A Spectrum Of Violence Summary

Case Study: “A Spectrum of Violence”

This was a case study regarding Afghani refugees, who moved to the United States. The Afghani refugees were unprepared when they decided to come to this country. They have different customary practices of living, which is different from the United States. Some of the refugees had lived nomadic lives prior to coming to this country, so the use of things like bathroom facilities were unfamiliar to them. Not only were they having difficulties with the new amenities, they were having a difficult time understanding the laws in this country.

Paul and Diane, police officers, were called to the apartment building where the refugees were residing, due to complaints of domestic violence may have been occurring.

Gudorf takes this response from a Christian perspective. Immediately, she states there are two issues to this case study. She expresses the first issue being domestic violence needs to be defined and evaluated. The second issue she addressed was “the extent of and conditions for the authority of civil law” (p. 118). Gudorf questions whether we should be using corporal punishment when it comes to domestic

According to the Bible, it states that men are the head of the household; women and children are to be submissive to the man. The wives are to obey her husband and the children are to obey their parents. It was okay for the man to discipline their wives and children, which meant, possibly, physical punishment (p. 118). Gudorf adds, the Bible states that this was a form of mercy and forgiving love and it was accepted because God treated Israel in this manner. There were other forms of brutality that were discussed and took place as far back as the first millennium when Christian priests were married. In addition, since women and children were considered a lower status then the men, corporal punishment was not seen problematic because it was considered keeping them in line (p. 119). Gudorf expresses that such violence, towards women and children, may be the increased recognition of women’s rights and how the man may have been trying to keep them in their place.

Gudorf expresses that she feels the Afghanis were placed in an unpleasing predicament, by moving them to the United States without providing them with any social support into this new country for which they have been placed. She recommends that we should have compassion for them by not removing the children and not denying them citizenship for violating a law that they do not understand (p. 122). She recommends that we need to move the Afghanis towards