Informative Essay

(Name (Professor (Course (Date

Helping Victims of Domestic Abuse

When nineteen-year old Vickii Coffey married her childhood sweetheart at age 19 , she thought her wedding day was just the first day of the life of her dreams . Little did she know that the following eight years of her married life would be spent in and out of hospitals as a victim of domestic violence . After 8 years of enduring such abuse and fearing for her and her son 's safety , Vickii finally d for divorce . Today , 13 years after her nightmarish marriage

, Vikki is happily married and works as the executive director of Greenhouse , Chicago 's oldest and largest shelter for battered women and their children (Barber "The question I get all the time is 'Why would a woman stay there and take something like that ? What 's her problem " says Coffey who now counsels women on their options to violence (Barber

Medical Sociologist Dr . Jacquelyne Johnson Jackson from Duke University Medical

Center in Durham , N .C , believes that many women , who stay and endure spousal abuse , have

been "conditioned " to know their place as women often subservient to their fathers and other

male members of the family (Barber . Some women however , stay because they do not know they are actually being abused

Domestic abuse can be done in many different ways . It can include public humiliation of their spouse , extreme jealousy , control over whom their spouse sees and talks to , financial control , sexual assault emotional and mental manipulation and in most cases , physical violence

Unfortunately , very few women are often willing to admit that they are victims of violence in

their own homes and often end up keeping it secret from their own family and friends until it is too late . A news article that appeared in Glasgow , Scotland 's Sunday Mail in January 23 , 2005 , details the experience of Julie Black , a 47-year old woman from Dumfries who nearly lost her life after being badly battered by her husband , David Hill for three hours "It All Started with " 34 . Hospital staff who tended to her counted up to 56 injuries on her body including a fractured skull and badly beaten eyes that puffed up so she could hardly see . Of her experience , Julie is quoted as saying 'He had to almost kill me before I realised I didn 't deserve to be treated that way 'I 'm a fairly strong person . I 've never thought of myself as a victim . But domestic violence creeps up on you so gradually you hardly notice 'My friends and family were horrified . I was so ashamed of what was happening , I 'd kept the abuse secret . Perhaps if I 'd confided in someone , they could have talked sense into me and I 'd have got out sooner "It All Started with " 34

It is normal for concerned friends to want to help people they suspect of being victims of abuse . While one 's first instinct would be to call the police or...