Suzanne K. Steinmetz: The Cycle Of Domestic Violence

Mytheos Holt states “Just because someone else has it worse, that doesn’t mean we should ignore injustice here at home?”. This question can mean many different things, but for this essay it means domestic violence against men. According to WebMd domestic violence is “Abuse that happens in a personal relationship” (WebMD, 2014). Abuse can be verbal and/or physical. Domestic violence can affect anyone! women, men, gays, straights. In this society people are used to thinking that domestic violence only happens to women. Men, too are victims of domestic violence. If we take men as seriously as we take women in any situation, then we would be a society that has equality for all.
One of the reasons domestic violence occurs can be psychological.
The reasons behind the abuser can be for many reasons, but is they do not have the knowledge that what are they doing is wrong they won’t stop. If they have in mind that they are hitting their partner for valid reasons then they won’t admit they're wrong. For whatever reason they’re hitting their partner is not justified. This leads to my other reason why domestic violence might occur.
If a person is not educated on what is domestic violence they will never know that is wrong. When a kid is growing up he or she should be educated on domestic violence. There should be a program in school to teach our generation about it, to prevent it from happening anymore. We need to teach society that a men has the right and the same care as women have when they experience domestic violence.
In New York state happens regularly.
Suzanne K. Steinmetz found in "The Cycle of Violence," a 1977 study of 57 families from a wide range of socioeconomic status categories and age groups that "60 percent had used physical aggression . . . to resolve marital conflicts. Thirty-nine percent of husbands and 37 percent of wives had thrown things, 20 percent of both husbands and wives had struck their spouses with their hands, and 10 percent of both husbands and wives had hit their spouses with a hard object". This research shows that men and women percentages are not the difference. They have the same percentages or with a very little difference. Yet when men report domestic violence it is not handle the same as
women.
Ian Alterman experience one of these injustice.
Alterman said in the New York Times article “When I called the police to file a complaint against my former wife, the initial response was amused disbelief. When I finally convinced them my complaint was real, the response -- without missing a beat -- was "So hit her back." This man was being abused by his wife and the police didn’t react fast with what was happening to him. This issue should be handle with equal care for everyone who experience it. It doesn’t matter if you are a women, a men, a transexual, anyone, if you experience domestic violence there should be people who will help you right away.
This issue of men not being taking serious will lead to men not reporting their abuser at all. Society expect men to be strong, and handle everything. That is a wrong way of thinking. There should be support for men. There should be not only Violence Against Women Act(VAWA) but Violence Against a Human Being Act. There should not only be a Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women but against anyone. Men have no political support at
all.
The New York state has a law named NY Exec L § 575 (2012) that is a really good law that it helps prevents and helps what to do with the victim. It says in Justia US law “2. Duties and responsibilities. The office shall advise the governor and the legislature on the most effective ways for state government to respond to the problem of domestic violence. In fulfilling this responsibility, the office shall consult with experts, service providers and representative organizations in the field of domestic violence and shall act as an advocate for domestic violence victims and programs. 3. Activities. In addition, the office shall develop and implement policies and programs designed to assist victims of domestic violence and their families, and to provide education and prevention, training and technical assistance”. This law is well developed. This law should be federal, that way It will help all people to get justice. We should have justice and be a society where we have equality. What is the point of a law that won’t do justice for all people?