Review of a report into attitudes to domestic abuse in Ireland.

by weed911 (student)

Introduction

This essay is a review of a report conducted by the national office for the prevention of domestic, sexual and gender based violence (COSC) entitled: Attitudes to domestic abuse in Ireland. The report review is divided into three sub-headings. The first section of the review is the research overview, whereby the aim, methodology and the key findings of the research are identified. The second section is the evaluation of the contribution of the research in our understanding of family life in Ireland. The third and last section is the reflection on the findings and insights of the research in terms of my own personal experience of family life in Ireland.

What is domestic abuse/violence?

There are several definitions of domestic abuse/ violence being used in Irish research. The task force established by the Irish government with the goal of formulating recommendations on the future direction of domestic violence policy in Ireland, defined domestic violence as “The use of physical or emotional force or threat of physical force, including sexual violence, in close relationships. This includes violence perpetrated by spouse, partner, son, daughter or any other person who is a close blood relation to the victim” (Report of the task force on domestic violence 1997: 27)

Research overview

Aim of the research

Attitudes and beliefs about domestic abuse are critical in deciding the type of support victims will get from their family, friends and neighbors as well as from state and non-governmental organizations (Horgan et al., 2008). This research focuses on key parts in monitoring primary prevention of domestic violence as it measures the population levels and the frequency with which domestic violence abuse is experienced by victims. (Ibid: 2). The aim of this research is to gauge attitudes, perceptions, beliefs and behavior around domestic abuse in two respects.

Analyze various facets of people’s awareness of the problem among men and women in contemporary Ireland.
Examine the public’s willingness to act or respond should they encounter domestic abuse at some point of their lives.

Methodology

The data for this research was collected by telephone interviews and it included a sample of 2008 adults residing in Ireland. The research design, questionnaire development and sampling procedures were designed internally by Cosc. The target population of the survey was the general population, that is, people normally residing in Ireland and older than 18 years (Ibid: 8)

This is a preview of the whole essay

Methodology

The study is based on national and international research. The study focused on three key sources of prevalence data for domestic abuse in Ireland. The first being the 1995 national survey of 679 women, this study indicated that 18 per cent of women in intimate relationships had been subjected to violence by a current or former partner (Keller and O'Connor 1995). The second Irish survey to produce prevalence data on domestic violence was conducted in 2003 (Watson and persons 2005). This survey involved 3077 adults and it examined whether domestic abuse affects men as well as women and also compared the risk and impacts of domestic abuse on women and men. The third source of relevant prevalence data in Ireland is the SAVI report. Sexual abuse and violence in Ireland (McGee et al., 2002) this research provides insight on sexual violence in the home. It surveyed a sample of 3000 adults and provided estimates of the prevalence of sexual violence for men and women in Ireland.

Key findings

Domestic abuse affects all types of people in Irish society (Watson and parsons, 2005). According to the findings in this report there is no clear indication that whether people living in a rural or urban setting is related to how widespread people think domestic abuse is ( Horgan et al., 2008.). However there is a difference in the way the respondents thought domestic abuse affected men and women. Over 70 % said they consider domestic abuse against women to be a fairly or very common problem, compared to 42 % who considered domestic abuse against men to be common and 52% of those who felt that domestic violence against men was not a common occurrence.

The majority of those who felt that domestic violence against women is common were women (81%) compared to 60 % of men. 46 % of the participants reported domestic abuse against women to be increasing and 40% disagreed with this view. Domestic violence is mostly an issue that affects more woman than men. More women than men knew somebody who personally had been a victim of domestic violence. In overall 44 % of the respondents reported knowing a victim of domestic violence (Ibid: 18).

Male victims also fall victims to domestic abuse. But it is often hard for male victims to seek help from others. This makes it hard to identify male victims who are/may be in need of help. But according to this report the male who report violence abuse are likely to report the abuse to a friend than to a family member or people from work.

Both men and women consider some form of abuse "severe" and others to be "minor". The respondents in this research indicated that men were less inclined to agree that calling hurtful names was a form of domestic violence than women. Women were more likely than men to consider slapping, punching and forced intercourse to be equally serious for women and men. Watson and parsons (2005) argue that when both “minor” and “severe” forms of domestic abuse are considered, 29 % of women and 25 % of men reported experiencing domestic violence.

The respondents in this research held the same views in terms of the harm inflicted during the abuse whether a men or a women does it. The majority of the participants considered women to suffer more physical harm than men and even emotional harm than men. 88% of the participants indicated a strong agreement that domestic abuse is a criminal offence with the majority of respondents with this view being those with higher educational level. But even though the majority of the respondents held that view about domestic abuse, they still had issues regarding reporting the incident to the Gardaí if they witnessed it. The fear of making matters worse was identified as one of the reason for it. People would rather seek help from other forms of organizations rather than the Gardaí. 66 % of the respondents said they would rather talk to the victim and 25 % would talk to the perpetrator.

Evaluation

This research contributes greatly in our understanding of family life in Ireland. The findings from this report can help to understand how and why domestic abuse is so common. One of the interesting areas of domestic abuse is how people have their own definitions about it and how this relates to how they consider some forms of behavior “severe” and others “minor” form of abuse. Research indicates that what people consider being abusive behavior differs and that some people consider some forms of abusive behavior to be more serious than others. The consensus is that women are far more likely to engage in "minor" rather than "severe" violence and that violence by women is not intendant to injure the husband (Jackson and Oates, 1998: 142). But it can be hard to determine what constitutes "severe" violence as opposed to "minor" violence. Women are more likely to engage in pushing, shoving, slapping, or throwing things, whereas men may more often use punching, kicking, or attacks with objects or weapons. (Ibid: 142). All of these behaviors can be perceived as violent and can affect people differently depending on the individual.

People’s attitudes, perceptions, beliefs and behavior determine whether the victims of domestic abuse continue to supper in silence or seek help from others. “A worrying effect of overlooking differences in such attitudes towards abusive behavior among men or women could be that in the long run there is a reinforcing and signaling of a tolerance forms and degrees of domestic abuse” (Horgan et al., 2008: 3). Male victims often suffer in silence because attitudes, beliefs and behavior about masculinity, prevent them from sharing their experience with others.

Reflection

Domestic violence is a serious and complex issue. It is a phenomena that affects the core institution (family) that is meant to protect people. Families are meant to be a safe haven for each and every individual and the fact that some people are actually put in turmoil by those they trust and depend on the most indicates a very a serious problem not just for the victims but also for the communities these individuals belong to.

As indicated in the report in many cases the family has the biggest role in ensuring that victims of abuse are given the right advice and assistant. Many people who experience domestic violence are often reluctant to discuss about it with other people, thus making it hard to identify those who might be in need of help. According to the Euro barometer survey (1999) the research indicated that people in Ireland felt that societal institutions such as the state, police, medical services but also friends and family have the responsibility to support victims of domestic . If all of these societal institutions worked together, they could help to identify the people who need help and to identify the best prevention methods for victims and perpetrators of domestic violence.

Bibliography

European Commission. (1999). Euro barometer 51 .0 – Europeans and their views on domestic violence against women

Horgan, J., Mühlau, P., McCormack, P., Röder, A. (2008). Attitudes to Domestic Abuse in Ireland : Report of a survey on perceptions and beliefs of domestic abuse among the general population of Ireland. Dublin: COSC The national office for the prevention of domestic violence, sexual and gender based violence.

Jackson, N. A., & Oates, G. C. (1998). Violence in intimate relationships examining sociological and psychological issues. USA: Butterworth-Heinemann

Kelleher and O’Connor M. (1995). Making the links: Towards an integrated strategy for the elimination of violence against women in intimate relationships with men: A Study Commissioned by Women’s Aid.

The national Task Force on violence against women (1997). Report of the National Task Force on violence against women. Dublin: Office of the Tainaiste.

Watson D. and Parsons S. (2005). Domestic Abuse of Women and Men in Ireland: Report on the National Study of Domestic Abuse, NCC/ESRI, Dublin: Stationery Office.