwood, 1993). Abusers will often facilitate economic dependency by depriving their partner of economic resources such as family or personal income (Dobash & Dobash, 1979; Kirkwood, 1993; Ptacek, 1997). They may also physically prevent the woman from working by injuring her, withholding transportation, destroying items needed for work, or by repeated harassment at work (Riger et al., 2001) As mentioned above, this in turn can increase dependence on government assistance. These findings are largely generalizations, and there’s comparatively little research focused on the consequences of domestic violence among minorities. What does exist suggests that differences are likely a result of their access to resources. Cohen et al. 2004, 474-475)
Domestic Violence Professionals
Services available to domestic violence survivors have no doubt improved and become more coordinated within the past 20 years, yet there are still notable problems. Temporary services have become a focal point because of staffing and unstable funding as well as internal agency conflict. The differences in approaches taken to deal with domestic violence are an important area of focus. Previous research has found that these professionals in differing service roles have different opinions on issues of domestic violence. Social workers tend to focus on character when attributing causation and police view the violence as something that was preventable, thus minimizing its seriousness. Those who have at least a college degree were less likely to blame the victim’s character and stress and also less likely to believe that the domestic abuse was preventable. Traditional family services and medical professionals were also more likely to blame the character of the victim and abuser and indicate that both parties are responsible, so that prevention is difficult. They also tended to show sympathy to both partners. Domestic violence workers tended to view social and structural factors as causes of domestic violence and advocated for the advancement of personal empowerment as a method to fight it. Family service workers tended to blame relationship issues and recommend couples counseling for domestic violence situations. Davis (1984) found that shelter workers and public welfare workers both believed that counseling was the best treatment option. (Collins 2006, pg.22-24) While some studies have introduces new ways of studying domestic violence, much work remains to better grasp the thoughts that guide conceptions and behaviors in relation to domestic violence. This project seeks to examine how domestic violence professionals, survivors, and a general population think about domestic violence and how this affects service outcomes.

Anthropology: Emic and Etic Approaches
Anthropology has long been associated with using ethnography which seeks to learn from individuals living in a particular culture instead of more researcher-oriented methods.

This assumption of the researcher and the subject working from similar frameworks can be problematic in certain research situations. (Pelto & Pelto, 1970), but the field of anthropology is informant focused. Cognitive anthropology, defined as “the study of how peoples of different cultures acquire information about the world (cultural transmission), how they process that information and reach decisions, and how they act on that information in ways that other members of their culture consider appropriate” (Bernard, 1988, p. 226), takes ethnography to a deeper level. Not only is culture observation happening, but people’s thoughts, behaviors, and the meanings attached to these are also examined (Weller & Romney, 1988). In the discipline, this is known as the emic approach which means that “the people’s definition of meaning, their idea systems, are seen as the most important ‘causes’ or explanations for behavior” (Pelto & Pelto, 1970, p. 62). On the other hand, an etic perspective runs the risk of the researcher imposing their expectations or assumptions on the informants. This research will utilize a combination of the two in order to better assess cultural models and what they mean for future

research.
Anthropological Explanations for Domestic Violence
Sociocultural Theory.
Currently, the prevailing theory for the existence of domestic violence is sociocultural. Within this framework, domestic violence is viewed as a pattern of behaviors that one intimate partner engages in for the purposes of maintaining power and control over another intimate partner. These behaviors are socially supported and are learned through observation, experience, and reinforcement in our cultures, institutions, families, schools, and peer groups (MCADSV 2012:21). The sociocultural approach to understanding domestic violence attempts to measure the impact of sociodemographic indicators including age, sex, ethnicity, religion, educational level, and socioeconomic status on domestic violence outcomes. Proponents of this theory believe that the primary causes of domestic violence center around two main factors: (1) socially normalized violence and (2) unequal positions of women and other minorities in society. Socio-demographic indicators are then assessed in relation to these factors. It is the position of many domestic violence researchers and organizations that violence, particularly within the context of intimate relationships, has been socially normalized, legitimized, and is thus tolerated, and that society’s acceptance of violence increases the chance that violence in the home will occur (Miller-Perrin, Barnett, and Perrin 2010:2002). Organizations such as the MCADSV support this approach, reporting that “conditions within our society and communities…support, excuse, and encourage domestic violence” and are to blame to for the existence of domestic violence (MCADSV 2012:21). The risk of any type of violence “is greatest in societies where the use of violence in many situations is a socially-accepted norm” (Jewkes 2002:1). Routinely seeing and experiencing violence normalizes this behavior. Researchers surmised that aggression increases as a result of the belief that violence is normal.
Feminist Theory.
Feminist theory is a sociological theory that analyzes the status of women and men in society in relation to race, class, ethnicity, age, etc. Feminist theory attempts to give a voice to women and their contributions to society. Feminist scholars assert that domestic violence is rooted in gender and power and represents men's attempts to maintain dominance and control over women. Domestic violence is permitted within