How Has the Trend of Domestic Violence Within Society Changed over Time and What Effect Does the Violence Have on the Mentality and Psychological Wellbeing of Victims and Witnesses?
Research QuestionHow has the trend of domestic violence within society changed over time and what effect does the violence have on the mentality and psychological wellbeing of victims and witnesses?
HypothesisThe trend of reported domestic violence has increased over time in addition; the effects of such violence may lead to violent tendencies in both victims and witnesses such as young children and a range of emotional and physiological disorders such as clinical depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Research (Including Methodology)The use of current, trustworthy and unbiased information is imperative in any research report to provide a clear and precise picture of the situation. The best recourses of such information include reputable internet sources and academic journals. There were a large number of academic journals used to acquire relevant information to the topic these mostly revolved around the concepts of the trend of domestic violence and the damaging effects of violence on victims and witnessed long after the physical and or sexual abuse has ceased.
The data used in this report were collected from a number of journal articles that conducted anonymous surveys using a cross sectional design of a number of women, aged 16+. As a result, this report statistically focuses on the crime trend in regards to women.
FindingsFrom 1997-2005, the recorded rate of domestic violence cases in Sydney has increased by 39.5% – 50.7% dependant on geographical location, this suggests and reflects an increases in violence as numerous cases still remain unreported [NSW bureau of crime statistics and research, 2005]. About 10% of reported cases involved child abuse however; the increase was predominantly in violence against women. Consequently, several studies have suggested that domestic violence in Australia may be more extensive that first perceived. However, it has to be noted that statistics are only based on reported situations and fail to capture the ‘dark figure’ of crime.
DiscussionWhile domestic violence is often defined as violent physical abuse directed towards a spouse or partner, it often extends to affecting victims in terms of emotional, verbal, physiological, sexual, social and financial abuse and control. In many cases, the immediate response is to check for signs of physical abuse however, the emotional and psychological scars tend to have a longer term affect on victims. As with any victim of abuse or trauma, they can exhibit a withdrawal in social and emotional behaviour and situations as well as denial of abuse. High amounts of anxiety, stress and fear are also reported among victims that still live with their perpetrators. This can eventually lead to chronic mental health issues which left untreated can lead
Habitat
The most common use of the Australian National Police is for domestic violence prevention/survival and protection. This is done to protect an individual from future violence as well as keep them comfortable in a shelter, shelter or an environment where they can live (e.g., during the early hours of the night) with children, other family members and in close proximity to each other. Many Australians also believe that we are all responsible for all forms of domestic violence. However, many of those actions are carried out by our government or local government or private actors to defend. Many of these actions include the use of social media to gain awareness about people’s abuse and to encourage others to do the same
While it must be stressed that the evidence for a violent act is often conflicting, there is some good evidence to indicate that domestic violence is far more common, more extreme and widespread than is previously realised. In recent years, a team of researchers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (BPS) have undertaken two-part series to examine whether there was any evidence of a relationship between domestic violence and violence against children and women. One series assesses violence against children by its specific, identifiable characteristics, which we have identified as being associated with an increased risk of child abuse.[36] The next series assesses the association of domestic violence in relation to children and women and whether any underlying relationship, such as age, is at stake. Data for the two series are reported in Table
The ABS will publish a ‘Motive Data’ (MDD) for 2014[36] and will also be releasing a ‘Domestic Violence Data 2014’ in 2015[37].
We take issue with the fact that the ABS has published a set of domestic violence data for 2014-15. Although we have identified three major components to this set of data, it seems more common than ever that people who are aged 18 to 24 will experience violence in a very different manner than people who are 36 to 59[38], and that, if we look solely at children and women over that age range, we find the differences between this sample group are statistically significant.[42] This is not to say that it is not clear that women are at more risk than men on a fundamental level, which is why we are calling for a much more balanced data set so that there are no misleading conclusions to draw regarding the relationship between domestic violence and children and women[38].
The last section states that the ‘pre-existing relationships’ of domestic violence are often the main reason why violence against children and young people is common. However, we suspect a second factor is simply the inability of the respondents to recognise or avoid that their partner’s abuser is not in control of their lives while in fact often the relationship is dysfunctional. In this context, some of those ‘pre-existing relationships’ are more likely to be perceived as the source of violence rather than the perpetrators. For example, women are less likely to identify the perpetrator as the source of violence and as the victim of this partner’s behaviour and behaviour during the day, such