Social Work Practice

Reflective Accounts of Social Work practice

Reflective Accounts of Social Work practice

Introduction

Family violence is a relatively new term, but not necessarily a new phenomenon in human societies. Various scientific disciplines previously traced family violence back to prehistoric civilization. Problems of the family affect everyone. Problems have an impact on a variety of different social groups and strata, work collectives and neighbourhood communities, young people, adults, children, the aged, and so on. The family's sense of well-being and the processes that affect its functioning can also hardly fail to be of concern to society and the state, since the stability of that social institution link directly to the security of society and to the prospects of the nation's development.

Family violence is the most common violent crime in the United Kingdom today. Feminist theories of domestic violence contend that the most common form of adult domestic violence is family violence against female partners. The National Violence against Women Survey conducted in 2005 to 2006 found that almost 25% of women and 8% of the men reported that they got raped and physically assaulted during their lifetime (NCADV, 2007). This paper presents a case analysis of a woman related to the same category that raised questions on the individual's worth in this world, and shows my reflective account in social work practice.

Background

Shelters and help lines are on the front lines of service provision for intimate partner violence victims. Domestic violence shelters designed specifically to protect women who are at risk of danger from their intimate partner and their family members (Hampton, 1999). Case that I have selected for this reflective paper is about a Pakistani origin women living in UK with her husband in an extended family. Her family consisted of her husband and 2 children (one was 2 years old, and the second one was only six months old). Extended family members include father in law, mother in law, brother in law, his wife, and four children.

I became involved with this case after it referred to Children Services by the police who had informed us that they had attended a 999 call from a lady in distress claiming she was hit by her mother in law. In the process of this assault, her 6 month old baby, whom she was holding, got hurt. She was physically abused by her mother in law and brother-in-law on a daily basis. The police had taken the lady and her baby to hospital and arrested her mother in law.

Assessment of the Case

Case is analyzed from the sociological development perspective to assess the elements resulting in showing abusive behaviour to a member of the family. Factors that influenced the assessment are based on sociologists study; structural forces that influence the violence in that women family include economic (such as unequal distribution of wealth), decision-making power in the family, social inequalities of gender, and sexual orientation (Collins, 2008). In addition, sociologists study cultural forces that influenced domestic violence include normative beliefs about the legitimacy of violence in the ...