Inescapable Impact Of Domestic Violence & Psychological Trauma

The inescapable impact of domestic violence effortlessly leads to unceasing psychological trauma on the well being and health of family members, community members, and individuals alike. The expanding rate of domestic violence has gained an alarming amount of attention during recent years. Those who may be affect by such impacts are exceptionally vulnerable to experiencing symptoms of both anger and anxiety, especially when they are in the presence of a trigger. These triggers can be locations, objects, or even people, and tend to bring up horrible memories reminding victims of their initial loss and trauma (Williams & Sommer, 2013).

An important example of stress to acknowledge, especially when discussing those who suffer from domestic violence is chronic stress. This type of stress is often referred to as toxic stress and is incredibly prevalent in regards to domestic violence. The majority of individuals who come face to face with the criminal justice system, which includes prisons, jails and detention centers alike, have been exposed to at least one traumatic event in their life.

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However, confinement is intended to house the perpetrators and not the victims (Miller & Najavits, 2012).

This leads to the idea that, in order to prevent crime from re-occurring, the criminal justice system must implement changes to encourage success in perpetrators as well as diminish any risk of recidivism, to ensure a safer community. The purpose of this paper is to focus on examining the effectiveness of a project that was designed to enhance coordinated community responses in regards to domestic violence, by examining the rates of recidivism.

There has always been a question placed on the importance of corrections, in relationship to programs held to promote rehabilitation for prisoners to decrease the constant cycle of recidivism. In recent years, the re-arrest rates have risen to over 60%, which can be interpreted as a clear sign of incarceration on its own, not being as successful as expected. Methods are being highlighted and can be seen as essential in regards to addressing domestic violent cases, and victims. Even though there are several community models that vary in execution, coordination is typically consisted of the same make-up.

Some of constitutes that compose the make-up are: prosecutors, probation officers, counselors, and battered women's advocate. In addition the coordination can also be composed to active monitoring of offender compliance in regards to their probation conditions, and monitoring of the wise systematic response of domestic violence. These constitutes ensure that anyone who engages in abuse must be held accountable for their actions, as well as ensuring the supply of ongoing medical and mental health services (Kubiak, Sullivan, Fries, Nnawulezi & Fedock, 2011).

In regards to domestic violence intervention research, there are two components that are able to be studied and accounted for. Majority of the domestic violence intervention studies that are conducted, focus on analyzing the individual components of combination interventions as opposed to focusing on combination interventions that are just apart of a grand coordinated effort. Some examples of individual components of combination interventions can be seen in the use of arrest, batterer intervention, and restraining orders. Although there has been an immense amount of data gathered, it is is still difficult to determine whether coordination efforts are able to be successful and effective long time, in regards to reducing domestic violence (Messina, Calhoun, Warda, 2013).

It has been recorded the least amount of repeated violence was correlated to the population of men who were arrested and ordered to go through treatment. This population was then followed by men who were arrested but not ordered to treatment. Consequently, the highest amount of domestic violence was found in men who were not arrested at all (Stemple & Meyer, 2014). It has been determined that arrest by a police officer prior to a coordinated response results in more abuse. However if the arrest was made after a coordinated response was initiated the result was lower rates of recidivism in the community. This finding led to a domestic violence protocol which focused on implementing: pro arrest policies, sentencing guidelines, victim advocacy, and mandated batterer treatment.

For inmate Richard Lockett time has stood still since July 18, 2015. It was a day, an hour, and a decision that set him up on the path for life in prison. Lockett is currently serving a life sentence for domestically abusing, and unfortunately killing his wife. Although his fate seems to be clearly written out for him, Lockett is convinced that experiencing the process of being incarcerated has changed man. Lockett confesses that he was trapped in a vicious cycle of their own thinking, and that this led to his brutal actions. In an interview he conducted, Lockett also confessed that his act was indeed not an act of rage, but an act of depression (Kovaleski, Freeman, & Miller, 2017).

From there, Lockett further goes onto explaining that he has had a history of both depression and suicidal thoughts. Although he knows that his fate may be sealed, and the hopes of him re-entering society are incredibly slim, Lockett believes that the knowledge he gained through being in prison would be able to serve as a benefit to someone else out there in society, who may be experiencing urges. Urges that may result in cases of domestic abuse. Lockett stated that his only agenda now, is to be able to help someone. If someone feels as if there are going to far, he advises them that through corrections he has learned that the proper thing to do would be to get help, find a friend, go to church, or enroll in counseling (Kovaleski et al., 2017).

Incarceration is able to provide it's soul purpose, that of confinement and punishment. However, I strongly believe that it is able to serve, and do so much more. If implemented correctly, I am confident that corrections is able to offer genuine opportunities for inmates to change. Resulting in a decrease of recidivism in the community. Whether it is exposure of a skill or trait, or just assisting in the progression of a change in character, corrections is able to provide an offender an opportunity to change their lives. This idea of corrections sees offenders as fellow human beings, who are capable of changing and moving on from their mistakes.