Family Violence

Family violence is the mistreatment of a family member like a wife, husband, father, mother or children by another family member or even collaboration to this end with an intention of depriving the victim something. Family violence is synonymous to domestic violence that rangers from spousal abuse to physical abuse. The main idea is that a family member is abuse by another. Family violence ranges from physical abuse that includes one being slapped, throwing objects to another family member with the ill intension of causing physical harm to the victim. Physical assaults have in most case lead to serious injuries and even murder in the U.S. another form of abuse includes emotional abuse where one is yelled at, insulted or even threaten while he or she has committed no offence or the mistaken does not warranty such abuse.  Another form of abuse that is closely related to emotional abuse is neglect where by a member or members of a family intentionally withhold showing their affection to another family member, financial support is withdrawn, food and other basic needs are not provided because the responsible party just refuses to observe his or her duties majorly because of malice. The most popularized form of family violence related to sexual abuse where by a spouse is forced to engage in sexual activities or  rape cases involving family members, worst still incest as reported in the U.S.

A report by redden explains that family violence tops the list of most violent crimes in America (Redden, 2010). Many families have been destroyed because of this evil and the problem affects basically all the people in America from all walks of life (Havelin, 2000). Rape and murder has been a constant head line in the media especially in the ghettoes and even the elite in the society have had their share of family violence like the case that affected the former president  Clinton and Lewinsky, the recent scandals that lead to the divorce of tiger wood and so many other cases. The high rate of crimes and divorce is a clear indicator and a result of family violence in America because most of the criminals are found to be originating from families that the evil exist. Studies have shown that family violence is caused by a number of reasons that includes unequal role distribution between the couples, mental disorders as a result of stress and depressions, frustrated people are also likely to abuse their family members. poverty that translate to lack of money, jealous and infidelity among married couples, neglect of assigned roles also can cause violence, anger problems and unhealthy rivalry or competition among the family members. Male egoism whereby a husband will satisfy his ego by abusing the wife or even children just to show that he is in charge of the house, alcoholism and drug abuse has also been larger blamed for family violence and last but not least lack of communication among the family members.

Looking the case of  alcoholism and drug abuse it can be noted that the problems tend to be adopting the spiral effect because most cases of drugs use and abuse result from emotional neglect where by a child will feel not loved by the parents and so end up using drugs to escape the reality or  a couple which does not communicate well and a partner suspect the other of say extra marital affairs and instead of communicating he or she  keeps the pain to him/herself and will maybe take on drinking and when the pressure piles up he/ she explode by physically assaulting each other. There has been a misconception that family violence has to do with children and their behavior in different aspects such as crime, alcohol or drug abuse. These are manifestations and research shows that such problems are normally a result of family violence in the first place and even though they also are included when the subject is looked at in the wider perspective, it can be noted that many children seek refuge by doing drugs or take to drinking after they observe their parent do this or after they have been neglected by their parent, not being showed love or have nobody to encourage them and help them build self confidence and esteem (Havelin, 2000). Children from rich families have committed crimes like the boys who physically assaulted and raped a woman at a central park claiming that they did that for fun. The case suggest a problem of neglect because nobody seen available to guide the boys despite their family affluence.

To conclude, family problems can be address by improvement of communication among family members and avoid exposure of children from adult that conduct the vice because behavior is learnt (Cahn, 2009). Many organizations have been established to help fight this vice like the national association for children of alcoholics, courses are also offered that will equip the police and interested parties with enough skill and knowledge to fight the vice like SAFVIC (sexual assault family violence investigator course) and even the president has shown his commitment in addressing the problem by launching  FVPF which is an initiative that is aimed at helping employers address  violence that are domestic and sexual in nature.