Service Learning Project

-1Service

Learning Project

My research paper focuses on domestic violence. More specifically, how big of a part drug abuse plays in domestic violence. I chose this topic because this is one of the reasons I chose to become a police officer in the first place. According to the Department of Justice, 1.5 million women and 834,732 men are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States. About 85% of those victimizations by intimate partners were against women. With statistics such as these, you wonder if there is a single common denominator. This is what I attempted to find out. My hypothesis was that drug abuse is a major contributing factor in the cycle of domestic violence. I set out to test my hypothesis and find out whether or not there actually is a correlation between the two at SafeHome Inc. SafeHome began in 1979 as the Johnson County Association for Battered Persons. Their founder, Martha Hunt, still actively participates in SafeHome events. Initially the Association established a network of safe homes; then in 1984 opened a 15-bed shelter that was full the first night. In 1987, the name changed to SafeHome and the shelter expanded to accommodate 29 residents. Presently, SafeHomes services include much more than the shelter where women and children can stay for a maximum of 10 weeks. Services now consist of a specialized children’s program, comprehensive shelter counseling and advocacy, court advocacy, outreach counseling, transitional living, SRS advocacy, support groups, emergency protection from abuse orders, and

community education. One of the things that make this particular organization stand out from the rest is that the location of the shelter is confidential. You first have to speak with the volunteer coordinator. When you inform her that you would like to volunteer, she sets up an appointment for you to come to the office. When you arrive, she explains the confidentiality policy and that you must have a preliminary background check to volunteer. You then agree not to disclose the location or any confidential information in regards to the shelter or the organization by signing a legally binding form. Because of the confidentiality of this particular organization, I did not have the chance to interact with the women and children currently being sheltered. Instead, I came to a compromise with the volunteer coordinator. I would do the yard work that the two shelter houses required, and she would put me in contact with three former abuse victims that had been through SafeHome’s programs. When I found out that I would not be able to interact with the victims currently being sheltered I had to alter my original plans of administering a survey. Instead, I interviewed three women that were former victims of domestic violence. The volunteer coordinator put me in contact with them. I used some of the same questions that I already had prepared for my survey when I interviewed each woman. Although I would have been more comfortable administering survey’s to a group and interpreting the results, I proceeded with the interviews

trying not to pry too much into their personal lives. As I interviewed the first woman I quickly found out that she seemed to be very assertive and independent. She was very quick to correct me when I was wrong about something. Almost attacking me it seemed. When I asked her a question and assumed too soon what the answer might be, she corrected me harshly. Naturally I started to think more about what I said before I actually said it. I asked her some questions such as, “Were drugs a contributing factor in the abuse that you experienced?” “Do you think that the drugs were the root of the problem?” “Did the type of abuse change when he was under the influence of drugs?” “Was there still abuse when he was sober?”. These are some of the questions that I posed to all three of the women. It seemed to me that as we talked more and more, and she realized that this was just a research paper, and that I was not trying to blame her or attack her in any way, she started to loosen up. By the time the interview concluded, she was speaking in a very nice tone and thanking me for calling and showing some interest in this particular subject. She was glad that she could help me better understand the dynamics of domestic violence. The second woman was much nicer than the first. She seemed to understand more why I was asking these questions. Even though I explained my intentions before each interview, each woman had a different level of acceptance of how far I could go. As I started the interview, she stopped me and said, “Let me explain to you exactly what happened to me”. So of course, I let her. After she

had finished her story, I was pretty much sitting there with my jaw on the ground. She asked me not to go into detail about what she had told me, so I won’t. But let me tell you, it’s amazing to me that his woman is still alive after all of the hardship she has gone through. After she was done telling her story, I started asking the same questions that I had asked the first woman. Although she had clarified a lot of points straight off with her story, she still did not answer some of my questions. As I proceeded with the interview I noticed that instead of elaborating on one single point like she had done previously, she started to give short and to the point answers to my questions. So in light of this observation, I didn’t waist any time finishing the interview so not to make her any more uncomfortable than she already was, having to relive that horrible experience. Over all though, I would say that she gave me the most in depth perspective of all three of the women. She helped me to understand what it feels like to have this happen to you. The example she gave me was excellent, so I would like to share it. This was her example, “You walk with a jigsaw puzzle all put together and someone sticks out their foot and trips you. The pieces of the puzzle scatter everywhere. At first you feel shock. The carefully placed pieces are no longer put together. Then comes the realization that putting them back together is going to take much longer than it did to scatter them. You may even have to cope with the understanding that some of the pieces may be lost forever. Then you have to deal with the person that the foot

belongs to! Then you may turn the anger on yourself believing that it was your own fault for dropping the puzzle, for not looking where you were going…”. The third woman seemed to be preoccupied and too busy to go into any detail with me. I asked her if I could call back at another time when it was more convenient for her. She said that she simply wanted to get this over with. Even though her attitude left a lot to be desired I was still able to answer most of my questions. She explained to me that her experience was not very serious. It consisted of her boyfriend slapping her. Her hitting him over the head with a baseball bat and going to the shelter to get away from him. She was smart and got away the first time violence like that occurred. This is usually not the case however. Research shows that battered women usually go back to their abusers four to seven times on average before they successfully leave. The conclusions that I have come up with completely contradict what I believed when I started this project. My hypothesis was that drug abuse is a major contributing factor in domestic violence. This is not the case, but drug abuse is often associated with domestic violence. In two of the women that I interviewed, alcohol was one of the catalysts of abuse. This does not mean that he was only abusive when he was drinking, but only that it escalated the severity and occurrence of the abuse. In those two cases, they were still abused regardless of whether or not he was drinking. In some cases, drugs are not even present in the household. Yet the abuse continues anyway. In actuality, the victims are more

likely to turn to drugs as an escape mechanism. They sometimes use drugs to eliminate the pain and suffering. Drug abuse may not be one of the major contributing factors concerning domestic violence but it obviously doesn’t help. What I did find out was a major contributing factor was whether or not the abuser was abused themselves as children. For example, 50% of boys that grew up in abusive homes became abusers themselves. This experience has really changed the way that think about the causes leading up to domestic violence and how drug abuse may or may not play a role in why people become violent. I think that education on domestic violence can solve future occurrences in the way people interact in society and hopefully give an understanding on the severity of the problem.