Verification of Domestic Violence Reduction

Introduction

Domestic violence is a descriptive term for violence that occurs between two people. It includes sexual assault, dating violence and stalking. It has been a social issue in the US where people have been hurt physically or emotionally and in the worst cases lost their life.

Statement of the problem

The bureau of statistics released data in 2009 that showed that domestic violence in the United States has reduced by 50%. Some of the things attributed to this reduction include; effective services on domestic violence and successful convictions for the perpetrators.

Purpose and significance of the research

This research will give comprehensive details of the domestic violence cases including the numbers and identify the prevalence among certain groups of people in the United States. Upon getting information on these cases the policy makers and funds grantors will be able to make better decisions while dealing with the social issue and be able to grant funds where they are needed most.

Limitations

The limitation of this study is underreporting which may give the researcher an assumption that the domestic violence cases have reduced whereas they are still there but they go unreported.

Literature review

A lot of information is collected by the bureau of justice statistics (BJS) through other agencies like FBI, National incident-based reporting system (NIBRS), uniform crime report (UCR) among others. These reports include data on criminal victimization, population under supervision, case processing by federal and criminal offenders (Groban 1). The BJS periodically release report on prosecution policies and practices, court processing and criminal offenders. After gathering all this information BJS then gives a comprehensive data on the cases so as to give a clear overview of domestic violence in the United States.

A number of studies have been conducted on domestic violence to make the issue more understandable. The world health organization (WHO) conducted a survey on spousal and dating violence where they used fifty separate population samples. They also conducted another survey in 2006 that featured the partner violence observed in health clinics in South Carolina rather than studying it in general. This study revealed that those patients that were receiving treatment due to domestic violence were about 7-30 percent. In 2007, BJS reported that 70% of women who were victims of domestic violence knew their assailant (Branson and Silva 23)

Methodology

This study will use secondary data that is available in the police departments, BJS, crisis centers and victims advocate centers (Dutton 12). These sources are very useful in this research as the data is readily available and a lot of time can be saved in this method of data gathering. This data is obtained with the specific purpose of the agency that gathered it. Its accuracy however may not necessarily be of interest to the researcher.

Expected findings

Findings may be generalized in case one looks at data from different sources which have studied the same population. These findings should counter the claim that domestic violence has reduced. The study should be able to use a more comprehensive definition of domestic violence so as to get a clear picture of how many people are victims of domestic violence. This  study will  give a more comprehensive case on the prevalence of domestic violence to a certain group of people or even certain offense (Campbell, et al 16)

Conclusion

Domestic violence denotes violence that exist between to people who are either intimate partners, co habitats, relatives or two people who have a child together. Victims of domestic violence are subjected to violence in different forms like murder, rape, physical assaults or even verbal threats.