Chapter 14 Blog

Summary:

Chapter 14 focuses on family abuse, violence, and other health issues. It starts out with intimate partner violence. Types of abuse are physical, sexual, and emotional. Women are more likely to be victims of partner abuse and the poorer you get, the more likely also. Women who have experienced a lot of abuse may end up killing the abuser, but can defend themselves using the battered women syndrome defense. Abuse tends to follow a 3 step cycle and victims don't leave for such reasons as fear and believing the abuser will change. Children can also be abused in the same ways as adults, as well as by neglect, which is the most common child abuse form. Some reasons for child abuse are drug use by the abuser, stress, poverty, partner abuse, and divorce. Children of abuse tend to have various lifelong problems. Other types of abuse talked about are sibling abuse as children and elder abuse. There are many reasons for people (usually adult children) to abuse the elderly, like shared living arrangements and elders' personalities. Theories that try to explain abuse are patriarchy theory, social learning theory, resource theory, exchange theory, and ecological systems theory. Other health issues are discussed like drug and alcohol abuse, depression, suicide, and eating disorders. The last bit of the chapter talks of ways to prevent and stop partner violence. Some ways are to tell children about abuse so they grow up knowing it is bad, supporting organizations and schools so they can spread the word, and intervening when you think someone may be a victim.

New Material:

Something new I learned was the rates of illegal drug use. I thought the estimate would be much higher because of how much I hear about drugs (though maybe it's the college atmosphere), but the chapter says only about 8% of Americans use illegal drugs.

Question:

My question is about sibling abuse. Are the types of sibling abuse discussed on page 399 really so serious (besides torturing pets), or are most of them just regular ways brothers and sisters interact and get on each other's nerves? Ex: I would say removing the heads of Barbies isn't abuse, but something you look back on when you grow up and use to tell people why your brother was a troublemaker.