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Show Violence! Destroying the picture of happy rural families The following is the second in a four-part four-part series concerning family violence in southern Utah. This article focuses mainly with cases where the victim is an adult. Next week's installment will take a a look at child victims. By SHARON PRAGLE Record Reporter Family violence does much to destroy the picture of the American family as the source of love, sympathy, understanding and unlimited support. But what exactly is violence? The interpretation of one individual hitting, striking, battering, assaulting or throwing an object at another person isn't quite enough when dealing with violence in families. Perhaps defining violence as acts that society views as not normal would be a more accurate explanation. The Cedar City League of Women Voters, under the supervision of Inez Cooper and Carolyne White, recently reported on a survey in the five-county area of the causes, incidences and types of physical violence. Cases in the area reported by professionals during one year's time totaled a shocking 495, which is thought to be only an estimated 40 percent of the total cases. Incidents of family violence among family members fall into several catagories child abuse, spouse abuse, sibling violence, violence by a child against a parent and violence against elderly family members. Althougl often several types of violence occur within the same family, this installment in the series will deal only with the cases when the victim is an adult. Spouse abuse has only recently, compared to child abuse, come to the surface in the five-county area, as well as the rest of the nation. Richard Garrett, district director of the Five County Family Life Services believes "that this may only be the tip of the iceberg." Because of the breakup of families through divorces and because of remarriages and the economic stresses where the survey showed 30 percent of the referrals of family violence were made. One might wonder why these women stay. Reports have shown that abused women value their marriages, although sometimes guilt about failing in a marriage makes them keep trying. Often they hope the husband will reform, and their abusing husbands reinforce this belief. Fear; loneliness, insecurity, lack of education, skill or housing; and lack of information or misinformation about rights enter into the reasons. On the other hand, these battered wives, during a time of striving for more rights for women, "are beginning to see possibliites and still survive, although there was a time when they might have said 'I didn't think I had any alternatives,' " said Garrett. Women often find strength in a friend, and they will report it or leave the situation. Statistics show in 19 percent of the reported cases in this aTea, divorce or separation resulted, while 43 percent of the couples received counseling. In only 12 percent of those cases, did the abuse continue. One of the interesting observations is that violence is a learned behavior. Studies have shown that a child who is a victim of violent acts will tend to approve of or engage in violent acts as an adult. "In a crisis we resort back to the way we have seen it done what we know the best," Garrett said. "Some think that's the way the world solves its problems." But probably the most shocking statistic revealed by the five-county survey was the violence against elderly family members and child assaults against parents. Aggression by a child against a parent may be used to challenge the adult's authority or to retaliate for violence by the adult against them. The survey showed pushing and slapping were present in 25 percent of the reported cases. Physical force may also be used in an attempt to break up a parental fight. in the area, many feel that spouse abuse is actually on the increase. According to Garrett, about 99 percent of spouse abuse locally results in the wife being the victim. The husband generally is the more violent of marital partners. Wives agree that they can't match their husband in physical strength, and, thus, when they initiate attacks or retaliate, they do so in extremes. "These battered wives generally have taken a lot and when they fight back they need to use something usually a knife," Garrett said. The result of the suvey taken during a one-year period shows the most common occurrence between spouses in cases reported was "beat up spouse." Striking with a fist or object followed closely in which the number of incidents within that year was more than once and not more than three times. Use of a lethal weapon gun, knife, club, scissors was the third most common occurrence of eight behaviors. "The battered women talk about the bad names and the degradation how worthless they feel just beat down," said Garrett who spoke of his experiences in Family Life Services |