Domestic violence is a serious offense. It is defined as abusive behavior in an intimate relationship in which one partner tries to gain control over another by utilizing physical, psychological, sexual, emotional, or economic actions. It’s all about the desire for power at all times. We usually think of it as a man beating his wife, but this is not always the case. Other examples of this behavior include:
- Emotional Abuse – this includes chronic name calling, criticism, or any behavior that undermines self-esteem.
- Economic Abuse – taking control of the finances and withholding partner’s access to money, cruel financial neglect.
- Psychological Abuse – this includes making threatening comments that cause fear, forcing the partner into isolation from loved ones and destruction of pets and property.
- Sexual Abuse – any behavior without consent.
According to the Domestic Violence Resource Center, 1 in 4 women has experienced some form of domestic violence in her lifetime. It generally doesn’t occur suddenly but has warning signs that build over time. Women between the ages of 20 – 24 have the highest chances of becoming victims, but many never report it because they are afraid of the repercussions such as homelessness or further aggression from the abuser. In response to the growing numbers, in 1994 Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act which recognizes domestic violence as a national crime. This act provides such actions as holding rapists more accountable for their crimes, creating a victim’s protection order, ensuring that police respond to all crisis calls and increasing the rate of prosecution, conviction and sentencing.
In most cases, the offender will have a court-ordered mandate to take a domestic violence or batterer’s intervention course as retribution for their crime. The purpose is to educate abusers to understand and accept responsibility for their unlawful actions. The classes discuss why domestic abuse exists and to discourage offenders from minimizing or blaming others for their actions. Through new skills in stress and anger management, empathy and effective communication, participants learn how to start controlling their own behavior in a rational and acceptable way. People who abuse are often victims of childhood abuse or have learned the behavior from role models in their own lives. However, in reality if an offender is ready to be accountable for his own actions, he can unlearn this way of thinking and instead begin to apply these new techniques to solve problems and deal with stress.
An increasingly popular way for offenders to fulfill their court ordered domestic violence class requirement is to take the program online. It can be very difficult to fit a weekly class into work or school schedules. A high quality course will contain all the same information that the participant would learn at an in-person class, but allow them the flexibility of taking it from any web-connected computer device, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week from home. At the end of the class, a Certificate of Completion is issued to prove to the court system that the mandate was completed. This is definitely the most convenient way to go!
