Domestic Violence
Domestic Violence
It’s another quiet night outside the house. Not a sound can be heard throughout the darkened street. But, inside the house, a slamming door shatters the silence, the force causing the house to rock as John storms into the bedroom in the search of his wife, Miriam. The walls are still quivering as a new tremor shoots through them. This time it’s John’s voice as he bellows for his wife. He finds her cowering behind a chair. He grabs the chair and beats her with it, hitting her again and again while she screams in pain. The neighbors all wince involuntarily as the dull thuds of the chair pounding her body and the terrified shrieks pierce through the walls of their houses and they silently thank the Lord that they aren’t going through the same thing. Yet, no one tries to stop anything. It’s been labeled an “inside affair” so it continues to be just an “average night” at the Johnson house. But you have to wonder: what went wrong? What is the difference in this man and woman that causes this to be a normal occurrence at their house?
Probably the most asked question ever from people about this situation is what went wrong? Sometimes it comes from the batterer, wondering what turned him into this monster. Or it could come from the victim, wondering what he/she is doing to deserve the pummeling fists that constantly rain down on them. Even the people that aren’t involved so closely, the ones that can’t understand why the couple is always fighting but leave it to their business, even they want to know what happened to loving couple they used to see. Everyone tries to analyze what went wrong.
Unfortunately, the answers to their questions aren’t simple. This abuse could have come from anywhere. Maybe John started out as a jealous boyfriend that wanted to make sure his girlfriend didn’t look at anyone but him or that wanted to feel like he was in control, that he held the power. It could have come from the men in his life that he had always looked up to. If they showed him this physical and mental thrashing of others was okay, then he would be in the mindset to think they were...