Colorado Technical University Unit 5 Adult Domestic Violence Case Analysis Original Scenario: Amy King, 38, and Marty King, 42, are a married couple of 19

Colorado Technical University Unit 5 Adult Domestic Violence Case Analysis Original Scenario:

Amy King, 38, and Marty King, 42, are a married couple of 19 years with two teenage children: Ashley, 15, and Aaron, 17. The family resides in a middle-class community in suburban Chicago. Amy is a stay-at-home mother, while Marty is the manager at a popular local restaurant. For the last 15 years, the family has struggled financially. Amy has attempted to obtain employment on numerous occasions, but each time she gets a new job, she has to leave the employment within a few weeks citing the need to “take care of personal matters.” Marty handles the family finances and keeps a tight reign over spending.

For several years, there have been allegations of domestic violence in the home in varying forms. Amy has had numerous injuries, including the following:

Black eyes
Bruising
Broken arm (spiral fracture)
Concussion
Burns

The alleged perpetrator of the injuries is Amy’s husband, Marty. Both Amy and Marty have significantly downplayed the amount of violence in the home to concerned family and friends, who rarely get to see Amy and the kids. The only real contact the extended family has with the Kings is during the holidays. The police are very familiar with the King family, because there have been no less than 10 domestic violence calls to the home since 2000. Usually when the police come to the home, no arrests are made; however, in 2010, Marty was charged with domestic battery against Amy. With the assistance of her family and a victim advocate, Amy and the kids moved out of the home and filed an order of protection against Marty. However, Amy failed to appear in court, and the court dismissed the order. The criminal case was also dismissed. A few months later, Amy and the kids moved back into the family home.

In addition to the intimate partner violence in the home, Amy and Marty are faced with criminal charges being filed against their son, Aaron. Aaron was involved in a fight at school that resulted in the other student being hospitalized. Aaron was arrested for battery and is awaiting trial in juvenile court. Aaron presents as a very angry young man with multiple discipline issues in school and poor academic performance. Aaron has also presented at school with bruises to his face, which he states are caused during fights with peers.

The Kings’ daughter Ashley is a good student, a member of the track team, and is dating a fellow student, Jake. Ashley and Jake are inseparable, and Ashley’s parents have been concerned that Ashley spends too much time with Jake and that Jake is very controlling over Ashley. Marty recently forbid Ashley from spending any more time with Jake, but Ashley is defiant. She tells Marty and Amy that Jake is the only one who loves and understands her and that Jake needs her. Ashley has also had bruises to her neck and arms that she reports as track accidents. Aaron reports to his mother that he has seen posts on social media sites where Jake has made troubling comments about Ashley.

Updated Scenario:

Aaron has had significant personal and criminal trouble over the last 7 years. He has had two adjudications of delinquency and served 6 months in a juvenile detention center. As an adult, Aaron has 4 arrests for aggravated assault and domestic battery with one conviction. He has also had two arrests for driving under the influence (DUI), one of which is slated for trial in 3 months. Aaron lives with his girlfriend, Kelly, and her 2-year old son, Josiah. Last night, Kelly and Aaron brought Josiah to the hospital because he was complaining of pain in his arm. X-rays revealed Josiah has a spiral fracture to his arm. Child Protective Services was called by the hospital, and Josiah is now in protective custody. During the emergency room visits, the hospital staff also noted that Kelly had healing bruises on her face.

Assignment:

A few years have passed, and Aaron has an adult domestic violence (DV) criminal case pending and a possible child abuse case pending shown in the updated scenario above. The attached memo should be updated to include an assessment of Aaron’s possible consequences given the history of the family. Include the following:

The new component will discuss if there are real interventions that work for perpetrators of DV. Current theories suggest that it is very difficult to treat perpetrators and that recidivism is very high. Discuss recidivism and whether you believe perpetrators can change.
Examine the costs to the community that are associated with DV.

APA Format, 2 new pages (5 pages total with new material) Running head: MEMO
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Memo: Responses to Family Violence
Student Name
Colorado Technical University
MEMO
2
Memo: Responses to Family Violence
DATE: 6/12/2019
TO: Domestic Violence Victims Advocates Supervisors
FROM: Domestic Violence Victims Advocates
SUBJECT: Amy and Marty King Domestic Violence Case
Key Risk Factors
According to the case information, there are indicators that Amy King has consistently
tried to engage herself in gainful employment. However, she often quits her job giving the excuse
of the need to tend to some personal matters. Additionally, there have been cases in which she has
gone to work with bruises, an indicator of having experienced some form of violence within her
household. Consequently, one of the primary risk factors for her and her family lies in their
exclusive dependence on Marty King as the provider. Additionally, her limited contact with her
family points to a situation in which she may not access the necessary help from family as they are
not in close contact to the extent that they could identify her problem with ease and offer the
necessary assistance. Further, her decision to keep her issues to herself, choosing not to seek out
any external assistance, presents a risk factor for continued violence without a definitive end.
Therefore, Amy King is left to entirely depend on her husband, stay at home with her kids, lest
they move out and possibly become homeless.
Domestic Violence Phase
Cases of domestic violence occur in phases, beginning with the tension phase in which case
the different parties involved are always angry about something. Under such circumstances, the
victim of violence will make attempts to ensure that the angry individual is calm enough, thereby
reducing any chances of any form of violence within the household. However, based on the
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information from the case, Amy has presented bruises, a black eye, spiral fractures, burns, and
concussions. Consequently, this alludes to her inability to control Marty’s anger, to the extent that
he has been violent with her. Such indicators point to the family being in the explosive cycle of
domestic violence. In this stage, the abuser is less concerned about the implications of his actions,
viewing himself to possess sufficient power to allow him to engage in some form of abuse,
emotional, physical, or otherwise, to the partner or other parties involved in the relationship. In
this case, Amy has been the victim.
Teen Dating Violence
In addition to the violent household, Ashley appears to be in a dysfunctional relationship.
Marty notes that he has observed her boyfriend Jake make derogatory comments about her on
social media, and the parents are concerned about the extensive time Ashley spends around him.
On the other hand, Ashley defends him noting that he is the only person who understands her, and
that he needs her, which is the reason she cannot stay away from him. However, cases in which
Ashley has presented bruises to her neck indicate that she has been a victim of violence in her
relationship, which ought be a significant cause of worry. In particular, Ashley could have
borrowed from her mother’s decision to stay with her father irrespective of the experiences he puts
her through to be a normal response to intimate partner violence. Consequently, she believes that
Jake needs her and because she believes herself to love him, she would rather stay with him and
endure the violence, just as she has watched her mother do in the past. In essence, the environment
at her home has made a significant contribution to her relationship with Jake.
Impact of Domestic Violence on Aaron’s Behavior
The case presented highlights Aaron as a less academically performing student, and one
who is constantly involved in physical altercations with other students in school. Ultimately, the
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extent of his involvement in violent confrontation even led to hospitalization of another student
and consequent criminal charges against him. According to research, growing up in dysfunctional
families has the potential to influence a child into developing what one could term as delinquent
behavior (Moylan et al., 2010). Therefore, the behavior presented by Aaron is a consequence of a
home environment in which he receives limited attention from his parents, who are constantly
engaged in some form of confrontation. Notably, he could even be engaging in delinquent behavior
as a way of trying to get the attention of his parents, who appear too involved in their own issues
to focus on their children.
One of the most notable aspects of the two children is their similarity to their parents. In
particular, the father is abusive, and constantly engages in violent activities while the mother is
submissive and resilient in trying to make her marriage work. This compares perfectly to the
situation experienced by the two children, in which case Aaron is constantly involved in violent
activities while Ashley has been a victim of violence but views it as her duty to stay in the abusive
relationship with Jake. Ultimately, one could view the children as copying the behavior of the
adults with whom they identify in their respective households. Therefore, a potential improvement
among the parents in their respective behavior could be enough to address issues experienced by
the children. Although they may view Aaron and Ashley as being deviant and inconsiderate of
their parents’ advice, they ought to understand that the two take more than just the advice provided
from the parents. As long as the father continues engaging in violent behavior, it will be hard to
observe positive change in the household.
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References
Moylan, C. A., Herrenkohl, T. I., Sousa, C., Tajima, E. A., Herrenkohl, R. C., & Russo, M. J.
(2010). The effects of child abuse and exposure to domestic violence on adolescent
internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Journal of Family Violence, 25(1), 5363.

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