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Family Violence
Kaplan University
Raymond Mewborn











Genevieve Feliu
SS270-07
May 24, 2008

Family Violence

Battered spouses lessen their decision to stay with their abuser for the childrens good. They believe that their children are better off emotionally and financially if the parents stay together, even if one of the parents is abusive. However, researchers have found that children exposed to domestic violence often suffer physical and psychological suffering as a result. Children who witness family violence are themselves commonly victims of child abuse. Sociologists Murray A. Straus and Richard J. Gelles surveyed over 6,000 families and discovered that 50 percent of the men who battered their wives also abused their children. An earlier study by William Stacy and Anson Shupe found that child abuse was 15 times more likely to occur in families with a history of domestic violence.
Domestic violence advocates have long known that children of abusive parents often grow up to be abusive in their own relationships. According to Straus and Gelles, “the learning experience of seeing your mother and father strike one another is more significant that being hit yourself.” They contend that boys who see their fathers beating their mothers learn that violence is an acceptable way to deal with anger and frustrations, that women are not worthy of respect, and that it is permissible to beat them. In Behind Closed Doors, Straus and Gelles state that boys who have witnessed domestic abuse between their parents are three times more likely to grow up and abuse their own wives than boys from nonviolent homes. Likewise, the two researchers argue that experiencing and observing violence teaches girls that violence equals love—that being loved by someone also means being hit by them. They note that girls who grow up...