PROJECT WORK

FAMILY VIOLENCE

Class: 2-5 (2010)

Yik Jia Ler (37)

Ching Jia Shao (7)

Eng Xue Yan (8)

Liang Jun Jie, Darren (20)

Wu Chi (36)

Teacher-mentor: Ms Sharon Chong

Date: 6 July 2010

Content Page

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1. Introduction Page 3

2. Survey Page 4

- Survey Methodology Page 4

- Analysis of Survey Data Page 4 – 10

3. Secondary Research Page 10

- Possible causes that lead to Family Violence Page 10 – 13

- Consequences of Family Violence Page 14

- Possible Solutions for Family Violence Page 15 – 16

4. Limitation Page 16 - 17

5. Contribution to the wider community Page 17

6. Acknowledgements Page 17

7. Bibliography Page 18

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 INTRODUCTION

As we know, Family Violence is very common among a lot of country especially those

countries like USA, Canada and sadly also Singapore. Our team has found that the amount of family

violence cases has increased gradually and thus, we decided on this topic in order to raise the

awareness of our schoolmates and also the public. We hope that in this era and country, the people

here in Singapore in the 21th century will be more considerate in their actions and have the sense of

civic-consciousness. Writing this report and doing this project, our group members are hoping that

family violence will be widely known by the people and will try to take some action to prevent family

violence from worsening. With this, we also hope that the cases of family violence will annihilated,

especially here in Singapore.

Family violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, child abuse or intimate

partner violence, can be broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviours by one or both partners in

an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, friends or combination. Family violence has

many forms including physical aggression (hitting, kicking, biting, shoving, restraining, throwing

objects), or threats thereof; sexual abuse; emotional abuse; controlling or domineering; intimidation;

stalking; unapparent abuse (e.g. neglect); and economic deprivation which means those who have

problem with their financial thus result into family violence to relief their stress. Family violence may or

may not constitute a crime, depending on local statues, severity and duration of specific acts, and

other variables. Alcohol consumption and mental illness are related to abuse and present additional

challenges when present alongside patterns of abuse.

Awareness, perception and documentation of family violence differ from country to country,

and from era to era. Estimates are that only about a third of cases of family violence are actually

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reported in U.S. and U.K. According to the Center of Disease Control (CDC), family violence is a

serious preventable public health problem.

Methodology and Data Collected : Survey, Interview, Online, Books

SURVEY

A survey was conducted by the group in April 2010. Below are summary of the salient points

relating to the survey methodology used.

Aim

The aim of doing this survey is to find out more information in the different perception of family

violence of the different people of this society.

Survey Methodology

- Survey Method ─ Questionnaires

- Sampling Element ─ People

- Sampling Strategy ─ Random

- Sample Size ─ 29

- Survey Locations ─ Bishan Public Library, School, Homes

- Date of survey ─ 18 April 2010

Analysis of Survey Data

We had done a survey against a number of 29 people ranging from age 10 onwards. We have

found out what most of the people feel about family violence. We too had gained useful information

from some of the people who participated in the survey. The many graphs below relating to the

questions asked provide useful information on the thoughts of people on the topic of family violence.

The following paragraphs cover the various findings with charts and interpretations.

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 At a glance, summary of responses to the nine questions in the survey is presented in the

following bar chart:

Following the summary of responses as indicated above, below are the details responses to

each of the individual questions asked during the survey:

Question 1: Which age group are you in?

A) 0-19 B) 20-40 C) 41-60 D) 61-100

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 The survey involving 29 people aged from young to old as shown in the above pie chart.

Question 2: Which gender do you think usually the victim is?

A) Male B) Female

We can infer from the society that they think most of the victims are female. This might be due

to the fact that female are more unlikely to be able to protect themselves from the stronger man.

Question 3: Which age group is most likely to be the victim of family violence?

A) 0-19 B) 20-40 C) 41-60 D) 61-100

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 We can infer from the chart that most of the public feels that the age group 0-19 is most

prone to family violence. This might be due to the fact that the public feels that the people around this

age are hardly strong enough to protect themselves from violence of the adults.

Question 4: Which age group is most likely to be the culprit of family violence?

A) 0-19 B) 20-35 C) 36-50 D) 51-65

From this chart we can infer from the public that most of them think that adult of age 36-50

are most likely to be the culprit. This may be because people around this age might be more prone to

violence due to stress, financial crisis, etc. To ease their stress they might use violence on their family

members.

Question 5: What kind of family violence do you think usually happens in Singapore?

A) Child Abuse B) Spouse Abuse C) Elderly Abuse D) Other

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 From this chart, we can infer that the public think that child abuse is more common in

Singapore. This can be due to the fact that they see more cases of child abuse on newspaper than

other and they think that children are weaker to protect themselves.

Question 6: Which factor do you think causes family violence?

A) Escapism (e.g. taking drugs) B) Family upbringing C) Stress D) Misunderstanding

From this chart, we can infer that the public thinks that more of the people which result into

family violence are caused by stress. In Singapore, the busy schedule of one can cause lots of stress

which can result in the culprit acting violently on their family members to release their anger.

Question 7: Which racial group in Singapore do you think is most prone to family violence?

A) Chinese B) Malay C) Indians D) Equal

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 From the following chart, we can infer that the public feels that Indians are most prone to

family violence. This can be due to many factors, some might be due to things like racism which

cause them to feel sidelined, sad, frustrated, and thus wanting to release their anger on the victims.

Question 8: If you encounter someone who is involved in family violence, would you help?

A) Yes B) No

This shows that the public are still concern about those who are engaged in family violence.

Question 9: If there is a workshop about family violence, would you participate?

A) Yes B) No

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 This shows that according to the survey respondents, not many people are willing to attend

workshops on family violence, thus suggesting that people do not really think that solving or

preventing family violence is important.

Interview with the school counselor

We think that everyone should be familiar with our school counselor Mrs. Sim. When we thought

about this topic, the first idea of interviewing Mrs. Sim came to our mind as we feel that she can

provide us with a lot of information. Indeed, Mrs. Sim provides us with a lot of useful information for

example, her view on family violence and encountering with some victims. We learned from her that

more of the people who are victims of family violence normally come from the Malay than other races.

Another thing we learned is that one can easily apply for the Police Protection Order which can

protect you from harassment, assault, beating, molesting, wounding, or stalking by another person.

SECONDARY RESEARCH

Besides the survey carried out, which was a primary research, the group also seeks to

acquire relevant secondary data available from various publications and the Internet.

Below is a summary on the possible causes of family violence.

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Possible causes that lead to Family Violence

Factors that lead to family violence include:

- Escapism

- Stress

- Family upbringing

- Misunderstanding

- Illness

To better understand what they mean, here are the elaboration of the main factors:

Escapism

This includes gambling, smoking and taking drugs. When someone adopts escapism because

of various reasons, he or she would isolate himself or herself from the reality of the world. In doing so,

this person’s relationship with the society will deteriorate, leading to having fewer friends and resulting

in feeling lonely. This person would be feeling angry with himself or herself for what he or she has

done or has not done. Therefore this person may resorts to family violence to vent his or her anger.

Also, escapism often makes people lose money real fast through indiscriminate spending on

gambling, smoking and drinking alcohol. When one adopts escapism too often, his or her money will

be gone very fast. When nobody around them is willing to lend him or her money, he or she will be

angry with his or herself for spending too much money through escapism or would be angry with

those people who were not willing to lend him or her money, therefore resorting to family violence to

vent his or her anger.

If there are people willing to lend this person money, they would usually make the borrower

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pay much more than what he or she has borrowed ─ they are usually the loan sharks. When this

person does not have sufficient money to pay back, the lender (loan sharks) would harass the

borrower until he or she pays up. Feeling angry and stressed, this person would use violence to

relieve his or he stress and anger.

Stress

When someone is feeling stressed because of various reasons, such as work or school, he or

she would display several symptoms. They include lack of sleep, poor health, low productivity and

most importantly, foul temper. This person, who wants to find relief for stress, may resort to family

violence.

Family upbringing

When someone who was a victim of family violence during his or her childhood, it would

usually scarred the person for life. During the period when he or she was a victim of abuse, he or she

would be angry towards the abuser but could not do anything. In order to vent their anger, this person

may perform the action done by his or her abuser on someone else who is weaker and near him or

her ─ usually within the family and are younger siblings or children. Therefore this person becomes a

culprit of family violence.

Also, if this person was abused previously during his or her childhood, he or she might

consider what his or her abuser had done was perfectly fine; therefore thinking that if he or she

becomes violent; he or she would not be condemned. Thus this person would continue to perform the

act of family violence.

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Misunderstanding

When a family member thinks that someone else is doing something wrong, though in fact is

not, the family member will punish that person by performing family violence on him or her. For

example, if a woman who is employed as a domestic cleaner who cleans houses for other people

goes to her neighbour’s house, who only resides one man, to perform the tasks, the woman’s

husband might get the wrong idea. The woman’s husband tried to stop her from going to their

neighbour’s house but if she refused, the husband may perform family violence on her.

Illnesses

Such illnesses include schizophrenia, personality disorder and anxiety. When someone suffers from

any of such illnesses, he or she might not know what he or she is doing and would do it often without

knowing whether it is right or wrong. He or she would also become abusive and violent, therefore

often perform family violence.

Consequences of Family Violence

There are many consequences of family violence, which not only affect the victim, but the

community as well. Here is a rundown of the different results of abuse.

Physical Damage
Physical damage is the most common form of result of Family Violence, caused by physical

abuse. It causes the victim much pain and suffering, which may result in long term consequences

such as brain damage.

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Psychological/Emotional Damage
Despite its severity, psychological and emotional damage are looked upon by society as less

harmful than physical damage, resulting in it being neglected most of the time.

Psychological and emotional damage usually carry symptoms such as low self-esteem, isolation and

hopelessness. Should the victim be left in this state over a prolonged period of time, it may cause the

victim to have poor health, serious physical injury or death

Something we should also take note of is its additional effects on children. In children, psychological

and emotional damage may cause developmental delays as well as behavioural problems.

Intergenerational Violence
Although it is avoidable, Family Violence may result in a child having the view that abuse is

acceptable and is a normal part of life. This is likely to cause the child to repeat the abuse to his or her

children in the future, creating an endless cycle.

Possible Solutions for Family Violence

As the saying goes, “Prevention is better than cure”, there is no definite way to stop family

violence. Rather, there are ways to prevent family violence from occurring. One of the ways is to raise

public awareness.

If society does not know that family violence exists in their community, the impact of it or

where to turn for help, they are unlikely to join in any workshops or activities to prevent family

violence. It helps community members better understand how and why family violence happens and

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how it affects the community. But we should not focus only on raising public awareness as it does not

lead to action.

Another solution is self help. If you don’t help yourself, who will? We recommend victims of

family violence to seek help from counselors. If the abuse gets very serious, don’t hesitate, report it to

the police! Families think that family violence is a private matter of the family and should not be told to

the public. But if victims do not voice out, family violence will get worse.

Types of services Available:

- Legal Services
Family Violence results in increased civil, family, and criminal justice system costs such as

public prosecution and legal aid.

- Medical Services
Much of the cost involves ambulance services, emergency medical care, dental treatment

and hospital stays.

- Social Services
Majority of the victims of Family Violence require the aid of social services such as financial

assistance, counseling, foster care and child/adult protection.

Tips on how to stop/prevent family violence:

- Regulation to minimize or prevent gambling and drug abuse.

- Can be prevented if there are more love, communication and respect for each member in

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 the family.

- Education in stress management; provide more family support.

- Report the situation early

- Ministry of Community Development, Youth and sports, together with relevant counseling

agencies, should conduct outreach programmes at a national level to highlight specific

family violence, e.g. child abuse or mental abuse.

Limitation

We too faced a lot of obstacles and problems during our research. For example, we are not able to

contact some of the helpline as they are mostly engaged. Moreover, we spent quite some time to find

our resources as there was quite a limited amount of books which talks about family violence. This

might be due to the fact that a lot of the victims do not want share their view with the public due to

different reasons. Another problem we faced is the fact that we have to find a suitable timing for all of

us to meet up. Some of us have CCAs on Saturday and Sunday thus whenever we have the

opportunity to meet up, we will not let the chance slip away. Although we met a lot of difficulties, we

managed to overcome them by compromising with each other on different aspects like the time etc.

Contribution to the wider community

We have pondered a lot on what our project can help the community in. Lastly we came out a

conclusion that we can serve the community by increasing the awareness of the public which later on

can provide the younger generation a safer environment to live in. We can also show the bosses that

too much stress given to their employee can cause lots of trouble to not only the employee but also

the employee’s family. With our researches, we aim to reach out to the public and let them know that

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family violence is not a good way to resolve problems and lastly, to bring a peaceful environment for

one and all.

Acknowledgements

Mrs. Sim the school counselor for allowing us to interview her to aid us in our project.
Ms. Sharon Chong for guiding us throughout the tedious process of this project.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. http://www.endabuse.org/userfiles/file/ImmigrantWomen/PFV-Community%20Engagement.pdf

2. http://fcd.ecitizen.gov.sg/familyncommunitysupport/stopfamilyviolence/

3. www.wikipedia.com

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v-czmhm9iw3c&feature=player_embedded#

5. http://www.domesticviolenceattorney-sacramento.com/

6. http://www.dm.usda.gov/shmd/aware.htm

7. www.nlb.sg

8. Invisible Scars, Dowda Catherine, New Horizon Press 2009

9. 29 January 2010 – Today

10. 22 December 2010 – The Age

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