University Daily Kansan, December 1, 1980
Page 5
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" our policy is to enter the situation, disarm the parties and separate them to hear their side of what happened. We know that a woman may not feel free to talk in front of the man. But it doesn't matter and she still insists she doesn't want to talk, because it's not in dancer, there's nothing we can do."
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A WOMAN'S motivation for refusing police assistance is of no interest to the police, Olin said.
"The opportunity for safety is what we try to provide," he said. "For whatever reason, even if she is acting out of complete fear, it's her choice."
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Rita said that a woman was often in a state of shock after a beating and would be unable to control herself.
"Frequently, the woman is just as intimidated by the police officer who makes no attempt to inform her of her rights and the course of action needed," she said.
us Studies
"Instead, she is quickly left with the impression that the police officer will do nothing, and when he leaves, she is in double jeopardy. The abuser is now more incensed by her futile attempts to get protection and she feels even more helpless than before."
A woman can apply to district court for a restraining order or a protective order requiring her husband to stay away from her. Getting the order enforced, however, may be difficult.
“Restraining orders are overrated,” Olmán said.
“A restraining order is not a law, it is an order of
the court. An individual who breaks it is charged with contempt of court. We cannot arrest a violator unless another crime is committed, in which case he will have to return to court."
ALTHOUGH A restraining order technically can't be enforced until after it has been broken, it may make the police somewhat upset. The woman is also living home, said Rose Marinos, a lawyer for Kansas Legal Services.
That "willingness" does little to help a woman who is repeatedly attacked by a man and can not afford it.
The reaction is predictable, she added
"Praise say restraining orders are civil matters and must be enforced by the courts. Courts say they can't act until the police have made an arrest, but summons is issued. It's a Catch-22 situation."
Filing criminal charges is not necessarily effective either, the woman says.
A woman can file charges of assault and battery on either a misdemeanor or a felony level, Jean Shepherd, assistant district attorney, said.
Of the cases actually filed with the district attorney's office, the conviction rate is good, she said. But a conviction requires evidence of some crimes addressed to the assault or pictures of the injuries.
MANY LAWYERS are unwilling to handle civil or criminal cases for abused women, Rita said.
Despite her history as a battered wife, Rita
wound up getting a "no-fault" divorce-her lawyer said that it would be quicker and that the judge would look more favorably on her if there wasn't a big fight.
During her divorce proceedings, Rita requested that the court order counselor for her and her husband "in an effort to preserve the home and family."
She said, "The counselor was just as chauvinistic and male-centered as Ralph. I thought, 'My God, I'm being buried alive again.' In the direct opposite of what I wanted to do'."
Friends and family of the battered wife soon turn away from her, either because they don't know how to help or are scared themselves, Rita said.
"The doctors usually gave me nerve pills and sent me home," she said. "Stress had taken its toll over my whole body, but they'd ignore the bruises and tell me it was psychosomatic."
EVEN MEDICAL professionals offer little hope, she said.
"The one time a doctor in my home town would talk to me about it, he said," Rita, "I see a lot of people like you. Sometimes the only time a person like that finds peace is when she in her car
That sort of reaction is devastating to a battered woman, who already has a low opinion of herself and probably feels as if she is guilty of causing her misery. Rite said.
"In the beginning, it's conditioning," she said.
"You're brought up to feel you have to depend on a man, that the man's there to protect you and
"If you're from a religious family, you have it drilled into you that marriage is for keeps, and that it's a sin to get a divorce."
it's the woman's place to be in the home with the kids.
A COMMON PLAY of an abusive husband is to isolate his wife from outsiders, thereby increasing his power of intolerance, Rita said.
"The worst times came after I started talking to other people," she said. "He felt he was losing control. Finally, I even stopped going to church. He never physically tried to stop me, but if I went, he'd do something to make life miserable for weeks."
Regardless of the emotional state of a battered wife, however, the degree to which she is economically dependent on her husband ultimately determines her ability to leave.
A woman who has been a housewife all her married life usually has little or no training for a job outside the home. In addition, she may have children to care for, and she knows that she would have no immediate source of income if she left her husband.
Rita, however, was neither poor nor uneducated.
when she and Ralph married, he had graduated from the University of Kansas and she was saving up to go to a design school in New York.
At one point, Ralph was earning $48,000 a year, but spending only $400 to $500 a month on his family. Rita said.
"The larger the family income, the greater the tendency to blame the battered wife for her own
predicament, and the more difficult it is for her to extricate herself from the situation," she said.
"Money talks, and the abuser uses it prowess to buy his innocence. My husband used money as a whip, setting it up so I could get funds, only for food or clothing, a day at a time."
AFTER A WOMAN has been subjected to battery failure, she reaps a learned-helplessness.
"Then she turns to public agencies, and the reaction of professionals is to discount what she's saying and put her down more, often because they can't deal with it themselves."
"She's continuously exposed to comments about being incompetent and stupid," she said. "She's threatened that if she goes to her parents or friends, they'll be in jeopardy."
Even if a woman manages to get a job, often she earns only minimum wages and is forced into poverty.
"Everything works against the woman to tell her she's helpless," she said. "Even if avenges are not possible, it can be done."
legal and social institutions are beginning to take important strides toward understanding and helping the battered woman, but changes are not coming fast enough, Rita said.
First the public must be made aware of the problems involved in the battered-wife syndrome, and then it must be taught how to deal with those problems, she said.
or her part, Rita is completing her degree in counseling at KU and is continuing to research the subject cf wife abuse and its possible solutions.
"WHY DO THE HEATHEN RAGE?"
Paalms 2:1 and Acta 4:25
—The greatest Oak Tree you ever saw, the largest that ever grew, once upon a time was condensed and compacted in the shell of a little acorn. The power of life that the Almighty put within it enabled it to be used as a weapon for its own defense and to itself to its greatest and anomynity and serve man, bird and beast. We suggest that the First Psalm of The Bible, God Almighty's Book revealing Himself to man, might be likened to the Acorn in which is condensed and compacted the great Truth of God revealed by the greatest Tree — THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY PSALM5.
Every message of every Psalm can be easily related or connected to one or the other messages of the First Paragraph. The Psalm is also a source of those who delight to meditate and walk in The Law of the Lord, or the curse upon the unpunished who do not so.
Consider the Second Psalm, the opening words of which is the question at the top. The "heathen ragers" are named as "people who imagine a vain thing, kings, and rulers, who set themselves in opposition to God's Lawe and His Anointed, His King, his reign, principally laws and king, and put down the rebellion." The heathen are warned to submit to God's King, make peace with Him, or perish when His wrath is kindled but a little!
"Clouds arise, and winds blow, by orders from God's Thrown to Heaven," says Watts. "Not only do he sails to the ground within his reach, but
Father's permission," and therefore it must be "commanded by God on orders from His Throne."
Whenever terrible and shocking catamites befall, naturally men begin to cry: why? why? why? O why? And doubtless we do well if sincere, for The Word of God says "You shall not search the earth of kings to search it out." If you believe The Bible, and will read The Bible and note the context of such words as BCAUSE, WHEREFORE, THEREFORE, etc., in time you can find just what the whole word is the whiten." And you can read far until you find the God making explanation with "BCAUSE."
In the third chapter of Genesis: "And The Lord God saith unto the serpent. Because . . ." and the next word Because is infirmed in what was supposed to be "Unto Cain God said: If thou doest not well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin littah at the door: "Abraham "did well," and note to the place of "Because." Because is written for thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thee, and in thy seed because I will bless thee; BECAUSE THOU HAST OBEYED MY VOICE."
{"the curse shall not causeless come," the Scriptures
"they may infer also blessings shall not causeless come"}
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