Family Violence in America: Part 8

Conclusion

This paper claims that violence in the home or between family members occurs on various different levels. The interviewees themselves label these different forms of violence as physical, emotional, financial, psychological and verbal abuse. Their experiences and narratives differ considerably but also share certain aspects. Descriptions of violence range from alcohol abuse by the father, to shooting a gun to name calling, hitting, slapping and beating with a belt and rape. In all three cases, violent behavior occurred when the perpetrator and the victim were alone and also when other individuals were present. Interviewee 3’s boyfriend did not reveal his violent behavior in front of his own friends but assaulted her verbally when her friends were present. The interviewee’s descriptions of violence convey the assumption that these are highly dynamical acts. When physical violence occurred, the perpetrators oftentimes reacted to a smaller violent act happening beforehand. Interviewee 1 was hitting her boyfriend on the chest and calling him names, because she was angry at him for his behavior beforehand. After that, he started beating her in their hotel room. In one violent situation described by interviewee 2, her mother was throwing a lemon at her father, which was followed by a physical attack from the father. In another situation, her father called her stupid, which was followed by her telling him she hates him which then was followed by a physical attack from her father towards her. In the situations that interviewee 3 describes the parts of the victims, her and her mother, remained mostly passive. In one occasion, her father physically attacked her after she tried to leave the house. Violent acts were mostly not addressed by witnesses in all three cases. When the situations involved another family member, e.g. a grandmother, they tended to blame the victims for the abusive behavior and did not offer help with regards to removing the victims from the perpetrators. After physically violent attacks, all parties carried on and acted as if it had not happened. This indicates a high acceptance and tolerance of violent behavior in the family.All three interviewees spent more time talking more about other forms of abuse than physical attacks during the interview. In two cases, physical violence by boyfriends were isolated instances and led to the end of the relationship shortly afterwards. They all state that they only realized that verbal assaults, including name calling and expressions of hate, manipulative and controlling behavior are forms of abuse as well and that they had been in violent relationships for years. Outside help provided by friends or counsellors, was an important factor in realizing this kind of abuse and that it had started, for all of them, during their childhood.

Who are the violent Americans?

Straus et al. ask the question “Who are the violent Americans?” and in all three interviews the answer is: fathers, husbands and boyfriends. For two cases, mothers had been verbally and physically violent as well. In all cases, violence was accepted by all family members as means of communication and of resolving conflicts. Physical and emotional abuse are intertwined with each other, oftentimes the one leads to the other. Different forms of violence need to be analyzed together in order to grasp the dynamics of family violence. Most importantly, as this paper shows, personal accounts and thick descriptions of violent situations are essential in order to discuss the dynamics of family violence.

The answer is: fathers, husbands and boyfriends. For two cases, mothers had been verbally and physically violent as well.

There are many more factors that need to be considered when discussing family violence and analyzing data that this paper does not address in detail. For example, the issue of data gathering for conducting quantitative studies. The federal guidelines, established by the Unites States, try to quantify domestic violence in all its forms. Only in recent years have these guidelines started to include “stalking and psychological aggression” (Buzawa and Buzawa 65). Even so, data collection remains difficult since most cases are not reported as is the case in all the assaults described from the interviews. Only once did one of the interviewees threaten to call the police which had the effect of deescalating the situation. Nevertheless, none of the described cases will appear on any kind of statistic on family violence.