RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

Research proposal on Domestic violence

Chapter II

Introduction

The effects of domestic abuse on women are long lasting. Domestic violence is an increasing problem in the United States. Domestic violence can be described as physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, or financial abuse against another person (Bostock, Plumpton, & Pratt, 2009). Domestic violence is generally perpetrated by a man against a woman (Grace, 1995). The signs of domestic violence are not readily identifiable in some cases (especially emotional abuse). Women who have been victims of domestic violence have lower self esteem and are more withdrawn. Even after escaping a violent situation, victims are far from being mentally healthy.

The problem of this study is the continuing rise of domestic violence in northwest Oklahoma which affects women and children who lack access to necessary resources to escape the problem.

The purpose of this study is to identify prevention approaches and the needed resources which are available to women and children seeking to escape domestic violence.

The objectives that this study is designed to achieve are identify whether women in domestic violence relationships can escape or decide to cope with the struggle, as well as, identify the resources that exist to help women and children when faced with domestic violence.

Although the prevalence and consequences of male violence directed towards women in intimate relationships has been well established [for a recent review, see Lawson (2003)], the research on violent women in intimate relationships is far less developed. The primary reason for this situation is the highly charged and frequently acrimonious debate about whether “husband battering” actually exists (Pagelow, 1992). The crux of the debate hinges on the data generated from two, mutually exclusive, data sets. Data from nationally representative surveys suggest that men and women are equally violent in intimate relationships (Straus, 1999), a conclusion borne out by Archer, 2000 and Archer, 2002 meta-analysis of 82 couple-conflict studies which found that women were more likely to use physical aggression than men and to resort to violence more often than men. These data are directly contrasted by data generated from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) that has consistently indicated that women are five times more likely than men to have been the victims of domestic violence (Rennison & Welchans, 2000). These different data sets have led to diametrically opposed conceptualizations of domestic violence, which, in turn, has led to the intense debate just discussed and shifted attention away from female initiated violence, rather than on the growing body of evidence to support the existence of “husband battering” and, more broadly, female initiated violence in intimate relationships.

Unfortunately, this polarization of the domestic violence issue persists, despite recent attempts to combat this belief system with empirical evidence. For example, a recent study found that men are more likely than women to suffer serious injuries in intimate partner relationships and that men are actually less likely than women to use violence in intimate relationships (Felson & Cares, 2005). Some factors are apparently inhibiting men, who are generally much more violent ...