Family and Domestic Violence Survivor Theory Aspect of Intimate Partn

Question: Discuss about theFamily and Domestic Violencefor Survivor Theory Aspect of Intimate Partner Violence. Answer: Introduction Family and domestic violence is a shameful aspect of a civilized society. It is unacceptable in all possible forms. There are policies that have been framed by the government, however, most of the times; the victims could not be helped, as they did not approach the officials on time about the wrongdoer (Healey, Humphreys Howe, 2013). There are times when the social and health care workers also fail to recognize violence and this leads to a delay in intervening it, which might at times result into life threatening situation (Salter, 2013). The emotional trauma faced by the victims, makes them live in constant fear even when the violent relationship had ended. They are in constant need of emotional assistance to recover completely from effects of the abusive relation. Family and domestic violence has several aspects such as, neglecting behavior, abuse on different levels such as financial, psychological, verbal, sexual, physical or emotional, stalking, inflicting harm to animals, chil dren being exposed to such behaviors (Forsdike-Young Hegarty, 2016). In this study, a theoretical framework was considered which would help deal with the problem of domestic violence. The framework provides with interventions that can help deal with the problems crippling the society. The benefits and harmfulness of the suggested framework has also been discussed. The aspects of stakeholders and political contexts have also been considered while framing the theoretical model. The current study also accounts for the existing policy, whether they have been evaluated, their effectiveness, and their shortcomings in dealing with the problem. Alternative strategies have been suggested to make sure women and children are never victimized again. Rationale for the Theoretical Framework In Australia, in a period of a year, 5.8% of the women have experience domestic violence (Valentine Breckenridge, 2016). Studies have revealed how violence against pregnant women is higher and surveys have revealed that at least 20% of 400 pregnant women have been victims of domestic violence in Australia (Pestka Wendt, 2014). Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) has also reported how women in remote areas face more family and domestic violence than women in urban settings (Diemer et al., 2016). Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council (AHMAC) have also revealed how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women face more domestic violence than non-Aboriginals (Jahanfar, Howard Medley, 2014). These situations instigate the formulation of a more effective model that will prevent any further cases of violence. Systematic reviews from the Cochrane Collaboration database has shown very less effort has been made so far in preventing domestic and family violence although p olicies exist which identifies domestic violence as a serious issue among the Australian population (Bond Jeffries, 2014). To further support the idea of the need of a model to find a solution to stop incidents related to family and domestic violence, it is also not just the mental or physical health of women and children that are risk, at times; the very life is at a risk. The chosen framework has been designed to attend the immediate concerning the survivor theory. This particular theory is based on feminist-inspired concepts where the victims make an effort is seeking help against the family and domestic violence. As the idea suggests, help is provided to the victims from all possible aspects such as social, political. This framework mostly applies to the IPV (Intimate Partners Violence) that women go through. IPV victims are abused on sexual, physiological levels. The basic problem faced by the authorities in dealing with such problems is that they hardly disclose the situation to the concerned authorities. Theoretical Framework for Public Policy Development Several theoretical frameworks have been devised over the years regarding the issue of family and domestic violence, to name a few, an ecological model theory, survivor-based theory, process based theories and several others. Most of these frameworks depict overlapping ideas. However, the survivor based theory aims at identifying the efforts that has been made by those several women who came forward to inform the authorities of the violence they are facing (Raynor-Thomas et al., 2016). The victims of IPV disclose their problems to an informal support. If the informal support does not inform the social service authorities regarding it, the violence continues. Several factors are responsible for these IPV victims such as gender of the victim, race, age and the socio economic status (Wilcox, 2012). From the aspect of gender, more women disclose about the incidents rather than the men who face the same. From the aspect of race, the non-Aboriginals come forward with the issue rather than the Aboriginals whereas; the rate of incidence of family and domestic violence is higher among the Aboriginals and the Torres Islanders (Taft et al., 2013). From the age aspect, younger women frequently come forward with episodes, rather than older women. The socio economic status related aspect is equally important to consider the incidences of IPV. The women belonging to families that are more affluent come forward more frequently rather than women whose socio economic status is not that stable (Keeling Fisher, 2012). This inhibition exists because the women, who do not belong to some affluent family and is dependent on the partner financially, wonder about their support once they chose to step out. In such cases, the government should make sure that they are devising plans that will fulfill the needs of such women so that they stop being victimized (Salter, 2013). Most of the times, the victims are scared to disclose their situation out of shame or embarrassment or lack of support (Fisher, 2013). Many of these women develop depression when the violence continues over a prolonged period as they are unable to escape from the tragedy and they develop suicidal tendencies due to this. The prevalence of women committing suicides among the IPV victims is very high (Boxer Sloan-Power, 2013). Due to such a situation, social service workers need to be careful in monitoring the activities of such victims when they approach to the social services for help. It becomes necessary for the social services to provide with proper counseling in order to deal with the trauma. Not just mental health based problems; IPV victims also develop gastrointestinal disorders The Family and Domestic Violence Policy Area Based on the framework, the stakeholders of the framework that has been identified are the women in relation with a partner or husband and children if any. The existing policies as framed by the Australian government do not necessarily aim at helping women who become victims of typically the situation of Intimate Partner Violence (Morris, Hegarty Humphreys, 2012). The Family and Domestic Violence policy does not specifically help these women. On an international level, the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights and the Elimination of Violence against Women had expressed concern regarding the violence that women face (Dowse et al., 2016). The acknowledgement and recognition of the violation of rights exists however, effective policies as well as laws are not implemented to prevent family and domestic violence. Moreover, lack of awareness creates bigger issues as the victims fail to notify the concerned authorities regarding the incidents. Surveys are helpful in identifying the extent of the problems however, interventions are necessary to educate the women and encourage the women to come forward with their issues and approach the social services for the necessary aid (Keeling Fisher, 2012). The social services should be more helpful towards providing better support to children who are dependent on their mothers who are victims of IPV because the emotional wellbeing of these children is equally important as that of the mother. Review of Current Family and Domestic Violence Policy The Effectiveness of Reviewed Policy is Given Below The Domestic and Family Violence Policy as devised by the New South Wales (NSW) police force, aims at alleviate the levels of domestic and family violence. The legislation that are responsible for governing the policy are: Crimes Act 2007 (Domestic and Personal Violence), Crimes Act 1900, Children and Young Persons Act 1998 (Care and Protection), Young Offenders Act 1997, Criminal procedure Act 1986, Family Law Act 1975 (Birss Olsson, 2015). The policy also works towards providing with effective responses to the victims. It considers personal violence crimes and works towards safeguarding the interests of the women, children as well as the elderly and the disabled from the perpetrators (Wilcox, 2012). The policy makes the police force make efforts in conducting investigations and managing domestic and family violence. The policy aims towards encouraging the officers in making efforts in arresting the perpetrators of violence. According to the policy, criminal charges are to be levie d on the offenders (Bond Jeffries, 2014). A specialist domestic violence services has been devised in order to provide safety to the victims and prevent any further episodes of violence. The victims can this way ask an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) to be issued against the offender (Valentine Breckenridge, 2016). Children are also applicable to be part of the guidelines of the policy and therefore, the AVO can also be issued against the offender if a child issues a complain. Although the policy was formulated keeping the NSW police force, however; they also avail the help of the other social services in order to help the victims to deal with the trauma (Boxer Sloan-Power, 2013). The Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Policy is Given Below The domestic and family violence is responded to quickly and in a professional manner by the NSW police force. The NSW police force provide with all possible help to the patient to deal with the trauma. If necessary, they even take the help of several Social Services to provide psychological help to the victims of family and domestic violence (Taft et al., 2013). The NSW police force takes into account the importance of the wellbeing of the victims and considers their safety and protection to be their top most priority. The police force also understands the diversity in the community and it aims at handling the issues of domestic violence with sensitivity (Buchanan, Power Verity, 2014). The policy has proved to be effective in building trust among the victims that the NSW police force has zero tolerance towards cases of domestic and family violence offenders. The only drawback of the policy is that, there are no available evidences, which will support the effectiveness of the interv entions that has been outlined by the policy (Hegarty et al., 2013). Interventions can only prove to be effective only when it is an evidence-based policy and on top of that, policies do not qualify as laws, although laws are based on a policy. Only when laws are implemented, the interventions of seizing the offender become concrete (Fawcett Waugh, 2013). The effectiveness of the public awareness based campaigns and screening programs, can only be possible becomes hard to assess when there is no documentation of the results. The programs with respect to sensitizing the offenders, prove to be ineffective as they lack methodological issues (Pathak, Sohal Feder, 2016). The Impact of the Current Policy on Public Health Principles are as Follows The current policy has been framed based on the existing other jurisdictions, such as, NSW 2012, Australasian Policing Strategy for the Prevention and Reduction of Family Violence, National Councils Plan for Australia to reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022, NSW Domestic and Family Violence Action Plan Stop the Violence, End the Silence, NSW Ombudsman Audit of NSW Police Force (Sutherland et al., 2016). Due to the current policy enforced by NSW, personal crimes have reduced along with property crimes. This has resulted into increasing the confidence of the victims in the police. The policy has led to several partnership with agencies that has helped the victims to deal with the trauma, such as, Womens Domestic Violencce Court Advocacy Program (WDVCAP), Domestic Violence Intervention Court Model (DVICM), Staying Home Leaving Violence, Integrated Domestic Family Violence Services Program (ID FVSP) (James, Brody Hamilton, 2013). However, cases of family and dom estic violence are still reported. The problem is still quite active as there are no reports which comprises of the details of the nabbed perpetrators who had enrolled for the programs that aims towards the reforming processes and anger management efforts (Forsdike-Young Hegarty, 2016). These programs have also at times proved to be harmful for the victims. It happens that during these programs, the offenders get a sound insight into what qualifies as abuse. This can help the offenders in understanding the effects domestic and family violence has. The offenders also learn to be respectful towards their partners and improve the parenting skills (James, Brody Hamilton, 2013). Alternative Strategies There have been several incidents where the victims have not only been women and children, but people of other community have faced domestic violence. However, the current policy as deduced by NSW police force does not provide any policy or law that helps dealing with these problems (Sutherland et al., 2016). Different communities have different needs. Hence, a new policy should be framed that meets the needs of every person in the community. The alternate strategy aims at appointing culture specific social service providers to attend to each and every community based victim with competence. The LGBTIQ based victims have completely different sets of needs hence the social service providers should be well read about their needs and the type of counseling they need to deal with the trauma. Education and awareness campaign should be organized in order to promote the independence and decision-making attribute of women (Goldsworthy Raj, 2014). The barriers provided by the idea of gender stereotypes should be dissolved by promoting the idea that there should be mutual respect between the sexes. The potential impact that the alternative policy has on public health is as follows: domestic violence is responsible for affecting the mental health as well as the physical health of the victims, which includes children and women. At times, violent behaviors have resulted into the death of women. The socio-physical development of the child receives a setback too due to witnessing domestic violence at a tender age (Fawcett Waugh, 2013). Therefore, health service providers should be alert while providing help to the victims as at times, their emotional needs are not met. The suggested policy will help deal with all these issues. Analysis of the Usefulness of the Theoretical Framework of the Policy The theoretical framework that was chosen has proved to be quite useful in dealing with the problem of family and domestic violence. This framework will now raise awareness among the victims so that they will approach the social health service providers and inform them. They will also be encouraged to seek the help of law to avoid facing such situations again. The following are the uses and limitations of a theoretical framework Theoretical framework is responsible for providing clarity regarding the theory that has been implicated so that it receives a clearer viewpoint. The framework also helps in taking into account the concepts provided in other frameworks so that there is a considerable reduction in the biasness that might alter the original course of work (Buchanan, Power Verity, 2014). The theoretical framework also allows the readers to comprehend the perspective of the research that has been conducted. The framework helps in evaluating a plan to conduct the study based on the existing strategies and studies conducted with the help of a literature review. There is only one limitation of theoretical framework. While assessing a situation or a concept, the tendency remains to consider the aspects that only fit our framework (Laing Humphreys, 2013). There can be other aspects too which might prove to a governing principle in some way. Thereby, the more explicit a framework, the better is its deduction. Conclusion The Australian government should work towards the deterrence of family and domestic violence. The victims should be supported on several levels such as emotionally, financially taking into accordance the social well-being of the victims based on the survivor framework. Efforts should be made in sensitizing the male population regarding the ill effects that violence has and the extent of punishment one can suffer on inflicting domestic and family violence. In order to help the victims, caregivers should be able to assess the mental condition of the victim and provide a compassionate and responsive way of support. It should be noted that everyone has the right to feel safe in a particular environment. The government should work towards making the people strictly adhere to maintaining respectful relationships towards each other. The given framework would help the victim in processing the trauma that they face in the hands of the perpetrator in the name of domestic violence. It is necess ary that the victims should approach the social services and understand what actually qualifies as violence and how one should make an effort in reporting it to the law and force officials. It is important that the governmental policies must aim at the strict implementation of the law rather than on just framing it. Every person should be respected and should speak up if they are made victims of domestic violence. 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