Women Battery

12 Pages 3017 Words

myths are that the battered woman syndrome affects only a small percentage of the population, drinking causes battering behavior, police can protect the battered women, battered women can always leave home, and long-standing battering relationships can change for the better, and most importantly, once a batterer, always a batterer. In actuality, like rape, battering is a seriously underreported crime. Data on wife beating are difficult to obtain because the incidents usually occur at night, in the home, without witnesses. As for drinking, it is hard to deny there is some association between drinking and battering, but what it exactly is is still not known. It does seem reasonable, however, to suggest that in many cases alcohol is blamed as the precipitating factor, whereas it is only a component in the battering relationship. Studies of women have shown that most believe that the police would not be of any help. In fact, only about 10% of women in these situations have called the police.
A huge misconception is that battered women can always leave home. This is much easier said than done because of psychological inability to leave after being assaulted. Also, in this society, where women are culturally indoctrined to believe that love and marriage are their true fulfillment, many women feel it would be an admittance of failure to give up on their marriage. A battered woman is not free to end her victimization without assistance. Although many want to believe in the positive nature of behavior change, in most cases, long-standing relationships are stubbornly resistant to such drastic change even with professional help. At best, the violent assaults are reduced in frequency and severity. Finally, most people would probably agree on the belief of “once a batterer, always a batterer” and the data have not yet been analyzed to prove it false. If the psychosocial-learning theory of violent behavior is accurate, then batte...