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Show Hinckley Journal of Politics Autumn 1998 SAFE 2000: Ending Abuse and Violence in Utah Families: How to Get from Here to There Attorney General Jan Graham, June 1998 Introduction It is Friday night, and Carolyn, 32, has just heen beaten by her husband. The attack was like all the others. Her husband, Pete, had arrived home from work to find that dinner wasn't ready again. Carolyn was running late because she had to stop at the grocery store and the dry cleaners after work and then run to soccer practice to pick up their children, Nathan, 12, and Jenny, 9. Pete yelled, threw dishes, and dumped the pot of spaghetti on the floor before advancing towards Carolyn. .. .Nathan jumped on his Dad's back to stop him and was thrown furiously to the floor. Carolyn ran toward the back door but could not escape; fists flew and she collapsed with bloody abrasions on her face, neck, upper arms and chest. Young Jenny witnessed the entire incident while huddled behind a chair. Pete sped out of the driveway to "cool off," but Carolyn knows he'll be back. Pete, Carolyn, Nathan and Jenny are caught in a trap: a nightmare called family violence. It has stolen most of the happiness and security from their home. The powerful forces of secrecy and denial will ensure the nightmare continues. Reality1 in Utah There are roughly 40,000 Carolyns in the State of Utah- women who are subjected to physical violence at home (Governor's Commission on Women and Families 1997, 37; hereafter GCWF). The Domestic Violence Incidence and Prevalence Study conducted by Dan Jones & Associates showed that 34 percent (194,000) of Utah women are subjected to emotional abuse (GCWF 1997, 5). Women are also victimized through isolation, intimidation, economic threats, or threats to children. These forms of abuse are intended to control the victim, and are usually precursors to physical abuse. There are approximately 160,000 Utah kids just like Nathan and Jenny (GCWF 1997, 37). That means that in an average public school classroom of 35 students, around eight of them live in homes with violence or abuse. Sadly, 50 percent of these children are also being physically abused by the batterer (Straus et al. 1990). Our juvenile detention facilities and juvenile courts are also full of kids like Nathan. Their rage and desire to be away from a hostile home environment translate easily into problems at school, juvenile delinquency, and gang involvement; a comparison of delinquent and nondelinquent youth found that a history of family violence is the most significant difference between the two groups (Miller 1989, 6). Witnessing violence as children also dramatically impacts Nathan's and Jenny's future. Without intervention, the chances that Jenny will continue to be a victim are great: 65 percent of children who witness violence in the home enter into abusive teen and adult relationships, and although Nathan despises his father's behavior now, his exposure to family violence makes him three times more likely to abuse his future partner than is a child of nonviolent parents (Straus et al. 1980). Families like Carolyn's live in every city in Utah. They live in your neighborhood, they attend your church, and their children go to school with your children. It is estimated that domestic violence touches as many as one-fourth of all families (Novello 1992, 267). But like Carolyn's case, the majority of domestic violence cases never make it to the criminal justice system. Too ashamed or afraid to seek help, victims and their children suffer in silence. For years we have relied on agencies that specialize in crisis response-law enforcement, shelters, and courts-to solve Utah's domestic violence problem. Yet those agencies are not part of our daily lives. We do not live our lives in police stations, shelters, or courtrooms. We spend our lives at work, at school, at church, and in our neighborhoods, and that is where we must focus our efforts if we truly want to end abuse and violence in families. Stepping Out of the Box Envisioning an effective plan for ending family violence in Utah requires us to step out of the box of traditional thinking and imagine the possible: preventing abusive and violent patterns before they develop. We must look beyond short-term fixes to a solution that will fundamentally change how and where we address family violence. 89 |
