What Is Fran Benedetto A Victim Of Abuse

Fran Benedetto was a victim of abuse for over 20 years of her relationship with Bob Benedetto. She made several excuses not to leave: their kid, maybe he’ll change, the holiday, etc.All of the excuses are very common among victims of abuse. They keep telling themselves a bunch of excuses to stay; a way to stall while waiting for miracle to happen. As, many victims do, Fran didn’t want their son, Robert to be affected by the issues between her and Bobby. She knew he was already affected by what he saw and heard those days that his father raised his hands to hit his mom. He saw those black eyes and blue bruises on her arms; deep down she knew that he was well aware of the situation. The bigger factor keeping her from leaving was that her abuser
She hoped that it would stop when they got married, but it did not. They got married and the the aggression just got worse and more frequent than before.She imagine that a kid would fix their marriage, but again it did not stop Bob from physically, emotionally and mentally degrading Fran. Bob had an advantage by just being an officer, he could be beyond convincing. He used his interrogative and persuasive voice to make her believe that she was responsible. Fran was convinced, in many occasions, that it was her fault, that she made him snap and she was the one to blame. “ But I knew that while Tyrone was lying about the rape he was telling the truth about the police officer, because I lived with that voice every day, had been hypnotized by it myself” Anna Quindlen, p. 4) . Just like court cases where the police officer somehow hypnotized or scared the accused into confessing. Fran understood what he felt at that moment because she, herself experienced that every time her husband talked to her. That tone that made her think that she forced Bobby to break her nose, or her collarbone, or bruise her
I’m sure that even the idea of it was absurd to her. In addition to his ability to find her, his convincing tone, he was among the people that she should be reporting to. “ We can stop him,” said Grace. I laughed then, even though it hurt, a bitter choking chuckle halfway to a sob. “What are we going to do, Grace, call a cop?” (Anna Quindlen, 1998, p.174) That very aspect of her situation rended her hopeless without security and without support. She She felt alone and helpless. It seem ridiculous to her to call a cop to a cop. It is understable from a victim’s point of view. When you live half of your life with someone who freaks out and turns into another being with you not doing anything, can one imagine what that person might do when betrayed? It’s terrifying thought. Most of the time Fran had no idea of what made him explode the way he did, she feared reporting Bobby to the cops would just complicate the situation more, even worse that they wouldn’t be able to protect her and