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Family Violence, Spousal Abuse and Video Games

Adam and his sister Eva live in a beautiful home in the suburbs of a large city. Their parents are both professionals, their father is a well-known defense attorney, and their mother teaches at the local high school. Sometimes their father gets angry when he and his wife are arguing. In his anger, he pushes his wife around, hits her, and sometimes threatens to kill her. Once, Adam and Eva even witnessed him choking their mother.

Adam is an active boy, and one of the ways his parents keep him occupied is to allow him to play video games. Adam's video games need to have a lot of action involved to keep his attention. They are often quite violent. Recently, Adam moves on to games that depict men attacking and beating up women. One day, Adam is playing this game when Eva walks into the room. As she crosses the room, she walks between him and the video game. Adam misses a move he wanted to make as a result of this brief interruption, and becomes angry. He starts beating up his sister, stopping only when she lies unconscious on the floor.

Why do you think Adam reacted the way he did?
How else do you think children who witness domestic violence react, and why?
What are the different theoretical perspectives on domestic violence? Compare and contrast at least two perspectives to explain Adam's behavior.
Do you think there may be a biological factor involved? Explain your answer

Over 400 word essay with reference.

Solution Preview

In the scenario provided it is pretty obvious to as why Adam reacted the way he did with his sister Eva. Adam has bore witness to the way in which his father treats his mother by beating, choking, pushing, and yelling at her. In turn, as a young man he understands his father is the head of the house hold and in saying this he is indirectly learning that this is the way women should be treated. Psychologically he knows his father loves his mother, but when she steps out of line his father must correct her through physical and emotional violence. Additionally, his parents allow him to play violent games where he is also learning from and probably feels this is a condoned act based that his parents allow him to do so. ...

Solution Summary

This is a scenario based question that reviews family violence, spousal abuse, and the impact that television/video games has on the cycle of violence. We review all three under the cycle of violence model.

Over 400 word essay with reference.