The Poverty of Domestic Violence

[xchrom]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/13162/the_poverty_of_domestic_violence/

In late April, the Police Executive Research Forum released a new survey finding that police officers are encountering more cases of domestic violence as the economy continues to struggle. In 2010, 40 percent of the agencies in the survey reported an increase in domestic violence calls; this year, that number has risen to 56 percent. Numbers from women’s shelters, released by the Mary Kay Foundation, are even more alarming. 78 percent of shelters have seen a rise in the numbers of women seeking help, and 58 percent report that the abuse they are seeing has become more violent.

These numbers seem shocking, but in fact, we’ve known about the connection between abuse, economic stress and poverty for a very long time. But it’s rarely covered by media. I’d argue that this is in part because doing so requires us to stop adhering to prescribed boundaries – “economic issues” versus “women’s issues,” psychology versus politics – and to start making connections.

As far back as 2008, workers at women’s shelters were predicting an increase in violence. Shirl Regan, director of the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh, spoke to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the rise in domestic violence she’d seen around the time of steel mill closings, and had a grim outlook on the current recession.

“We think we’re starting to see some of the same things in terms of stress factors,” Regan said. “Our clients aren’t saying there’s more violence at this point, but in the past eight weeks they’ve been talking a lot more about economic stress than they were before. That’s a warning sign.”

[TBF]

1. I did a lot of reading on domestic violence years ago

and it was interesting that it really hit all income levels. I could see it increasing at any of the levels (or all) as the economy worsens. I bet it's the same with child abuse (maybe pet abuse as well).

[ProfessionalLeftist]

2. And the American Taliban think this is therefore a great time ...

... to let the VAWA expire.

[duhneece]

3. This is what really terrorizes millions of Americans

Millions of children and (mostly, but not all) adult women every year live with terrorism and that has nothing to do with foreigners!

[jwirr]

4. This is not suprising. Child abuse also goes up. The emotional aspect of being unemployed is

seldom considered and almost never addressed. That of course is not an excuse for what is happening but it is a sign that we are doing nothing about the side effects of unemployment.

I have never seem my daughter and her husband argue until he was laid off. It has helped that he is going back to school (for something that he can use around the house/apartment because at his age he is probably not going to get hired again) and he is starting a small farm. He is going to be good at that farm - in the last month he has fenced in his property, put a road through from one end to the other and built a barn. Got new baby chicks to replace the old chickens, baby turkeys, baby pigs, baby geese, baby lambs and baby goats. Doubled the size of the garden and added some wild plants that he could take out of the wild. He is moving my butterfly garden to his place, etc. All of this makes one feel better about themselves.

Men and women who are unemployed need something to make them feel better about themselves. However I understand that all abuse cannot be blamed on this simple fact. We as women must demand that it end not only for us and our families but for others in our communities. That is how we got those shelters and the laws.

[xchrom]

5. i think class, money for the masses underlies more social ills than we're

willing to accept.

if you feel desperate from sun up to sun regarding your financial survival -- lots of other things begin to suffer as well.

[jwirr]

6. Exactly. The rich may not have anything to be upset about from our perspective but that does

not mean they feel secure. In fact I suspect they have more fear of the future than we do because they look at it as maintaining their status while we think of it as surviving. We can do something about our problem theirs is in their imagination.