Sociological Theory In Social Work

The reality of social work is that of a job that handles familial strife and complications in a very difficult and demanding career. I interviewed Freddy L. Wilson an educated individual who has a bachelors’ in sociology from Fisk University and Masters’ in social work from Howard University and has years of career experience dealing with abuse. In his long career, he has worked in probation, children services, hospice, and as a medical social worker. In my interview with Mr. Wilson, he chose to specifically talk to me about his 9 years working at the San Bernardino County family reunification. Through our conversation, I gained knowledge on the way that the government handle both victims and perpetrators of child abuse. My interviewee has

Wilson stated that the causation of child abuse is multifaceted relating to the background of the parent. He mentioned individual and sociological causation such as stress, drugs and alcohol, and the ignorance of raising a child. In regards to stress, he mentioned the community and factors of location and lack of resources. This connected well to the sociological theory of child abuse specifically resource theory that relates to the lack of control by those who are economically disadvantaged and lack of alternatives to punish creating the environment for abuse (Loseke, 43). Drugs and alcohol were another causation that he brought up as a reason for abuse. The substance abuse theory has been a disputed claim as a cause of child abuse. As stated, “Although it would be convenient to blame substance abuse as the cause of family violence, to do so would be to overlook all the interlocking dynamics that are both involved in both substance abuse and family violence” (Wallace, 24). Nonetheless, he did mention substance abuse as a factor of child abuse that he witnessed personally in his career. The last aspect he mentioned which I found interesting was generational ignorance of the family. The lack of knowledge to raise a child has a role in an abusive household, and it continues from parent to child. In class, we were taught that most abused children do not grow to be abusers, but some do and they were most likely abused themselves by their parents (Notes January 25). The

In this regard, he was against the factor of isolation, as there needs to be a role by the community and family to prevent family violence. The factor of Isolation is stated as, “The concept of the privacy of the family coupled with isolation, diminishes outside social control, lessens input from others, and increases opportunity for violence,” (Wallace, 20). When mentioning the family, he stated that parents could take drugs and drink all they want, as long as they had a support system like a family member taking care of the child they would be responsible. Mr. Wilson does not obviously condone substance abuse, but he was stating that there needed to be outside forces besides the immediate family as support like a grandparent or an aunt or uncle. He also mentioned schools as a role of prevention. He stated that he does not necessarily agree with all the responsibilities we are asking schools (as he believes we are asking them to raise our children) but they do have an important role in noticing abuse in the household and reporting it. Prevention, in this case, is to remain vigilant and to have resources for family abuse not to