Analyzing Christy's Domestic Violence

1. Christy’s domestic violence resulted from a variety of factors beginning in her childhood, such include being molested by her brother and continuously trying to please the men in the house. This was the first thing in Christy’s story that warned the case worker of the long abuse that Christy has endured throughout her life. Due to this, the case worker should have been able to assess Christy and imagine what made Christy stay in the relationship as long as she did. By then, one of my recommendations would be participating in group therapy to allow Christy to learn that she is not alone and that several women go through the same types of abuse and cycle that she endured. Her mother also shaped Christy’s misconception of relationships through

The first form of coping that I found important was that through problem-focused forms, “include aggressive interpersonal efforts to alter the situation, as well as cool, rational, deliberate efforts at problem solving” (Roberts, pg. 570). I found this interesting since I would not think of a person using any type of aggression to resolve a problem even though, I can imagine some scenarios in which a person does tend to act cool to solve a problem. The second form of coping I found interesting was that related to emotional focused coping which include “distancing, self-controlling, seeking social support, escape/avoidance, accepting responsibility or blame, and positive appraisal” (Roberts, pg. 570). As portrayed by Ramona in her case, she tried seeking social support from her lawyer, which didn’t provide it to her. However, after noticing her situation she escaped to her sister’s home and placed a protective order. This second coping mechanism was very interesting to read as many women do so and often found help within their friends, family or community resources however, not all run with the same opportunity to do so. Lastly, I found it important to know that “there is a difference in the use of coping strategies between women who experienced or witnessed abuse in their families or origin and the ones who did not experience or witnessed abuse” (Roberts, pg. 570). For those who have not been in an abusive situation we always think of why the victim didn’t leave the

One of the most important implication of social policy found in chapter 23 was that society often uses the idea that women continue in an abusive relationships as they “all battered women, possibly all women, suffer from learned helplessness” (Roberts, pg. 576). However, as shown through the research, most women do seek help and often do not feel like they are helpless. I found this important as stereotyping all victims of abuse as helpless can victimize them again and may prevent them from seeking help as they may feel judged for not seeking help before. Another important implication I found was that social policy was made to focus on the family and not on the individual (Roberts, pg. 577). I found this extremely important as an approach as such may diminish the experience that the victim suffered and although, helping the children and family as a whole, such may leave the victim with some troubles. Lastly, I found it important that social policy needs to work with women “for equal pay and opportunities, housing, childcare, marriage, divorce, custody, welfare benefits, and job and training opportunities” (Roberts, pg. 578). It is of high importance for programs to be able to provide a variety of services to the victims of domestic abuse as they are often on their own with children and have little resources available to them, the offering of resources may be a deal breaker to them and whether they did good in leaving their