Title: A Review of Domestic Violence Crackdowns Involving Child Development
Many times we see crackdowns on domestic violence over the holiday season. This is because around the Christmas period there is a lot of family tension in the home. This may lead to domestic violence. There are often initiatives that claim children learn by example, and in my essay I review this idea and consider its merits critically.
Why do police forces and local governments run such campaigns?
Crackdowns on domestic violence tend to happen around the Christmas and holiday seasons because it is a time when a lot of families are under a lot of pressure and there is a lot of tension in the home. This tension leads to frustration, and both men and women may express and release this frustration on each other and their kids.
A child may learn how to be abusive to a partner
The crackdowns often warn that a child may learn how to be abusive through watching their parents. I believe this is done to frighten the person being abused as opposed to the person doing the beating. I believe it is supposed to help the beaten person realize that by allowing domestic abuse to continue they are creating more of it in the future for future victims of their children.
I do not believe that the message police forces and local governments send out has the desired effect. The message may make the beaten party feel bad for creating another abusive person by allowing their child to grow up to be abusive, but I do not believe this will stop domestic violence. The beaten party will tend to take the blame for everything anyway, so all the crackdowns are doing is giving the beaten party yet something else to feel guilty about.
Why would a child learn through seeing?
The basis of the crackdown campaigns comes from the notion that a child may learn how to be abusive by watching his or her parents. At the very least, I do believe that crackdown campaigns have this fact correct. I do believe that children learn through watching and this means that watching domestic violence may make the child re-enact what he or she sees in later life with his or her own partner.
I believe that children learn through seeing because this is a fundamental part of child development. Very young children have severely limited methods of communicating and do not understand a lot of the communication coming from their parents. The only way they may learn is to re-enact what they see. That is why children are often seen trying to do adult things such as wear high heels and drink coffee. It is also why some children may be seen copying their family dog or cat. It even explains why people mirror body language when they are adults.
Conclusion
In my review I find that the basis for domestic violence crackdowns by police and government forces are based in correct facts and good intentions. I find that children do learn through watching and re-enacting. However, I also find that the effects of such crackdowns are limited and flawed and that other alternatives should be considered to truly crackdown on domestic violence.
