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Melting economy causing more domestic violence
By THOMAS MICHALSKI
| Article published on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008 |
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PINELLAS PARK – The meltdown of America’s economy is not only causing job loss and financial problems for businesses and families, but more cases of domestic violence as well.
Police locally and across the nation are responding to more calls of assaults, battling couples and other incidents that are being created by the nation’s souring economy.
“The current economic crisis is having devastating effects on nearly everyone,” said Officer William Holmes an instructor on the subject at the Southeastern Public Safety Institute at St. Petersburg College. He holds a master’s degree in criminal justice administration from Central Missouri State University and teaches domestic violence to police in Pinellas County and across the state.
Holmes said shelters for abused women, two in Pinellas County and one in Tampa, are overflowing with victims. He said cases of home violence have increased from 25 to 400 percent in some cases.
Worse, Holmes said, many organizations are themselves strapped for cash and cannot provide or are having difficulty providing help to the oppressed and battered. Donations to private organizations are down and government budgets are being reduced.
The result is fewer cops on the streets, fewer prosecutors and judges and cutbacks in drug, alcohol, anger management and other rehabilitation counseling programs.
“You need only to look at the amount of vacant homes in neighborhoods and increasing unemployment to understand the seriousness of the problem,” Holmes said.
The loss of a job can bring tremendous stress upon families already facing increasing living costs that have been skyrocketing in recent months. Calls from bill collectors, power shutoffs and auto repossessions can leave people feeling helpless.
“Younger families are losing their homes and are moving in with friends, relatives and even parents,” Holmes said.
Holmes said parents themselves who used to be able to help their offspring are themselves strapped. Many people, he said, are living off credit cards to pay their rents, mortgage and even food.
“Good people do bad things when emotions become involved,” Holmes said.
Although money woes seem to bring problems to a head, the fact is that domestic violence is all about power and control that involves not only wives and husbands, but children and senior citizens as well.
Families are being financially squeezed. An average mortgage payment on a $200,000 home is about $900 per month, but can far exceed that. There are car payments to be made, credit card bills, utilities and food. Lower and middle class families are having trouble coping with that.
“Many survivors of domestic violence find it extremely difficult to leave an abusive partner for any number of reasons,” Holmes said.
One of them is that a female victim often has no way to support herself due to the lack of education or skills.
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Article published on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008
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