Domestic Violence
Domestic violence isn't what we thought we would be carrying as a societal problem into the new Millennium. In fact, its an ancient problem that mere mention of it today as an ongoing crisis should really make our society embarrassed and oppressive. Only with the past decade is our society beginning to realize that we've overlooked the stringency of domestic violence. All along we've been viewing domestic violence as merely a moral and ethical dilemma, not an obligation. We've convinced ourselves that it was a 'private family matter" and not a criminal act. We have told ourselves that some women deserve it, or that they provoked it to happen. We excuse ourselves from the problem, into an uncomfortable but yet acceptable, part of our culture and convinced ourselves it was okay to look the other way. So while we were looking the other way, here's what has developed. Domestic violence is now one of the leading causes of death among women. Not heart disease, not breast cancer, nor accidental injury but the beating, scarring, terrorizing and often murder. Women in this country are more likely to be victimized by assault, battery, rape, or homicide. Occurring more than likely by an ex or current male partner than all other a
It wasn't until the late 1980's that increased public awareness focused on the facts that domestic violence in the home are a criminal matter, not a family secret. This fueled changes in local and state laws and successful prosecution of the offenders. Under these revised laws, officers no longer are restricted to "mediating' a violent situation. With the burden of pressing charges being lifted for the victim, who is often reluctant to proceed against a violent mate, the numbers of arrests and prosecutions has significantly increased. Nevertheless, police officers still met victim resistance to arresting their abusive partners. However, even though the statistics reflect that the number of arrests for domestic violence has increased, the number of repeated offenses has yet to (statistically) decrease. It's almost unconscionable how passive and ignorant we've been about crimes of domestic abuse. But on the other hand we are also aggressively taking steps to right this wrong. The implications of domestic violence are forcing the medical community to address a whole new set of issues, from how to increase accurate diagnoses of abuse, how to counsel victims, and how to report injuries for criminal records. How we handle physical evidence and patient records may substantiate and support these women who chose to report or confront their batterer. The ability to identify and counsel these victims early on may help save the lives of many innocent women and children. Each year, more than one million women seek out medical assistance for injuries caused by domestic violence (Ager). But physicians correctly identify only
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Approximate Word count = 1095
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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