Battered Women

At least two million women are yearly battered by their husbands or boyfriends in the United States (Straus & Gelles, 1990). As Eshleman, Cashion and Basirico (1989) put it:

There is no place so violent as home. About half of all rapes occur there. It is in the privacy of the home, both in cramped flats and in grand neocolonials that women are pummeled by husbands and boyfriends. (p.222)

The authors go on to note that the social consequences of this problem are grave. These consequences include not only debilitation of the physical and emotional health of the women as well as the subsequent health care costs but also the fact that children in these families are prone to be involved in battering situations later in life. For example, Eshleman, Cashion and Basirico (1989) point out that sons raised in families where fathers batter their mothers are prone to become batterers themselves; in addition, daughters in such families often marry men who are batterers.

Battering has been associated with numerous background and parenting factors in the families of abusers. According to Scharer (1979), the fact most predictable factor associ

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Sue, Sue and Sue (1994) have noted that, increasingly, psychologists are recognizing that battered women are suffering from a form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a consequence of the beatings. There is a need for social workers to recognize the symptoms of PTSD (e.g. flashbacks, elevated startle response, intrusive memories, etc.) as a signal that battering may be occurring. The similarity between battering and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder experienced by combat veterans has been addressed by therapist Beverly A. Brauer (1994) who notes: When I first started working with battered women, I found it striking to see the psychological similarities between veterans and these women. The tension of never knowing when the abuse will occur, of being fearful for one's own life, and of feeling responsible for every situation with no escape, is very similar to a war situation. There is no safety anywhere. (p.188). One final bit of empirical data of which social services providers need to be aware in their work at the individual level with couples and families involved in battering concerns the long-term affects of the abuse on the battered female. According to Walker (1984) battering begins slowly, escalating in freq
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Approximate Word count = 3641
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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