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Carlie Walker was from a middle-class family, raised by her mother after her parents had been separated during what she describes as a “dirty divorce.” At 20, Walker’s life changed from the life of a college student and part-time employee to that of a homemaker, having to ask permission to leave the one bedroom apartment she shared with her abusive boyfriend.
“[My boyfriend] never let me leave,” Walker said. “I guess he was afraid I would go to the doctor and she might see the bruises.”
After being subjected to over 15 years of abuse by her ex-husband, Walker’s mother recognized the signs that indicated something might be wrong with her daughter’s relationship. Just three months later, the problem led to the demise of the relationship and the threatened incarceration of Walker’s boyfriend.
Walker’s problem was a problem of abuse in the home that the U.S. Department of Justice estimates affects approximately 31 percent of women worldwide.
Domestic violence is defined by the Texas State Family Code as an act by a member of a family or a household against another member that is intended to result in physical harm, bodily injury, assault or threat that reasonably places the member in fear of imminent physical harm. Laws are on the books in Texas to prevent violence in the home, such as Texas Government Code 433.004. Nevertheless, the Texas Department of Public Safety reported 177,176 incidents of violence in Texas in 1999.
This particular code states that a county or municipal law enforcement agency shall notify the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety if the agency receives notice of a threatened or actual disturbance indicating the possibility of serious domestic violence.
Texas Department of Public safety statistics show that 21,329 of the incidents recorded in 1999 were in Houston. The population of Houston at the time was approximately 1,845,967, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Houston had about 9.2 percent of the state’s population and about 12 percent of the reported domestic violence incidents.
The number of Houston domestic violence incidents in 1999 was down from 29,379 in 1998, the year that marked the highest number of incidents in the past five years. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that women are five to eight times more likely to be abused by an intimate partner than men.
According to Wenonoa Bohrer from the Houston Area Women’s Center, the victims are almost always females who have fallen victim to abuse by their male partners.
“You are going to do exactly what you saw your parents do,” Bohrer said, adding that children begin to learn relationship styles at a young age.
The shelter received 38,343 emergency calls in 2000 and houses survivors for an average of 34 days. Sexual assault victims at the shelter range from infants to those 67 years of age.
While a large percentage of domestic violence victims are from the lower, working class, Bohrer said that to say this form of violence is strictly a problem in the poor community is a myth.
"All socio-economic, ethnic and age groups are affected by domestic violence," Bohrer said.
In 1999, the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family reported that a child’s exposure to violence in the home is the greatest risk factor to passing that violence on to the next generation.
This report states that a woman is more likely to allow violence to take place and allow it to continue if she witnessed her mother being abused as a child. Similarly, a man is more likely to be abusive if he witnessed his father being abusive as a child. Statistics from the National Bureau of Justice report that women of all races are equally vulnerable to violence by an intimate partner.
Women are likely to allow the abuse to continue if it only occurs on rare occasions, according to Dr. Cecilia Sun from the University of Houston Counseling and Psychological Services. She said that abused women often do not consider themselves in danger enough to leave if the abuse does not happen everyday. Other factors, such as experience and maturity, can also be important when a woman is trying to decide whether or not to leave.
“Freshman are in the highest risk category,” Sun said. She said that the younger students are more susceptible to violence and date rape because they are naive and are trying to find ways to fit into a new environment.
© Copyright World Internet News 2006-07
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