Written By Michelle Bean
Staff Writer
On Thursday October 16th CSUB hosted a Brown Bag discussion on domestic abuse.
The discussion featured several speakers from the local community in various fields dealing with the issue of domestic violence and abuse, including Doris Hall, a California State University, Bakersfield professor of criminal justice; Brian West of the Bakersfield Police Department and Vicky Shane, a victim advocate from the Alliance Against Family Violence and Sexual Assault.
Vicky Shane reported a “high number of domestic violence cases in East Kern County.” Another speaker, Detective Brian West of the Bakersfield Police Department in the Special Victim’s Unit, echoed this concern, stating that during his career BPD has assigned additional detectives to tackle the many domestic violence cases faced by the BPD.
According to the California State Department of Justice, Bakersfield Police received 13,501 calls relating to domestic violence from 2004-2013. That means Bakersfield reports an average of 1,350 calls every year. Considering Bakersfield’s issue with domestic violence, this discussion could not have come a moment too soon.
West said when dealing with domestic violence cases police try to identify the “dominant aggressor,” not necessarily the person who started the fight. While the majority of “dominant aggressors” are male with female victims, Shane reported about 15 percent of domestic violence victims are male with female aggressors, and “more and more now come forward instead of putting up with it.”
While the event was well attended (at the beginning of the speech there was standing-room only), out of the fifty people in the audience, only six of them were male. Clearly this issue affects males as greatly as it does females, yet Bakersfield seems to have a significant gap in interest between the genders.
Blake Foreshee, a senior geology major, was one of the six men in the audience. He said he gained important awareness of the signs of abuse.
“From me being here, I can now help others,” said Foreshee.
Much of the talk focused on identifying the behaviors of a battering personality. Signs such as jealousy, controlling behavior and isolations are huge red flags in any relationship. According to Doris Hall these behaviors could lead to more serious aggression and should be treated seriously.
Hall also stated that abuse perpetuates more abuse. Those who come from abusive homes see violence as the norm and therefore seek it in future relationships. Surprisingly this is true for perpetrators as well as victims. Information about abuse is vital to break this destructive cycle, so discussions such as this brown bag lunch could play a part in improving Bakersfield’s abysmal abuse statistics.
