Here are some resources about domestic violence.
http://www.domesticviolence.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_violence
http://helpguide.org/topics/trauma_abuse.htm
Browse. What are your thoughts on these sites? How is the quality? Is there a bias or viewpoint promoted in any of the sites (Describe and Discuss)? What is something you learned that you did not know before?
Choose one site and explore in further detail. How does the site use or misuse information from the scientific study of violence (e.g., info in the handbook)? How could this site be improved?
Reading these websites really made the issue of domestic violence feel more real. Recognizing that it is a real problem in our society can be difficult to do when you don’t have to deal with it on a day to day basis, as some people do. Now that I have read through these websites and have some general information on the topic it is clear to me what a problem our society has with domestic violence.
The first site (domesticviolence.org) seems to take more of a helpful approach, directing their information towards those who are in abusive relationships and offering more information and ways out for them. It also seems to try and earn a sense of understanding from the reader, taking a more calm and composed tone throughout their links of information. I think this is a good way to try and connect with the reader, and really get them the information they need to escape a dangerous relationship.
The third site (helpguide.org) is defiantly more geared towards awareness and prevention, as it shows a lot of graphic pictures that enforce the severity of domestic violence to its readers. While it also provides information on definitions and ways for help, it concentrates on statistics and recognizing the signs of abusive relationships. I liked that this site had more related topics, such as elder abuse and child abuse. This provides a wide range of ways that our society can raise awareness and recognize the dangerous nature of these types of relationships, as well as valuable information for those who are in the relationships.
I thought that the next site, the hotline page, was also really helpful. It seemed like it was directed towards those who were in more serious abuse relationships, as it even had a “quick escape” button so that if your spouse or significant other was tapping into your browser history, they would be unable to see that you visited a help site on domestic violence. Like the other sites, it provides definitions and ways to recognize domestic violence, as well as your help options. I thought it was interesting that there was a link that was titled, “are you abusing others,” as it gives a new perspective on the inside of an unhealthy relationship, as well as emphasizing the severity of what an abuser could be doing to their partner and their family.
The last site, ncadv.org, was also an awareness site. I think that this site was more geared towards raising money and awareness to further help those who need shelter or assistance to get out of abusive relationships. It has a lot of really good ideas of ways to help those who are in dangerous positions, such as donating cell phone to those who are in need of emergency contacts. It also seems like this site had a lot of fundraisers to help raise the awareness of domestic violence and provide more resources to those who need it.
I really liked the first site, domesticviolence.org gave information on how to get help and escape domestic violent relationships. There was a lot of really amazing information on this site, a lot of which involved proving to the reader that they might really be in an unhealthy relationship, something that can be difficult to hear and face when you are in that type of situation. It also provides a lot of information on how to get out and start a new life. It provides great tips for making your own safety plan and makings sure the rest of your family is also safe. I think that it addresses a lot of the worries that really go through someone who is in a domestic violence situation, making the site really easy to respect and relate to.
Domesticviolence.org also provides a lot of detail on relationships that may not be physically dangerous, but are definitely unhealthy. There is a list of definitions on the webpage that includes thing such as your husband not allowing you to get a job, intimidation, as well as name calling and put downs in addition to the more physical types of abuse. It’s important to note that this type of emotional abuse can be just as harmful as the more direct physical abuse. As discussed in Chapter 20 of our text book, psychological aggression is a more complex and confusing variable when discussing partner violence. It is more difficult to pinpoint psychological aggression, therefore more difficult to recognize and resolve (Arriaga & Capezza, 373). Our text also discusses the issue of victimization, and whether or not those who are in abusive relationships are able to recognize it and feel as though they are a victim. Along with that if they do not feel as though they are being victimized, is it our right to try to get them to realize this and help them get out of a relationship that they might feel is completely normal? This website definitely looks to get those who are in abusive relationships out, and wants them to find a better way of living. But for some people, it may not be worth leaving their friends and family if they don’t feel as though they are in a harmful situation.
It’s important to realize how difficult it must be to be in this type of situation, where you must choose to make a major change in your family’s life for their overall well-being. I think that domesticviolence.org made a point to take note of the instability that these victims are experiencing, and made sure to make an effort to really bond with its readers in order to provide a sense of strength and encouragement for them. Chapter 20 discusses how interdependence can have a huge effect on the relationship, causing an even more complex and difficult relationship to leave (Arriaga & Capezza, 372). The end of the chapter also notes intervention and prevention techniques, and the importance of recognizing when there is an issue in the home. The authors mention that it will take a change in perception in order for awareness to become fully effective on abusive relationships (Arriaga & Capezza, 380). It will take a great deal of support and new ways of thinking to change our societies issue with domestic violence. This is also something that domesticviolence.org recognizes and tries to get across to it’s readers.
I think it would be great if this site included some of the aspects of the other sites that were helpful. Things such as being able to hide the browser history and providing resources like the contact cell phones would be very helpful. They could also provide more information for the abuser, as one of the sites did. I also think that the site could do more for those who are not in violent relationships, but still want to get involved in fundraisers or help raise awareness in other ways.
I thought that these sites were all very informative. Overall they provided consistent information regarding domestic violence. I believe that the sites offered a significant amount of resourses that might be available to the victims of domestic violence. After our class discussion today, the primary thing that stood out to me regarding these websites is the focus on the victims and very little information and resources for the offender. I believe that only one site addressed counseling for offenders. The other area that I feel was not sufficiently addressed through any of these websites was the resources and services available to children who either witness domestic violence or are impacted by domestic violence. A couple of the websites discussed how children can be affected, but I do not believe they emphasized enough the impact this may have on the children and what resources are available. I am also amazed that none of the websites addressed the issue that DHS can and in my opinion, should become involved with families in which domestic violence is occurring. This is a direct safety concern regarding the children and can significantly impact their physical and emotional well-being. I believe that more information needs to be provided regarding this concern so that maybe, the victim and the offender will consider their actions more thoroughly if they have not yet. I believe my concerns regarding the children's safety can be related to the consistency theory and the interdependence theory. In regards to consistency theory it could be an important aspect of the thought process regarding the domestic violence. In regards to the Interdependence theory, it discusses the level of dependence and relationship goals and I think it is fair to assume that if children are a part of the relationship it could have significant implications.
I think the most important new information I learned from these websites was additional resources available. Not only the tangible resources in our community, but these websites in and of themselves could be very helpful when working with individuals impacted by domestic violence, both victims and offenders.
The website I spent more time looking through was the domestic violence.org. While I believe this site was very informative, I feel that there were several statements that could be controversial and needed more information to support them. An example would be at the beginning of the website it states that emotionl, psycholgical and financial abuse are not criminal. I do not believe this is an entirely true statement and does not provide enough information to support this notion. Although these forms of abuse are much more difficult to prosecute, I do not feel that making a blank statement such as they did was appropriate. Any form of abuse is criminal behavior, some forms are just easier to prosecute than others. Another example is that "...domestic violence happens when an abuser has learned and chooses to abuse..." While this statement may be true in some situations and may be a piece of other situations, I believe it is inappropriate to generalize such a strong statement towards all abusers without providing more information to support the statement. I feel we all have choices and believe that we all make our choices for one reason or another and those choices are impacted by several variables. I also feel it is important to assess all of the dynamics and factors that could be related to the abuse before making blank statements and assumptions regarding the causality of the abuse.
The DomesticViolence.org website comes off as bias with the background of the page alone. It's outlines in pink with a picture of a woman holding her child. Yes the majority of domestic abuse reports involve the woman being abused by the man, but men are domestically abused also just not always in the physical sense. Domestic Abuse can be verbal also.
www.ncadv.org uses information on preventing and helping to avoid domestic abuse very well. It has sections in the website that tell you how to prevent, fix, leave and avoid abusive situations. It has information from simply telling you how to deal with these situations all the way to organizations you can seek for help in an area near you.
I'm not sure exactly what I learned that I didn't already know or hear before, but I did see advice that I never thought to give to anybody that is a victim of relationship abuse (like changing your number immediately after an abusive relationship). The site had a LOT of great advice from minor changes to major actions to take.
This site could be improved by actually including the theories behind violence so people who visit the site can pin point a theory that suits their situation well. This would give them a more direct path to take to try and fix whatever situation they or one of their friends are dealing with. Other than that the website has great information, numbers and groups you can contact for help. Pretty much everything a victim or someone who knows a victim needs for help.
I personally thought that all of these sites were really informative, and I also believed that the quality was good. I feel that the sites were made to be easy to read and straight to the point because the people who go to these sites are probably really upset and emotionally unstable. I didn’t really find any bias in the websites. The only bias I got from reading through them was that they were aimed more towards women, but that is expected because it seems to be the most popular.
The domesticviolence.org demonstrated a view of domestic violence only towards women. This site, out of all of them, seemed to be the most biased. I am saying this only because the site is purple and a picture of a woman holding a child is displayed. The website does explain that domestic violence can happen to anyone, no matter what the sex. The explanation is in smaller print though, and you have to click to other links to find more information.
From Wikipedia, I learned that Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a term used to describe violence between partners. The terms “wife beater” or “wife abuser” are not as common anymore. I was not aware of this, but after thinking of using the term IPV I began to realize the term does represent domestic violence better. This is because of the amount of abuse that men and children take and how often they go unnoticed.
Helpguide.org is a website that offers help for people who believe they are in a violent relationship. The website also offers help for other mental health topics such as eating disorders, stress, and depression. I think that this website is really helpful because it offers help in other areas rather than just domestic violence. If a person is experiencing domestic violence then they most likely do have another mental health issue such as depression, anxiety, or stress.
Out of all the sites, I believe that the National Domestic Abuse hotline was the easiest and the most informative. It provided links to see whether you are being abused or not and to get help. My personal opinion is that people who do visit these sites are in an abusive relationship or at least think they are. After realizing that you might actually be in an abusive relationship, you have the option to browse through others blogs and comment if you like. The end of chapter 20 in the book notes how to recognize if there is an issue at home, and if you are actually in an abusive relationship. This relates to the National Domestic Abuse hotline because the website gives substantial advice in the “Is This Abuse?” section. This section asks the question: are you being abused, are you abusing others, and a section for teen abuse. I feel as though this site can be improved by explaining the emotional aspect of abuse more rather than asking simple questions such as, “does he embarrass you?” or “does he control you?” Other than that, I can’t really think of anything to improve this website because I believe that it is an overall great site.
I though these sites were informative and would be helpful to a victim of domestic violence. I thought it was interesting to read these after discussing the viewpoints during class on Tuesday. It is evident these websites propose action from the victim instead of addressing the issues pertaining to the perpetrator. The only website that touches on this is the National Domestic Violence Hotline. It has a small section on "Are You Abusing?" They primarily focus on getting the victim out of the environment and establishing coping strategies after suffering abuse. The sites also place a lot of focus on healing emotional and psychological trauma. This is all so important when considering victims of domestic abuse, but it was interesting that none of the sites mentioned any treatment programs for the perpetrators.
I thought the section on the NCADV site about the public policy office was interesting and I learned a lot by reading it. I am very interested in public policy so reading about this domestic violence office dealing with policy was very interesting.I enjoyed the 'Advocacy Tools' section because it provides individuals like you and me ways of advocating for domestic violence. Most sites only ask for donations, but this site provides other ways one could act as an advocate. This site would also be a beneficial resource for academics doing research on domestic violence. Their 'resource' link contains helpful statistics, resources, facts, and research on domestic violence.
I read the sites throuroughly and the site I had reservations about is the domesticviolence.org. The site is infomational but some of the information is made in matter-of-factly statements and they make some heavy assumptions. I feel they overlook the complexities of violence, especially violence that involves intense emotions as in domestic violence. They also place less significance on psychological violence, which has been found to have a longer lasting effect than physical violence. This site is a helpful resource, but I do think it could be improved, especially regarding the discussion of psychological violence.
First of all, I would like to say that these websites are all very useful. What I really enjoyed is how there were differences in the cycles of abuse. The first website had their violence wheel, wikipedia had their stages of violence, and so on with different signs of abuse and whatnot. It is important to realize, as these websites do a wonderful job of pointing out, that domestic violence can manifest itself in many different ways.
I know people, for example, that have been in emotional and verbal abuse situations. It is much more difficult to spot that than physical abuse. What is really scary is that not as many people know about verbal and emotional abuse and it would be much more difficult for the victim to actually come forward. With emotional and verbal abuse, the victim gets torn down and their self-confidence is taken away.
Also, as we talked about in class last time, the level of commitment a person feels towards their partner could also have a huge affect on whether or not they feel they are able to get help. In some especially scary cases, the victim is made to feel like they actually deserve what they got and feel they are lucky to even be in a relationship with a person. This makes it hard for them to leave.
Another thing I really liked about these websites is how most of them offered links on how to get help and support if you are in an abusive relationship. The thehotline.org website even has a checklist you can look at to see if you are being abused if you aren't sure. By showing people the different resources they have available to them if they are in an abusive relationship, this could help them gain the confidence to leave. They can know exactly where to go and how to get help instead of feeling helpless and like they have nowhere to turn.
The one thing I did not particularly care for in these websites is how there was little to no information on what the abuser goes through after the victim leaves the violent situation. Sure, there are resources for legal assistance, but what about therapy? Again, it goes back to what we were talking about in class. Once the abuser is stopped from abusing one person, they can always just move onto the next person unless someone stops them. So how does one go about getting an abusive person into therapy so they can learn how awful what they did was so they won't do it again? It would be nice if these websites addressed this in a more upfront fashion. Of course, you cannot force anyone to go into therapy persay, but it would be nice to at least have tips for family members on how to approach a loved one that is/was an abuser about seeking help.
One thing that I learned from looking at these websites was how even something as seemingly minor as embarassment can be a sign of an abusive relationship. This is something that can almost be masked to the point that the average person would not be able to cleraly identify it and probably won't think much of it. If anything, people could even be able to brush it off like the couple is just having a small argument, which is unfortunately common in even the best relationships. This is really scary because, if people aren't able to identify if their friend or family memeber is being abused right away, by the time they DO discover it, it could be too late and a lot of damage could have already been done.
I looked more deeply at the National Coalition Againt Domesetic Violence website. Quite frankly, it had both good and bad points. The one thing that I feel the website could improve on would be listing more specific ways to get help. For example, they say to go to a shelter. But, what if the victim of abuse doesn't know where a local shelter is? It would be nice if the website gave out information on ways to find local shelters so the women would know where to go.
One thing I did like about the website was how they list questions you can ask if you go far enough to seek legal action if you are the victim of violence. This can provide the victim with confidence and help them better prepare to tackle the unfortunate situation of beeing caught in the middle of a lawsuit.
The safety plan they have listed is also another good tool to use. If an abuse victim follows the safety plan, they can get an increased feeling of control and like it is possible to escape. If the partner is particularly violent, to the point where the victim feels their life is in danger, the saftey plan could also save their life. They have tips such as finding a safe room in the house where they can go that has a couple different exit options, having a "safe word" they use on friends and family to let them know they need help, and varying your routine if you left the relationship. What I also like about the safety plan is how differentiates from things you can do if you are still in the relationship from things you can do if you were able to escape. This can put the victims fear of retaliation at ease if they escaped the relationship.
To be quite frank, I don't think there was much scientific information on the National Coalition website. It mainly focuses on ways people can get help and protect themselves and loved ones. That being said, there really is no way they could have used or misused information (at least, in my opinion). However, the resources they do offer are very informative and helpful, especially for the people that are abused who do not feel like they can leave (like we talked about in class).
I liked all of the sites except the ncadv.org site. That site I found to not have as much information as the others; it was basically just a donation site. There’s nothing wrong with that, I just didn’t find it helpful in any way. The rest of the sites were all pretty consistent on the information given. I really liked the hotline.com site’s (fairly) lengthy article on what men can say to abusive men. Besides the ncadv.org site, the domesticviolence.org site probably had the least amount of information for men to be proactive. I liked the Wikipedia site for its in-depth coverage of more aspects than I had thought of in regards to domestic violence. The helpguide.org site I found to be interesting, however, they were very accusatory towards abusive men. Not that what they said was untrue-I just think they could have stated things differently. The site seemed to hate abusive men….while we should definitely hate the abuse, I doubt these men are completely bad. I’m afraid if they read that website they would never want to change. Probably the biggest bias I saw was that the websites were geared toward abused women, even though they said that men can abused as well. Especially from our discussion on Tuesday, it would be nice if there was more information for the abusers about how to get help and tips to minimize abusive behavior. The biggest thing I learned was from Wikipedia – studies show that men and women are about equal when it comes to hitting in a relationship; it’s just that women are much more likely to get hurt. I also learned that parts of the Middle East had much higher levels of domestic abuse than I had thought.
I spent most of my time looking at the Wikipedia site. I like Wikipedia anyway, and I felt they did an excellent job of providing a lot of really good information. I also liked the fact that it really wasn’t geared toward a particular person; it was just information. However, it was rather lengthy and I did just skim through some of the information. I thought it had the most information about help for abusive people. Also, it described a great many studies that scientists have done on domestic abuse. I thought the site agreed with the book pretty well, and gave different studies that encouraged a different line of thought. It did mention that psychological abuse isn’t seen by most to be as serious as physical abuse, but that that wasn’t necessarily true, so it definitely used the information in the book well that way. Overall, the only real recommendation I have for the website is to add national hotline numbers onto the page and to display them a little larger. Also, they should go in the beginning.
I think these sites provide great information. Pretty much all of them have information on how to get help if you're being abused, what types of domestic violence exist, and how to prevent domestic violence. I think it's also very important that these sites state that not only is physical violence abuse, but also emotional or psychological violence. As the textbook stated, psychological violence is often thought of as not as serious as physical violence, however victims have stated otherwise. The quality of these websites is pretty great, although I am always rather distrusting in Wikipedia. They all seem to revolve around some sort of cause regarding domestic violence, whether it be funding for programs or help for victims. While it is a good bias, I think it would be a good idea to include information for abusers. Perhaps this information could help them understand their aggressive and violent behavior and how it affects those around them.
I did not know that self defense against domestic violence was also somewhat categorized with domestic violence. It does not really seem to make too much sense. In the case of self defense, if some of these people did not defend themselves, they would likely be seriously injured or even possibly dead. I do not think I agree with the Wikipedia site including self defense on the page. The Hotline website does include an "Are You Abusing Others?" section, which I think is great. This section includes signs of violence against others, but does not directly tell a person that they might be abusing others. The section is more about how to help a friend who is an abuser.
One thing I also noticed about the Hotline website is that it is somewhat sexist against men. The top of the "Are You Abusing Others" page reads: "Not all men are abusive, how do you measure up?" This website fails to include men who are abused or same-sex couples where abuse is present. There are also several battered women's shelters, but I have never heard of a battered men's shelter. I find it interesting how certain aspects of domestic violence are ignored.
The Violence Wheel from domesticviolence.org is very interesting. It helps break down violence into different categories and gives examples of those categories. It is also interesting that this violence wheel only includes psychological violence only. But it does help one understand what types of actions or statements may be psychologically or emotionally abusive. Many victims (or even some abusers) may not think that these things would be emotionally violent, but they are.
I also did not know that there was such a thing as economic abuse, which is control over a spouse's or significant other's money and finances. I have seen this occur in several relationships. In fact, my biological father did this very often to my mom. He would never let her spend money on any cosmetics, weight loss, or fashionable clothing.
I think the domesticviolence.org website uses information about domestic violence very well. I especially liked that it explained common myths about domestic violence. This site focuses more on how to protect oneself from domestic violence and a couple of ways on how to get help if one is being abused. I think this website could include more scientific and factual information about domestic violence. There were no statistics or scientific information obtained from studies that were listed on this website. Overall, it is a credible website, but would be far more credible if it did include scientific and factual information.
Chapter 20 discusses very thoroughly the idea of partner aggression and what a victim goes through psychologically and physically. Also discussed throughout the chapter was the actual meaning of partner aggression and some of the general statistics behind physical/verbal abuse and more.
There were two theories mentioned, consistency theory and interdependence theory. Consistency theory often has a more committed person perceiving aggressive acts less negatively than when compared with someone who is less committed. Interdependence Theory is similar in some aspects, but it focuses more on the dependence of the individual to the aggressor. The person loses their sense of self and become engulfed in an (often) unhealthy relationship with another person.
I believe the chapter overall helps those reading to better understand the mind of the victim while at the same time trying to find solutions to help said victim(s).
While reading this chapter, what most interested me were the parts discussing the victims downplaying their partner’s aggression. This is something that people do in normal relationships too, which is why I found it worth mentioning. For example, if one’s significant other has a bad habit of always forgetting things, it might be less stress on a relationship to just ignore the problem. However, in this situation, harm is not meant and no assertion of power is being made. It seems the aggressor has warped the victim’s idea of how a healthy relationship should work.
What I found most surprising when reading this chapter were the writings over the differences found between verbal and physical abuse and how others perceived said abuse. Only half the people polled considered a verbal insult as abuse, which I found somewhat disturbing, seeing as how psychological abuse can be just as damaging as physical abuse. Also, verbal abuse can affect men just as easily as women (especially when compared to physical abuse), which narrows the gap for gender differences.
Another issue that could be affecting the statistics of what is considered verbal abuse, are the statements suggested as verbal abuse. The statement used in the book was the husband calling his wife “a stupid slob,” which does not sound at all nice in any way, but for many it might not be considered abuse either. Many times people have said things they did not mean, which I think the questionnaires should be more specific about (along with how often one would say cruel words to his/her significant other).
I thought this chapter obviously related to spousal violence in many areas. Aggression, whether physical or psychological can be very detrimental to one’s well-being and ultimately harm the victim. The concept of victims was mentioned, which is a key factor in any spousal abuse area. Also mentioned was a study from the World Health Organization which revealed some thoughts behind male aggression and whether it is considered normal or justified.
Due to my expert topic being over couple’s violence in married and unmarried couples, I would say it does have some important topics that could be incorporated into my area of expertise. Some ideas such as the two theories (especially interdependence theory) and how they are used in one’s perceptions of their partner’s aggression, the psychological versus physical aggression is an interesting topic to pursue, and more. These could help to further develop my understanding in developing more from the victim’s and possibly the aggressor’s views and thoughts further down the line.
These sites were very informative in the case of domestic violence. It seemed each spent time defining what exactly domestic abuse is and what others can do to help. One website even had an excerpt specifically for the abuser, which I found to be quite interesting especially when I think back to what was discussed in class (about almost all help geared towards the victims with the problem of the abuser almost ignored).
Overall, the quality appears to be professional in each site. A few of the websites had hotlines one could call for help, along with extra websites which one could peruse for further information/help. The Wikipedia website does well with going over domestic violence in a more research format, giving the overall history, classifications, causes and more of domestic abuse. This is good information for someone who is studying domestic violence from a more empirical perspective and also for those studying domestic violence, like in our class. The other websites are more focused towards people who are actually being affected by domestic violence (personally or as a third-party effect). Each website has knowledgeable information that I would think is effective and definitely good enough in quality to take advice from.
The main viewpoint (or bias) that I thought was being promoted in most of these sites was the victim’s job (along with outside others) to protect themselves from their abuser. I think it is quite common for anyone to take this sort of viewpoint, because overall the priority should be the safety of the victim. However, as was mentioned in class, helping the abuser stop his/her cycle of violence seems to be the much more important issue that is not often stressed nearly enough, and quite often seems to be ignored. In only one website did it mention a questionnaire over whether a person was an abuser or not, but it was very short. It was helpful in saying the abuser can choose to stop and by giving a phone number to contact. I just think more websites need to research further into developing ways to stop domestic violence from the abuser’s side permanently.
Most of these articles were more a refresher on the more obscure details that I had forgotten, but the websites were still very helpful. It was very useful for the Wikipedia website to explain in more detail, the distinctions between couple violence, which are not always easy to remember (such as intimate terrorism or violent resistance). Also, the distinction between emotional and verbal violence is certainly helpful for more research purposes, just so one could be more thorough in distinguishing terms.
I chose the site called National coalition against domestic violence. This site seemed more interested in a wider array of what is concerned with domestic violence. This site has job opportunities, products, conferences, statistics and more. This site, while helpful, seems more for someone who is interested in having a job in the domestic violence category. However, there is some information at the beginning about protecting one’s self which I find to be important. The website even mentioned internet safety, which I find to be extremely relevant in this technology age. Overall though, the site’s use of information seemed to be used correctly, such as with the use of statistics.
I think this site could be improved if more information were provided for those witnessing/knowing about violence and what they should do. For what the site is, however, it was very well put together.
After doing some browsing in these sites, I have come to the conclusion that before I did I was someone who really didn’t take notice of how domestic violence is such a HUGE issue in our society. I have never been involved in an abusive relationship nor do I know of people who have experienced abusive relationships that I know of. It wasn’t something that was talked about when I was growing up. Due to the fact that I don’t have a somewhat personal insight to this topic, it was really easy for me to agree and say “yeah it’s a problem” but I never really felt the desire to look more into it. Obviously with having to browse through these sites, I’m becoming more aware of an issue I never really heard much about growing up. I think all the sites offered a vast amount of information that is useful for victims of abuse or others who are interested in helping victims. Most of the information stayed consistent between the difference sources as well.
I think the first site, domesticviolence.org, was very informative and took a more ‘helping’, calm stand on the issue. Just through the way things were worded, I felt a sense of comfort reading through many of the links. One thing that I thought made the site a little bias was the background color purple and the picture of the woman holding a child at the top of the page. Even though the site repeatedly states that anyone, regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, etc can be victims of domestic violence, the coloring and picture make it seem more geared toward women and maybe even more specifically white women. One thing I found interesting on this site was the links to a ‘violence wheel’ and ‘cycle of violence’. These provide a visual image of how abuse is never a one-time thing and the cycle of violence can happen over and over again. I thought it was also important for the site to note that not all domestic violence relationships fit the cycle—as time goes on the ‘making up’ and ‘calm’ stages disappear. I also thought the links about how to keep yourself safe and answers to questions about leaving an abusive relationship are important for victims to have access to. I think this site could be improved if it included information geared towards to perpetrator and not just the victim. Like we talked about in class, most programs and information we hear about focus on the victim and never really look into the perpetrator whether it be why they do what they do or was we can help them as well (this same idea goes to the other sites as well).
I thought the Wikipedia site was very informative and offered a lot of quality information. I personally like Wikipedia because I know that there are multiple sources of information used to create the site itself which helps when wanting to find a site which has a lot of different information. One thing that I found interesting on this site was the different types of violence identified by Johnson: common couple violence, intimate terrorism, violent resistance, situational couple violence, and mutual violent control. The majority of these term I had never heard before. Domestic violence can be divided into different classifications including physical, sexual, emotional, verbal, and economic abuse. Economic abuse is a term I never had really thought to distinguish by itself when talking about domestic violence. I’m sure it’s typically coupled with another form of abuse, but I never had thought about it as a type of abuse in and of itself.
Something else that I just noticed after viewing the sites is there’s either a popup thing or a notation to the side saying “if you are in danger, please use a safer computer or call 911, your local hotline..”. I just realized that maybe in domestic violence situations, the perpetrator is looking through computer history to check up on what the victim is looking at online—if they’re seeking help, etc. This notification might be extremely important for victims who never thought they could lead a computer trail that their victimizer could look up and see.
I think that these sites are all helpful in describing what domestic violence is and how to get help, some better than others. It seems that most of them are there to provide information, while one in particular I felt was more aimed at helping actual victims of abuse who might be searching for it. The Hotline is the site that I felt was the most helpful and easiest to navigate. They laid out the information in a clean style that isn’t bogged down with so many words that you naturally want to skip over them. It is a nice list style that tells you what is going on, what you can do, what you should do, and one aspect I found helpful was the different sections of “Am I being abused,” and “Am I abusing others”. One thing I thought was very good on this site was the fact that at the end of each part they put the number for the hotline. This site seemed the most friendly to me and would be one I would like to and feel comfortable coming to if I was in that position. They have a list of statistics from past studies on domestic violence and I think that part is shocking at many of the numbers. One statistic in particular says that “On the average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends every day.” I could not believe this! That is high and very sad that something isn’t preventing it from happening more. I think that these statistics really help bring the awareness about this hush-hush topic alive. If more people realized these staggering numbers, maybe people would rethink their actions somewhat. I also found that the site was very good at being geared toward making sure the victim can be anonymous. They have a quick escape button in case you think you will be seen looking up the page. This button brings you to Google so that no one knows where you were. I just really thought this site was victim-sympathetic.
While the site mentions it can happen to anyone, it seems more geared toward women. One thing that stood out to me was the color of the page. It is more of a girly-looking page. It isn’t pink, but looks pinker. It has more pictures of women and girls on it. I think that this is somewhat biased and may make male victims less likely to look at the site or utilize the features on it. I think it would help if they had just as much “maleness” on the site. I also think it might help if these kinds of sites did have areas that discuss the differences between genders when it comes to domestic violence. It doesn’t affect everyone the same way. Males react differently than females. Males respond to different wording and such than females and I think in order for there to really be help for everyone, those targeting strategies need to be discussed and implemented. I think this site could use more of the scientific study on violence. They could focus on some of the possible reasons for violence and things like the interdependency theory. Many women and men who are victims feel “Why me”. If this was discussed on the page, it might help the victim have a better sense of what is going on and how to actual relieve it. It doesn’t really go deeper than what domestic violence is, what the signs are, and how to help. I think those other things are pretty important.
In general, these sites covered most everything that should be covered when discussing domestic violence. Wikipedia went very in-depth about the possible causes and theories of domestic violence. I think this is very helpful in understanding why something is happening. I do think that these sites seemed to be a little biased in that they seemed pretty geared toward females and that they seemed to take the victims’ side and make the perpetrator sound bad. At least, when I read it, it seemed like they were putting the “bad guy” down. I think this can be detrimental to someone who is in this situation. If they read something that makes the perpetrator seem even worse, they may get angrier or lash back at the person. I think somewhat that fuels the cycle.
One thing that I learned is that there are different types of intimate partner violence. Johnson identified 5 types: common couple violence, intimate terrorism, violent resistance, mutual violent control, and situational couple violence. I think most people think of domestic violence as the situational couple violence, where conflict arises and escalates causing arguments and thus violence.
I also knew that economic abuse existed, but had never really thought about it hard enough to realize that even wanting to know what they spend everything on is abuse. It seems like a pretty common thing to want to budget and know what is being spent. It is definitely something that is not really discussed, but it can have a huge effect.
I found all of these sites as useful resources to obtain information on domestic violence, particularly for those who aren’t as familiar with the topic. Out of the five websites, I found Wikipedia’s as giving the most robust information. Everything from causes, types of abuse, and effects of abuse are just some of the topics covered. Some of the terminology on Wikipedia’s webpage for domestic violence were terms I had never seen or really talked about. Two of these terms were Mutual Violent Control (MVC) and Vicarious Trauma (VT). Mutual Violent Control refers to mutual partner violence where both of the individuals of in the relationship battle for control. Most of the websites and literature on the subject rarely focus on or fail to mention all together this type of issue. Usually the focus is on how men abuse women in relationships (and sometimes when women abuse men), but what about when BOTH individuals are being abusive? How should this issue be addressed? What are the dynamics of this particular kind of relationship? Who do you blame? Who should be considered a victim? These are all things I never really thought about until now. I was also intrigued by Vicarious Trauma. Wikipedia describes Vicarious Trauma as: “due to the gravity and intensity of hearing victims’ stories of abuse, professionals (police, counselors, therapists, advocates, medical professionals) are at risk themselves for secondary or vicarious trauma, which causes the responder to experience trauma symptoms similar to the original victim after hearing about the victim’s experiences with abuse”. The webpage goes on to offer these individuals advice as to how to prevent or relieve symptoms (i.e. finding support in colleagues, exercise, relaxation techniques, etc). I have a feeling though that many of these individuals probably don’t handle vicarious trauma in healthy ways. I remember asking a former homicide detective I once worked with about how he used to handle seeing murder victims on a regular basis and working in that type of environment and he simply said, “You get used to it. You become numb.” It was actually really sad. One thing on the one of the websites that caught my eye was the idea that 80% or so of men in domestic violence studies had a diagnosable psychopathology in the form of personality disorders. This statistic seemed extremely high. Personality disorders are incredibly rare, so this “80%” sounded extremely far-fetched. No resource was provided for that information so I will have to disagree with that information. An interesting statistic that I didn’t know about was provided by the American Psychological Association. It stated that 40%-60% of men who abuse women also abuse children. This is frightening to me considering that many women often times refuse to leave an abusive partner because they don’t want to “break up the family”. One piece of information I was relieved to see was about abuse and the whole “anger management” approach that is mistakenly adopted frequently by help organizations and the legal system. As I stated in class, anger management is NOT useful. One of the websites (I think it was the helpguide.org website) worded it perfectly: “Abusers pick and choose whom to abuse. They don’t insult, threaten, or assault everyone in their life who gives them grief. Usually, they save their abuse for the people closest to them, the ones they claim to love.” Another website states: “Anger management alone has not been shown to be effective in treating domestic violence offenders, as domestic violence is based on power and control and not on problems with regulating anger responses.” One of the things I found most interesting from reading this website was about a program called SCOREkeepers, started by Dallas Cowboy Tight End Jason Witten. In this program, trained male mentors are placed in battered women’s shelters with the goal of demonstrating positive male behavior to the children living in these shelters. I think this is an ingenious and cool idea. Most of these children don’t have positive male figures in their lives so it’s nice to be able to have a stable and loving male figure to look up to and emulate.
The overall quality of the websites was very high. I was really taken aback by two of the websites that had “Safe Buttons” whereby a person can quickly click on a link/tab and exit the website quickly in case their abuser “catches them” looking at this information. That was very interesting to me. The only thing I would really change would be some of the information posted on the first website. Some of the information or resources provided were a little outdated. Most of their articles and information pieces were from 1996 and 1998. I’m sure things have changed in the last 10-15 years so they could definitely use and update.
After reviewing the websites, it is clear there is a large amount of information out there available to domestic violence victims via the internet. The first website offers a lot of information for victims from the violence wheel, info on the cycle of violence, myths and descriptions of victims and abusers. The site states several times that while anyone can be a victim, it is often women and the only picture on the website is that of a woman kissing a child. While I understand that statistically women are more often victims, it might be beneficial to show different images.
The Wikipedia site offers a lot of detailed information about domestic violence, including several classifications, the causes and effects, the cycle of abuse, and offers a section on how to handle being in a domestic violence situation. I was surprised to learn the more detailed labels of partner violence on this site, including mutual violent control and situational couple violence. I felt that this site offered more information and was able to provide distinctions regarding different types of violence between couples. The terms intimate terrorism, violent resistance, and common couple violence are terms we do not often hear when speaking of domestic violence. This can be very informative for individuals working with victims and offenders of domestic violence, as well as those involved in this kind of situation to be able to learn and distinguish what their relationship consists of.
The third site initially threw me a bit. The homepage depicts several images of battered women. While this is the initial impression of the page, as I looked further I was pleased to see that the site explained how psychological and emotional abuse can be minimized and be just as detrimental to the victim. There is an entire section dedicated to this issue that offers detailed information about emotional abuse, what it looks like, and the economic/financial issue that can be involved. The site offers detailed information about abusive relationships and provides signs that someone may be in this kind of relationship. The chart/layout of this information I felt was beneficial, as it describes “your inner thoughts and feelings”, “your partner’s belittling behavior”, “your partner’s violent behavior or threats”, and “your partner’s controlling behavior”. I felt that this section was direct and informative because it states that “abusers are able to control their behavior—they do it all the time” and offers examples of how this happens. This could offer victims a better understanding to the situation and possibly allow them to see that they are not to blame, the abuser is because it is the abuser’s actions.
The fourth site immediately shows the concern with safety, as it allows for a “quick escape” explaining that the site can be tracked and if the person feels unsafe to click on the button to try another route. This site appears informative and offers numerous links and sites explore to gather more information. Providing a hotline to contact allows victims to feel that they have someone to go to or talk to for help.
The last site appears to start with a positive message. The first page states “do not shortchange victim services.” This awareness raising could allow victims viewing the page to feel that there are people out there who care about them and what they are going through. It also raises awareness to those that are unaware how much the government has cut funding for domestic violence agencies nationwide, which directly effects victims and their families.
These websites provide many things that the book does not. I think they could be more helpful to a victim or a friend of a victim than the book. The book is just more educational. The book also left out many forms of violence in relationships like rape and stalking. Many of these websites talk about reasons for the violence which the book also does not cover. Reasons ranged from gaining control and power to reasons like social learning and psychological disorders. Most of these websites had a cycle of violence but none were exactly the same. Still, I get the idea. I do remember seeing some abuser intervention information while the book focused on the victim. Behavior therapy programs were one suggestion on how an intervention with the abuser might happen. One thing that really surprised me is when I read about reproductive coercion on thehotline.org. I had no idea this happened so commonly. Usually when I have heard about pregnancy being used as a trap, the women is the one who tricks and schemes to make this happen. I have never actually heard of men trying to trap women by getting them pregnant. And I cannot believe that 25% of abuse cases that they surveyed included reproductive coercion. To me, that is one of the worst things someone can do to another person.
Something I think worth talking about is the section called “who are the victims” on domesticviolence.org. This description targets certain types of people and why they may stay in an abusive relationship. For example “If you are a lesbian, gay, or transgendered person… you You may be afraid of having people know about your sexual orientation,” and “If you are from another country ... You may be afraid of being deported.” While these things may be true, those cannot be the only things keeping these people in the relationship. I believe the theories in the book have some accuracy to them. People stay in abusive relationships because they feel very committed to that person, they depend on that person, and/or they start to see the violence as normal and downplay it. I feel like this section was all about being scared to leave which portrays the victim as a weak person. Victims of abusive relationships should not be labeled weak. Anyone can be a victim of abuse in a relationship. It could happen so gradually that the victim truly doesn’t recognize the change. And that is just one example. I think this section could be harmful to a victim reading it instead of helpful. They may think, “no one understands” after reading something like this.
Domesticviolence.org could be improved by including the real reasons victims may stay in an abusive relationship and it might be a good idea to not highlight certain groups of people like the elderly or teens. I think something that could be very helpful that they could include is something like what is on thehotline.org in the “What is domestic violence?” section. This section had lists. They were something like “you may be in an abuse relationship if your partner:” and then gives a list of what to recognize as abuse. I think this may be helpful especially if the victim doesn’t acknowledge their abuser’s violent acts as inappropriate and abnormal.
With that being said, I like most of the rest of this website. I especially like the parts of the website that tell a victim what they can do to be safe.
The only one of the websites that talks about abuser intervention is Wikipedia. I think this is important to add to all domestic violence sites and could be helpful to the abuser and victim to know an intervention with the abuser can and should happen so he/she does not go on to abuse more people.
First of all, I just have to start by saying, I love the way this class is set up. I have experiences so many different applicable things on the internet through this class that I would have never encountered if it wasn't for these topical blog assignments. I have never looked at domestic violence websites before and I found them very interesting and useful to someone whom is in an abusive relationship. I think the thing that interested me the most were the warnings and links to get away from the site because of computer monitoring and being afraid of being caught looking at the site. I actually clicked on one of them to see what it did and it took me to google, how cool! Anyhow, I found each website to contain things that I liked for their own unique reasons. On the first website, http://www.domesticviolence.org/, I liked the way that the phone numbers and helplines were easily assessable and right on the beginning of the page. Especially because if the person is afraid of being caught looking at the site, they can easily jot down the number and exist out of it. For wikipedia, don't we all just love wikipedia? Kidding, but it had good information on the site, however it would only really be beneficial for research purposes not for seeking help, so I liked the material on the site, but I don't think it would help those who were being abused. I thought that the helpguide.org website was interesting, but I think if someone was trying to be discrete about getting help they would want there to be pictures of victims plastered all over the website they were looking at. I thought that the hotline website was cool how it had the pop up come up to tell you about computer safety. As for content, I thought the different links to testimonies and stories was neat. For the last website, I didn't really like the site, I liked the lay out of the site, but the content seemed very dry to me and not very interesting from a research standpoint. And I didn't think it was to the point enough for victim, you almost have to search around for ways to help you.
I chose to look a little deeper into the http://www.domesticviolence.org/ website. I really enjoyed the website for research and victim service I think it is a very good site to go to for information. I think the layout of the website it easy to navigate and it gives appropriate information for each section of the site. I liked that it wasn't too lengthly or repetitive. Also I like the personal safety plan portion of the site. I thought the information about the cycle of violence and the wheel of violence was beneficial for research, but also for a victim to see how the abuse is happening. This kind of idea of violence was discussed in our handbook earlier in the readings that we read. Overall, I really liked this site the best.
The first site I looked at was the domesticviolence.org. I think it gave a good point about teenagers involved in "domestice violence". While these teenagers may not be in the domestic sense of living together, they still have the obstacle of going to school and seeing their abuser everyday. They may have the social aspect of mutual friends that they then have to deal with if they get out of the situation. Teens tend to take sides, which could work positively or negatively for the victim. Friends could see the effects of abuse and side with their friend to sympathize and protect them, or they could be blind to the abuse and wonder 'what the big deal' is.
I noticed the same as some mentioned before the purple theme and more of a feminine feel to the domesticviolence.org website. I think this is kind of a misstep on their part, but the majority of domestic violence victims do tend to be women abused by their husband/boyfriend.
I think it's really important to include information about the children who witness the violence or are involved in the violence. They are the most innocent of bystanders who can be injured by accidental flying objects or by frustration toward the other parent taken out on the child. The child is the true victim of the abuse even more so than the other partner, as they have no say and nowhere to go to escape. As a future teacher, I know that I will most likely encounter students who experience violent homelives and who might bring some sort of traumatization to school with them. It will effect their school work and their social relationships and bring them down. Hopefully someone will be able to notice and step in to help them before they develop depression, etc.
NCADV.org
I thought this site seemed very informative. I like that it has current event stories about the bottom that relate to domestic violence around the country. I also like the Donate a Phone program. I know that programs often use those to help victims have a 'secret' way to contact help even if their abuser takes control of a landline or takes their cell phone. Giving them emergency cell phones gives back a little bit of that power that they can retain on their own life.
I was really surprised to see the resources for Cosmetic or Reconstructive Surgery available for victims. They provide free cosmetic surgeries to help fix broken teeth, facial scars, etc. This is something I wouldn't have thought of off the top of my head as something the victims need. But now I see that it could definitely help them cope by fixing their face, they are one step closer to fixing their lives.
thehotline.org
As others have mentioned, the idea of computer tracking was also unfamiliar to me. I think of domestice violence as being the actions happening physically or emotionally. But now I see that the control exerted over a partner can manifest in control of the computer. The site also offers information about how to be more careful with your internet use if you feel your partner is possibly monitoring you. That's a scary thought if you think about it; that they could be in a sense 'watching' you or 'controlling' you even when you are not with them. Then you truly feel like there is no escape. I noticed this site as well as ncadv.org has a big red ESCAPE button so that you can quickly appear to be searching on Google rather than seeking help. But like I mentioned before, just because you jump to the Google site when your partner walks in, doesn't mean he won't search through the computer history later to see what you were really reading.
helpguide.org
This site gives a Violence Wheel and Cycle of Violence similar to the purple site. I feel this site gives a much more generalized amount of information regarding more than just partner/domestic violence. This site is easy to navigate and gives a lot of good examples to what could be defined as abuse or violence. It then breaks off for Child Abuse, Elder Abuse, PTSD, and Anger Management. It is a good source of help no matter what you are looking for.
From what I could tell, the sites all seemed pretty informative about domestic violence. However, they seemed very geared towards getting the victim help.
Although in many classes the use of Wikipedia is highly frowned upon, I found it the most informative. From all the information that I've read about DV (and I've read a lot), I've never seen it broken down the way that Wikipedia did. For example, classifying DV into certain types like the common couple violence, intimate terrorism, violent resistance, and mutual violence control.
I think that from the aspect of learning more about DV for research and studying purposes (as a way to kick start a research project), the Wikipedia site was the most informative. However, if you're a person looking to get help, the other sites would probably be more helpful than reading through all of that information.
As far as the accuracy of the information, like I mentioned before, professors tend to be very weary on letting students use Wikipedia as a source for papers because the risk it has on siting inaccurate information. I noticed on this page there was some information that tended to contradict itself. Such as the statistics on which gender tended to be the perpetrator more.
I also liked the different theories the site listed about the cause of DV. The Social Learning Theory fell directly in line with the information that Chapter 19 in our handbook gave about those who observed violence in their household tended to be more aggressive and react with violence more.
I do think that more research is definitely needed on this topic. Specifically, how to prevent potential perpetrators from engaging in this sort of behavior. Because of my own experience, I've thought a lot about this topic. I've even tossed around a few ideas of my own on why a person may inflict violence upon their partner. The theory I have is something I've been thinking about for a while and actually would like to research further but I'm just not sure how to go about conducting the study to confirm my suspicions (any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated). As we discussed briefly in class, males typically have a harder time identifying their feelings. I believe that this plays a great deal into why an abuser may react with violence towards their partner. My theory is that abusers misinterpret the actions of their partners as betraying their trust. They in turn feel very hurt and angry because in their distorted perception of the act, it disrupts their sense of security in the relationship. Because they cannot identify these feelings, they lack the ability to cope effectively with them. Therefore, they retaliate with violence to make their partner feel as hurt and bad as they emotionally feel. Following the event, the abuser will exert power and control over their partner as a way to try and prevent their partner from "betraying" them again. After each act of violence, the abuser becomes more and more controlling out of desperation to keep the victim from "hurting their feelings" and punishment towards the victim for not abiding by their rules (sort of like a parent grounding or restricting their child for not obeying and when the child continues to disobey, the parent places more restrictions and punitive actions upon the child) until they have virtually stripped all autonomy away from them.
This theory I've developed (which again, I point at, has not been supported with any type of research at this point in time) is in no way, shape, or form, placing blame on the victim of DV. Rather, it is looking more in depth at the psychological mindset of the abuser and what possibly they may be thinking or feeling (even though they cannot express this in words).
To me, it all sounds very plausible. But again, I have no idea how to even begin conducting a study to prove my theory correct. Any suggestions or feedback is greatly appreciated. One thing I do know, if down the road we do find this to be in fact true, the potential it has for revamping batterer's education programs (BEP) into something more helpful and productive is huge.