Post-reading: week seven

How would you recommend to change DV services as to better serve some people who don't fall into the master narrative we discussed on Monday? How might you change some of the services? What would you add or take away?

Traditionally a victim of domestic violence is a female in a heterosexual relationship, and most of the time the female is being physically abused. There are many different types of domestic violence, such as physical, emotional, sexual, verbal, and financial. Domestic violence also happens within homosexual couples, and the victims who do not fall into the description of a domestic violence victim, often do not receive help. For example, if a gay victim was to go to a domestic violence shelter they would most likely not be accepted because they are male. 

If a lesbian was being physically abused by her partner and called the police, the police would not take her seriously. They would not think this is a case of domestic violence because the people in the relationship are both female. To better serve lesbians who are being physical abused in their relationship, I think the police should serve all domestic violence cases the same, either homosexual or heterosexual.

In order to keep all the victims safe, the shelters the victims go to will have an advanced security system, which shows everyone who enters into the building to everyone in their rooms. So if someone was try to get into the shelter to find his or her partner, the victim can alert the authorities and have them arrested. The victims will also have to give a description of their partner, in case someone else sees them.

To be able to accommodate all people of every race, services should be offer in every language. Domestic violence victim often need counseling to restore their lives, which includes finding a new house, or getting a job if they were relying on the partner for financial support.  The victim might also need to learn another language if the they dependent on their partner to translate for them. Services such as the police, would have to know English and Spanish to be able to communicate with all domestic violence victims. If there was a domestic violence incident, where the victim did not know English, and the officer did not know Spanish, the problem could not be resolved. The abuser might not be arrested either.

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