Iyanda, Adebisi mistura Matric no. 20390628th January, 2018. Ways of Ameliorating Gender Based violence and Treatment of Victims: a Case StudyIntroduction Gender-based violence (GBV) and violence against women are terms used interchangeably due to the reason that most GBV are inflicted by men on women because of the reason that she is a woman. Violence against women is a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women which usually results in physical sexual psychological or economic harm including threat of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty whether occurring in private or public life. There are three forms of abuse of women: physical abuse, sexual abuse and psychological abuse in which physical abuse is the most common form of violence against women.
In the story narrated, Mrs. Perpetua Mbanefo suffered these three forms of abuse from her husband. He dragged her after collecting her car key, threatened to stab her with broken bottle, threatened to locked her up, threatened her with an electric iron and in the end gave her a blow on the head which landed her in the hospital. This physical abuse led to psychological impact in which she could no longer endure any form intimacy with a husband. She explained that any time he tried touching her she froze up or started weeping quietly which she termed being worse than physical abuse. Ultimately, that led to Perpetua being sexually abuse because there was no feeling of intimacy from her each time her husband tried touching her. Her husband definitely had no remorse or fear for act of violence which he engaged. He felt so safe at committing such atrocities since he was certain that no matter where she went she was always going to come back to him.
He said he owns her and that if he decided to lock her up nobody is going to come to her rescue because he felt it was a ‘ family affair’. Mrs. Perpetua went to her parents for helps after years of abuse from her husband but her father urged her to drop all charges against her husband while her mother was worried about their families’ reputation and asked her to back to her abusive husband. She continued to remain in it till she finally found a way of escaping from the man. Violence against women is not a problem faced by Nigerian women, it is a universal phenomenon and more and more governments are beginning to play importance on it. The United Nations found has found violence against women as a major barrier to the achievement of equality, development and peace for women.
Research as shown that every 1 of 3 women in the global had ever experienced violence in an intimate relationship. Below is an ecological framework describing the root causes of violence against women according to the case study of Mrs. Perpetua Source; Google imagesEffects of gender based violenceViolence against women can cause physical and health problems which does not affect the victim alone but also their children, families and communities. Negative effect include harm to the woman’s health (physical injuries, hearing or vision loss, miscarriage or preterm delivery, sexually transmitted infections, homicide, suicide), long-term harm to children and harm to the community including loss of job and homelessnessSuggested ways of ameliorating violence against womenGiven the devastating effect of violence against women, most efforts are have mainly focused on responses and services for victims. However, the best way forward to end this issue is to prevent it from occurring at all by addressing its root and structural causes.
Three basic strategies are suggested for the prevention of violence against womenPrimary prevention strategy: In public health, primary prevention means reducing the number of new cases by intervening before any violence occurs. Approaches to this can includeEarly childhood and family based approach; experiences in early childhood have a major impact on the health (physical, mental emotional, cognitive and social wellbeing) development throughout lifespan. Children learn from immediate family and society on how to interact and relate. Early childhood intervention are important for securing health and wellbeing of children which would promote healthy behavior and social functioning. Key element of this would be teaching parent to model healthy relationships to manage their children behavior positively without harsh physical punishment and fostering children anger management, impulse control, problem solving, conflict resolution and social skills.
School-based programs: school based violence prevention programs used be used to tackle range of issues including sexual abuse, dating violence, bullying and sexual assaultPublic awareness and campaign programs: public awareness programs should be used to break the silence that surround this form of violence, to inform and influence individuals’ attitude, and social norms about its acceptability and also to advocate for strong political will in addressing this problem. Such campaigns should help to disseminate information through social and mass media and may include other mechanism such as town meetings to raise awareness about the extent of the problem. Community based prevention programs: community effort will be key to the primary prevention of violence against women particularly in settings where resources are limited. Forms of community based prevention can include intervention targeted at subgroups of population such as education session for people at risk of intimate partner violence.
Policy and structural approaches: such as fostering gender equality and women’s empowerment as women low status in the society has been linked with intimate partner violence. Loans can be provided to poor women for income generating activities. Working with boys and men; since most violence are perpetuated by men, men must be involved in the solution. The objectives of such programs through community mobilization may include increasing individuals’ knowledge, changing individuals’ attitude about gender norms, and changing social norms related to masculinity, power, gender and violence.
Programs approach should focus on adolescent males or younger boys based on evidence that attitude and norms related to gender and gender equality and violence are malleable during this time of life Intervention to reduce alcohol and substance abuse; though the misuse of alcohol and drug is not a primary factor for the cause of partner violence, the relationship is a situational factor that that contributes to such violence. Interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm should include regulation of alcohol, pricing and taxation, regulating availability and modifying drinking context Secondary prevention: this involves the immediate response after violence has occurred to deal with the short-term consequences and prevent future perpetration and victimization. They includeCouple counselling/marital therapy: studies have shown couple counselling for couples with history of partner violence is an effective approach for the secondary prevention of partner violence. Screening for partner violence: screening is an intervention implemented in the health care setting. It involves health care provider asking structured questions to women to determine if they have been victims of violence. It is based on the medical model of early detection which assumes that if a condition can be detected and treated early, then morbidity and mortality from that condition can be reducedCommunity based services for victims: which include provision of shelter for battered women and their children and also advocacy services offered through community based agencies. Criminal and civil justice response: policy strategies to prevent partner violence would typically include law enforcement/police, judicial/prosecutorial and sentencing strategies for prosecutors.
Tertiary prevention: (this prevention strategy answers the second question on how to help victims of partner violence). This has to do with long-term responses after violence has occurred to deal with the lasting consequences of violence and offender treatment intervention. They include support group and other resources for survivors to help them heal so that they do not experience the abuse again. They can include batterers’ intervention programs to prevent them from continuing to perpetrate violence in future. They includeHome visitation of abused victimsIntensive police and community collaboration to address situation of chronic and dangerous violence Police response i.
e. mandatory arrest of the aggressorCourt interventions: prosecution of arrested domestic violence offenderReferences