In this paper you will examine how we (as a society) respond to domestic violence. You may take one of two approaches:
OPTION 1. You may examine how one of the following sectors of society responds to or reports suspicions of family violence in the United States (be sure to examine legal requirements for reporting, if they exist):
• Law enforcement (police response, arrests)
• The courts (prosecution, sentencing)
• Teachers
• Health care providers
• Mental health professionals
• Child (or Adult) Protective Services
• Leaders of faith communities (e.g. minister, rabbi, imam, etc).
If you take this approach, you must address all of the following questions:
• Based on the available evidence, how do individuals in these fields tend to respond to situations of domestic violence?
o Is there variation in how people respond?
• Are there differences in what the law requires these professionals to do (e.g. do laws vary from state to state, or one setting to another)?
• Does the response seem effective (i.e. do individuals experiencing domestic violence largely benefit from the way this category of individuals respond)?
o If not, why not?
• What kind of programs, or new approaches, to improving the response to domestic violence have been tried in the last ten years?
o Were any of these programs successful?
• How could individual/professional response in this area be improved (i.e. be more helpful to those experiencing domestic violence)?
If you choose this option, you may also elect to examine potential disparities in responses, such as by race, social class, or some other dimension of one’s social location. For example, does police response differ if victims are white vs. people of color? Does CPS response differ if the family is poor vs. more affluent?
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