Introduction: Dealing with Domestic Abuse in Peru and the United States
From the Spanish Conquest in 1532 to the current struggle with a terrorist group known as the Shining Path, Peru’s history is riddled with violence and abuse (Flake 2005; Mitchell 2013). The experiences of women in Peru show no exception to this. Estimates indicate that women in Peru experience incredibly high rates of domestic abuse, within the highest across the globe (Boesten 2006; Flake 2005). Regardless of laws established by the country, Peruvian women struggle to successfully deconstruct domestic violence within their communities. In contrast, the United States – a developed country where domestic violence frequently occurs, though discernibly less than in a developing …show more content…
American culture centers on the criminalization of domestic violence (Abraham 2012; Goldfarb 2011). Though legal systems have been in place to combat domestic violence since approximately 1641, notable reform and legal success began with the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (Goldfarb 2011). VAWA, as it is colloquially known, brought legislation to a federal level. This, in combination with social reform, has brought the United States to its current state, where court systems have the power to impeach domestic violence abusers on both a state and federal …show more content…
However, noting the steps that people and nations take – and can potentially implement in the future – is far more important in terms of destroying domestic violence in the long term. Many scholars note that the primary approach used today to combat domestic violence is the legal system (Abraham 2016; Goldfarb 2011). Criminalization is the focus of the American system, and the same can be said of Peru (Boesten 2012). Clear flaws, demonstrated simply by the fact that over one-third of women in the Americas have been victims of domestic violence (Choup 2016), show that this system is unsuccessful. Scholars have very scarcely looked into other potential solutions, such as advocating for new legal policies on domestic violence, increasing the levels of flexibility and diversity in our responses, and even pushing for international women’s rights and consequently enforcement (Goldfarb 2011). While research on resolving domestic violence issues is limited in the United States, it is even more so in Peru. Scholars who look into Peruvian culture and domestic violence – or even that of Latin America in general – seem to focus more on the gender inequality of the region or the specific characteristics that are associated with victims of abuse (Choup 2016; Flake 2006). Some research has been done on preventive domestic violence programs, such as the
From the Spanish Conquest in 1532 to the current struggle with a terrorist group known as the Shining Path, Peru’s history is riddled with violence and abuse (Flake 2005; Mitchell 2013). The experiences of women in Peru show no exception to this. Estimates indicate that women in Peru experience incredibly high rates of domestic abuse, within the highest across the globe (Boesten 2006; Flake 2005). Regardless of laws established by the country, Peruvian women struggle to successfully deconstruct domestic violence within their communities. In contrast, the United States – a developed country where domestic violence frequently occurs, though discernibly less than in a developing …show more content…
American culture centers on the criminalization of domestic violence (Abraham 2012; Goldfarb 2011). Though legal systems have been in place to combat domestic violence since approximately 1641, notable reform and legal success began with the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (Goldfarb 2011). VAWA, as it is colloquially known, brought legislation to a federal level. This, in combination with social reform, has brought the United States to its current state, where court systems have the power to impeach domestic violence abusers on both a state and federal …show more content…
However, noting the steps that people and nations take – and can potentially implement in the future – is far more important in terms of destroying domestic violence in the long term. Many scholars note that the primary approach used today to combat domestic violence is the legal system (Abraham 2016; Goldfarb 2011). Criminalization is the focus of the American system, and the same can be said of Peru (Boesten 2012). Clear flaws, demonstrated simply by the fact that over one-third of women in the Americas have been victims of domestic violence (Choup 2016), show that this system is unsuccessful. Scholars have very scarcely looked into other potential solutions, such as advocating for new legal policies on domestic violence, increasing the levels of flexibility and diversity in our responses, and even pushing for international women’s rights and consequently enforcement (Goldfarb 2011). While research on resolving domestic violence issues is limited in the United States, it is even more so in Peru. Scholars who look into Peruvian culture and domestic violence – or even that of Latin America in general – seem to focus more on the gender inequality of the region or the specific characteristics that are associated with victims of abuse (Choup 2016; Flake 2006). Some research has been done on preventive domestic violence programs, such as the