Chapter 5 Violence Against Women

1. What is the prevalence rate of domestic violence? Why do you think the range is so wide?
2. What contributes to the subordinate status of women in the world today?
3.What substance do perpetrators of domestic violence commonly abuse?
4.What is multigenerational transmission of violence?
5. Check out Box 5-1 on p. 98. Do any of those characteristics surprise you?
6. What areas of the brain play a role in aggressive behavior?
7. What are some psychological characteristics of a battered woman? Can you see where the “chicken or the egg” analogy might apply here? Also take a look at Characteristics of Women in Abusive relationships on page 100.
8. “ The more a culture uses physical force for socially approved ends, the more the violence becomes generalized to other areas of social life.” What ways might that apply to cultural considerations (p. 101)?
9. What happens to the rate of battering during pregnancy?
10. How do battering incidences change in pregnancy?
11. Check out Box 5-2. Usually in charting, the goal is: cover the points, but be brief! Why might brevity be less important when documenting abuse?
12. How can our frustration as nurses “get in the way” of caring for women we suspect are battered?
13. What is sexual assault?
14. What are the phases of rape-trauma syndrome?
15. What is a SANE nurse? (NOT a term commonly used in the 13th week of the semester!) In CA we often have SART (Sexual Assault Response Teams).
16. What do we need to do before we collect evidence of alleged rape and release that information to the police (box 5-3)?
17. Why is the meticulous collection of evidence of alleged rape imperative?
18. Why do we need to have very thorough documentation and nursing notes?