According to statistics compiled by the Riley Center, a case of domestic abuse occurs every 9 seconds in the United States, domestic violence is the cause of 30% of all disabilities in women, and domestic violence occurs in 60% of marriages and is the most under-reported crime in the country.
Clearly, this is a major problem that needs to be addressed to a far greater extent than it currently is. Jane Doe, Inc. is a prominent Massachusetts non-profit that focuses on creating social change with regard to the issue of domestic and sexual abuse against women by networking support groups for victims, advocating legislation that raises awareness and safety against abuse, as well as working to provide aid for battered women’s shelters.
On Wednesday, October 25, Jane Doe, Inc. came to UMB’s Chancellor’s Conference Room as part of a panel discussion, hosted by the University Health Services, of five faculty authors, all of whom had written about various aspects of the problem of domestic abuse in the United States and around the world. Moderated by Jane Doe’s Director of Communications, Tori Troop, the panel featured UMB professors Sylvia Mignon (UMB Masters Science & Human Services program), Estelle Disch (Sociology), Randy Albelda (Economics), Donna Haig Friedman (Director of the McCormack Institute’s Center for Social Policy) and Sheree Dukes Conrad (Assistant Professor of Psychology). Each of these women had recently either authored or edited a book that touched on at least some element of the plight of domestic violence victims, and each covered a different topic with their speeches.
Chauvinistic attitudes within political and social establishments the world over, the lack of effective economic relief for women trying to escape abusive situations, victimizing of “sitting ducks” (those women who had endured lengthy histories of abuse) by practitioners (priests, doctors, social workers, etc.), and the psychological fallout of being abused from a young age were all targeted by the panelists as areas that needed drastic improvement before women are to receive truly equitable treatment and be safe from battery.
Mignon set the tone for the discussion early on, when she mused that “Whenever we think of women as being less than men, we have a problem.” Later in her talk, Mignon, who had co-authored Family Abuse: Consequences, Theories and Response last year, hearkened back to her teenage years, recalling a boyfriend who treated his mother as a doormat as indicative of the kind of attitudes that lead to abusive households.
Estelle Disch, editor of the recent Reconstructing Gender: A Multicultural Anthology brought to light some disturbing statistics about women having been taken advantage of sexually by the very people who are paid to help them. In compiling her book, Disch encountered as many as 112 women who were abused by professionals in adulthood. Disch called for a crackdown on such malfeasance by lawmakers and supervisors alike. Randy Albelda, co-editor of Lost Ground: Welfare Reform, Poverty and Beyond focused on the economic issues facing women in abusive situations. “Part of what empowers batterers,” Albelda explained, “is robbing women of their economic independence.”
She went on to state that more often than not, the times when women ready to leave abusive households are the most volatile and treacherous for them, since the escape routes that would allow women to physically flee from such predicaments aren’t there on an economic level, and that, “There’s a point at which you sort of have to become economically dependent, if you’re one of these women.”
The most hopeful statistic of the forum came from Sheree Conrad, co-author of Sexual Intelligence and The Politics of Denial, who found a dramatic decrease in the “cycle of violence” trend, citing that only about 5% of all child abuse victims grow up to become abusive adults. However, though this is an encouraging sign, Conrad cautioned against being led to idleness because of it.
“As a psychologist,” she said, “I operate under the notion that we are all capable of violence.”