SWM102 DIVERSITY, POWER, AND IDENTITY IN SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE ASSESSMENT 3

ESSAY BASED ON DOCUMENTARY HITTING HOME 1

Table of Contents

Introduction. 3

Discussion. 3

Situation of Wendy. 3

Tactics Used by her Husband. 4

Needs to Wendy for herself and her child. 4

Intimate partner violence description. 5

Causal factor of intimate partner violence concerning this case. 6

Process of Supporting Wendy. 7

Conclusion. 7

Reference List 9

Introduction

Domestic violence is a curse in modern society. This kind of human behaviour took us back to the Stone Age where there were only savage fights and people had no humanity in them, according to the information available from Australia. According to the information available from Search-informit-org (2021), there are over 200 cases of domestic violence in Australia each year. This presents in front of society the fact about the dominant nature of human beings and the level of violence that they can create. Women are not safe even in their home in broad daylight. These cases presences the facts about the situation of women in Australia

Discussion

Situation of Wendy

According to information from the case, Wendy is a victim of severe domestic violence. She and her daughter were physically abused by her ex-husband and currently, she is forced to live in a "safe house" by the government. This has been hard for her as she had to run away from her home without any supplies of food, medicine or any other necessary things like toothpaste or toothbrush. Wendy and her daughters were frightened and in distress then. She is living in a traumatic situation even after a few days of that incident when that reporter had approached her to record her experiences (Search-informit-org, 2021).

She is forced to live in the safe house of government because she does not feel safe from her husband anywhere across Sydney. There are several other victims of domestic violence living in that safe house. The Warden of the safe house maintains the complete safety of these women and children. Her husband made her forcefully get into the car and made her drunk, she fractured her skull. Wendy was admitted to the hospital for 10 days. After this incident, she did not return to her husband's house. She only hold is the house of refuge offered by the government, fortunately, she will be able to stay in the government safe house as long as she does well.

Tactics Used by her Husband

Her husband used to start the violence by starting from her children. According to the experience of Wendy recorded by a reporter at the sage house of government, she saw that her husband was scolding her children in the morning and was about to hit them. When Wendy approach there to stop him, her husband hit slapped her in the face and shouted like a madman.

At time Wendy approached the telephone to call the Police; her husband began to banging her door and started threatening her that she will leave the house with her children if she does not come out of the room. The most dishonest tactics by her husband were that he made her feel guilty by saying that it was her fault that she made him feel angry and that is the reason why he physically abused her.

Even after the violence, Wendy got back to her husband. As she wanted her children to have their father at times they grew up. Her husband apologised to her about the previous behaviours. However, after this, he started abusing Wendy again to get money for her. Wendy in fear of getting physically injured and in the urge of saving her daughter from the violence of her husband she used to provide money to him.

Needs to Wendy for herself and her child

Wendy and her children according to the current situation need safety from her husband. Apart from that financial security is also necessary. According to the review of Wendy, her husband used to take the money she saved for the future of her daughters. Currently, Wendy does feel safe in the safe house offered by the Government of Australia (Legislation.gov.au, 2021).

She feels comfortable knowing that her location is completely kept safe from anyone, and her hound will not be able to reach her and her daughters. At this point, the only support that she needs is the help of the government. Financial stability at this time will be a better option. Therefore, the government of Australia should help women in distress like Wendy to be self-sustainable by offering her a job where she will be capable of supporting her daughters in future.

Two daughters of Wendy in this kind of situation need support from their mother. Both of them are below the age of 10 years, and they are still haunted by the voice of their father. They fear that their father will come and again disturb their peace. At this point, the house issues have been secured by the kind offer of the Australian Government. Financial should be offered to Wendy.

Intimate partner violence description

The typical common thing about intimate partner violence according to information available from this documentary about domestic violence victims from Australia (Search-informit-org, 2021), is that this violence is not made by planning. All of the ex-boyfriends or ex-husbands involved in this case and accused of torturing their wife or girlfriends did that from sudden anger. Many of the times the reason for this anger is alcohol.

Another experienced one can get from the documentary is that, even after behaving so brutally with their life partners, these men wanted the ladies to get back in their home. Often they promised not to get violent again. According to the case of Isabella, another victim of domestic violence from Australia (Search-informit-org, 2021), the first physical attack began before their marriage when her boyfriend kicked her for being doubtful about her relationship with her ex-boyfriend. Apologies were sent through cards and flowers to Isabella about the brutal incident, but she had to leave the house when her husband almost damaged her right eye by punching in her face.

Cases of intimate partner violence (IPV) and corporal punishments (CP) are becoming common in Australia during the last few years (Poulsen, 2018, pp. 01-10). The most common things about these cases are, violence begins from hitting or unnecessary scolding of children. After this when the mother steps into the situation, heer becomes the victim of physical abuse.

According to the lecture of professor Stacy Tzoumakis a psychologist and specialist of domestic violence cases (Voce & Boxall, 2018, pp. 10), these cases reflect anti-social behaviours under human beings. People become angry like animals to their loved ones, and torturing them and providing their loved ones with punishment helps them to cool down their anger. The stress of life and reaction to alcohol is the reason for this kind of violence.

Causal factor of intimate partner violence concerning this case

There are three main factors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) (Poulsen, 2018, pp. 01-10), Low self-esteem, young age and anger and hostility. These types of issues come in the path of a happy family as marriages have been commenced at an early age. Financial stability and maturity of mind are not present in these types of cases. After the initial intimation between husband and wife gets over reality of financial contains and issues comes in. These are the primary issues of domestic violence. Women in this society should speak publicly about the issues they are facing with their life partners (Danis & Bhandari, 2010, pp. 01). This will provide them opportunity to be liberal.

In regards to the case of Wendy, the factor of anger and hostility become the primary matter. The monstrous approach of her husband to herself and her children made her decide between leaving the house permanently. Nobody will stay with such a violent life partner, Wendy has offered her husband many chances of making himself comfortable with the family. However each time her husband has failed to achieve Wendy's trust.

Process of Supporting Wendy

Being a social worker in this kind of situation I would help her find a safe place to live without facing any kind of further issues. Both the daughters of Wendy has faced violence and sense enough brutality and torture. So they will need treatment from a psychiatrist. The mental distress they are going through needs to be mitigated first. After that, I would help Wendy to find a suitable job according to her capabilities and educational background. This approach will help her to sustain herself and her daughters by taking any kind of help from her ex-husband.

Building relationship and effective change in society can only become possible from mutual respect in each other (Pease et al. 2016, pp. 03). Otherwise collision will take place in a house. According to neoliberal approach of the society government should work on judgment on de-gender and depoliticize domestic and family violence (Morley & Dunstan, 2016, pp. 02). Creation of family violence free society will on be possible through this approach.

Most of the time men make women believe that they are getting violent for their faults and she deserves the punishments that are being offered to her. I would have helped Wendy to fight back from this kind of situation. I would have helped her to avoid any kind of victim-blaming issues (Easteal et al. 2019, pp. 03). Self-confidence and telling her that the violence and separation were not her faults would have helped her to stand on her feet in this situation. Increasing interdependence of communities across the globe has created a new kind of world (Fulu & Miedema, 2015, pp. 1432). This is the reason for increase in domestic violence.

Conclusion

It can be concluded victims of domestic violence should be taken extra care of by the Police department and the department of human rights in Australia. This is more essential than punishing the accused person. Most of the time there are children affected by the issues of domestic violence. Social welfare department employees should look after the mental condition of these children to make them safe. There are many cases where violence in childhood has made people psychopathic or criminal in the future. That is the reason taking care of these children is necessary for the development of a better society.

Reference List

Danis, F.S. and Bhandari, S., 2010. Understanding domestic violence: A primer. In L. L. Lockhart & F. S. Danis (Eds.)

Easteal, P., Holland, K., Breen, M. D., Vaughan, C., & Sutherland, G. (2019). Australian media messages: Critical discourse analysis of two intimate homicides involving domestic violence. Violence against women, 25(4), 441-462. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Patricia-Easteal/publication/326380088_Australian_Media_Messages_Critical_Discourse_Analysis_of_Two_Intimate_Homicides_Involving_Domestic_Violence/links/5b4968b745851519b4b8627f/Australian-Media-Messages-Critical-Discourse-Analysis-of-Two-Intimate-Homicides-Involving-Domestic-Violence.pdf

Fulu, E., & Miedema, S. (2015). Violence Against Women. Violence Against Women, 21(12), 14311455. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801215596244

Ghafournia, N., & Easteal, P. (2018). Are immigrant women visible in Australian domestic violence reports that potentially influence policy?. Laws, 7(4), 32. https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/7/4/32/pdf

Morley, C., & Dunstan, J. (2016). Putting gender back on the agenda in domestic and family violence policy and service responses: Using critical reflection to create cultural change. Social Alternatives, 35(4), 43-48.

Parkinson, D. (2019). Investigating the increase in domestic violence post disaster: an Australian case study. Journal of interpersonal violence, 34(11), 2333-2362. http://www.gdnonline.org/resources/Parkinson2019%20Vol%2034%20no%2011%20joiv%20article.pdf

Pease, B., Goldingay, S., Hosken, N., & Nipperess, S. (2016). Doing Critical Social Work: Transformative Practices for Social Justice (1st ed.). Routledge. Abingdon, UK

Poulsen, A. (2018). The role of corporal punishment of children in the perpetuation of intimate partner violence in Australia. Children Australia, 43(1), 32. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Angelika-Poulsen/publication/322800071_The_Role_of_Corporal_Punishment_of_Children_in_the_Perpetuation_of_Intimate_Partner_Violence_in_Australia/links/5ad2eb72458515c60f51e219/The-Role-of-Corporal-Punishment-of-Children-in-the-Perpetuation-of-Intimate-Partner-Violence-in-Australia.pdf

Voce, I., & Boxall, H. (2018). Who reports domestic violence to police? A review of the evidence. Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, (559), 1-16. https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/crime-and-justice-research-2019.pdf#page=18

Website

Legislation.gov.au (2021), Information about Australian law and regulation retrieved on: 6^th May 2021 from https://www.legislation.gov.au/

Search-informit-org (2021), Information about domestic violence retrieved on: 6^th May 2021 from https://search-informit-org.excelsia.idm.oclc.org/doi/10.3316/edutv.1092216