The Cause of Domestic Violence
Prior to November 2, 1987, a good part of America was laboring under the myth that domestic violence was something that happened to poor people. This assumption had much to do with the fact that poor people utilized community resources to deal with domestic violence, while the wealthy had the resources to keep domestic violence, and its solution, a dirty little secret. However, on November 2, 1987 that myth was exploded. Responding to a phone call that a child had stopped breathing, the police found a dying little girl, a boy tied to a playpen with a length of rope, and a severely battered mother. The little girl, Lisa Steinberg, was later pronounced brain dead and the world began to understand what went on behind the doors of the Steinberg/Nussbaum home. One of questions that the A Family Secret: The Death of Lisa Steinberg attempts to answer is what is the cause of domestic violence? In order to do this, the video gives the audience a lot of information about Joel Steinberg, and focuses on the extensive use of drugs by both adults in the Steinberg/Nussbaum home. However, the use of drugs does little to explain either why Joel Steinberg abused his children or why Hedda Nussbaum permitted the abuse. The answer to those q
Why domestic violence occurs is a question that cannot be answered until domestic violence is eradicated. Certain things contribute to domestic violence: lax spousal and child abuse laws, a misogynistic society, lack of involvement by the community, a family history of violence, failure to teach people appropriate parenting and coping skills, the availability of drugs and alcohol, and the fact that there are people out there that will permit themselves to become victimized. However, there are many people in this society who grow up in that same culture and who never raise a hand to anyone in their family. Only someone like Joel Steinberg could really answer the question of why he did it. Finally, society has some responsibility in why domestic violence occurs. Neighbors knew that Hedda was being very physically abused. In fact, neighbors had reported their belief that Lisa was being abused. Despite finding an obviously battered Hedda during their investigations, child protective services did not remove either child from the home. This failure to remove the children was not due to uncaring social workers, as charged by some people, but because the law did not give them the right to remove children under those circumstances. Many of these problems have now been corrected. Domestic violence is now charged and prosecuted even when a witness refuses to testify, and children can be removed from violent homes even absent a finding of violence against the child. Had these changes been p
Some common words found in the essay are:
Hedda Nussbaum, Joel Hedda, Lisa Joel, Prior November, Neighbors Hedda, Lisa Steinberg's, Joel Steinberg, Lisa Steinberg, domestic violence, joel steinberg, steinberg/nussbaum home, battered woman, domestic violence happened, lisa steinberg, hedda nussbaum, poor people, little girl, remove children, domestic violence occurs, november 2 1987, cause violence,
Approximate Word count = 1010
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
