Domestic Violence Research Paper

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Domestic Violence exposed to kids Problem of Objective Exposure to domestic violence to kids is very common today. A review of academic literature reveals few studies focused on the experiences of kids living with a batterer’s violence. The search did not reveal any studies that focus on how kids experienced an intervention by the child welfare community. Further research is needed to provide a voice for the victims and fill the information gap that currently exists. My research study will focus on the lived experiences of children exposed to domestic violence and the interventions, if any, they received. The intervention might have come from a child protection worker, a teacher, or a shelter program advocate. Uncovering this information…show more content…
Exposure to a batterer’s violence: A child who experiences the physical, emotional, and mental effects of a batterer’s violence through seeing, hearing, responding to the violence or living with the aftermath of a partner’s attempt to control the child’s mother. This includes a kid seeing physical violence, hearing threats and violence, being used as a pawn by one partner attempting to gain power and control over another, or experiencing the effects of separation and divorce which often accompanies domestic violence. Intervention: The intentional action of a child welfare community worker aimed at providing for the safety, assessment and recovery of a kid suspected of being exposed to a batterer’s violence. A “helpful intervention” in this study is operationally defined as an intervention that is subjectively viewed by the participant as aiding in his or her resiliency as a kid. Although this research study is primarily interested in interventions within the child welfare community, we anticipate responses that view helpful intervention as coming from extended family and friends as…show more content…
Exposure of children is another definition that is used in different ways. Edleson et al. (2006) state that: ‘Exposure’ is most commonly defined as being within sight or sound of the violence. However there are compelling arguments to redefine and assess a child's exposure to violent events in broader terms. In their national curriculum for child protection workers, for example, Ganley and Schechter (1996) highlight several ways that batterers expose children to adult domestic violence. These include hitting or threatening a child while in his or her mother's arms, taking the child hostage in order to force the mother's return to the home, forcing the child to watch assaults against the mother or to participate in the abuse, and using the child as a spy through interrogation about the mother's activities. In addition to seeing, hearing, or being used in a direct incident of violence, some mothers and their children describe the aftermath of a violent incident as also having a traumatic effect on them. (p. 962) Throughout this research project, “children’s exposure to domestic violence” will be viewed in the broadest possible terms, taking into consideration that batterers can use children as a way to exert power and control over their

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