Domestic Violence

                Hello all! This is my 3rd AP I have done this year, and it been a long one for sure. I have basically rewritten a lot of what I originally set out to do. I had planned to talk about representation in government in Bolivia and America, but my teacher inspired me to switch to talking about domestic violence. To say I haven't learned anything would be totally wrong. It was the most interesting AP thus far, and I do not think there well be one that tops this one for a while. Enough with the idle chat, though. This is my AP. Citations are at the bottom.



        America. It is known for being a free country, giving opportunities for all who come. As we know, however, is not all that good for everyone who comes here. It is a country riddled with racism, sexism, and disadvantages everyone who doesn’t have a wealth of money. All of that is bad already, but the fact that domestic violence has happened all across and there hasn’t been anything done to help victims on a national level is utterly baffling. Bolivia, a Latin-American country, has been on the case of domestic abuse and has started to crack down on it, and even though it is a problem, the country seems to be taking this a lot more seriously. The whole point of this is that the US doesn’t seem to be taking this as seriously as Bolivia.


           First, let us compare the numbers of femicides of Bolivia and the US. Comparing these can help us see how effective these countries are at protecting women. For the uninformed, femicide is a term recorded around the years 1820 and 1830, but was first used in England in 1801 to describe the murder of women. In 2017, Bolivia had about 74 femicide cases from a population of 11.19 million. The US counted 2,237 out of a population of 325.1 million in the same year. This large jump is almost completely out of nowhere is certainly due to the fact that laws that protect women or domestic abuse victims, while existing, do not really get enforced nor told to anyone. Knowing all of this, you might ask what these countries have done to help these victims out. The next two paragraphs will list their attempts to help.


        In 2015, a short article was made detailing a Bolivian photojournalist’s, Noah Friedman-Rudovsky, investigation into the subject. He found that many women (although the number is not specified) have been more aware of their rights and have been resisting more and more. In July of 2019, an article was published, detailing how Bolivia has now declared gender killing a national priority. Gendered violence has been a long standing thing in Bolivia, being among one of the most dangerous Latin American countries for women. Seeing as how, even though the number is rising, with 83 cases this year alone, it seems like these murders are starting to be taken a hold of and are starting to actually matter. So, what about the US? How do they fare?


        America, despite having laws in place that do help abuse victims, it still has over 2,000+ cases, maybe even more that go unreported. According to an article made by the Time magazine published in October of 2019, they say this: “‘Every country is home to domestic abusers. Only America gives them easy access to an arsenal and ammunition,” says Shannon Watts, who founded the gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action. According to Watts, women in the U.S. are 21 times more likely to die by firearm homicides than women in other high-income nations. “Guns are so easily accessible in this country,” she says. “When you combine domestic violence with guns, it becomes all the more lethal.’” (Carlisle). Essentially, it’s not the fact that they are more abusers in America. It’s the fact that so many people readily have access to these things.


        To recap: Bolivia, despite having troubles with things like domestic violence and femicide, its deaths are way lower because of things like gun control. Americans have way too easy of access to things, meaning their anger to transform into bloodshed. The fact that many still fear for their lives in the modern world because of their other half is quite disturbing. We need action, not just on things like domestic violence but also gun control.

Citations: 

 Añez , Jeanine. “Bolivia Registers 83 Femicides So Far This Year.” News | TeleSUR English, TeleSUR,             26 Aug. 2020, www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bolivia-Registers-83-Femicides-So-Far-This-                     Year- 20200826-0014.html.

Carlisle, Madeleine, and Melissa Chan. “Here's Why Domestic Violence Kills So Many Women and Children in the U.S.” Time, Time, 17 Oct. 2019, time.com/5702435/domestic-violence-gun-violence/.

Farthing, Linda. “Despite Legal Protections, Violence Against Women Is Spiking in Bolivia.” World Politics Review, 16 Dec. 2016, www.worldpoliticsreview.com/insights/20720/bolivia-is-the-most-violent-country-in-latin-america-for-women.

Friedman-Redovsky, Noah. “Bolivia Confronts Domestic Violence.” Pulitzer Center, 19 June 2019, pulitzercenter.org/reporting/bolivia-confronts-domestic-violence.

Huecker, Martin R. “Domestic Violence.” StatPearls [Internet]., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 15 Oct. 2020, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499891/.

Lind, Peter Lykke. “Can Bolivia's New Measures Counteract Gender Violence?” Latin America News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 28 July 2016, www.aljazeera.com/features/2016/7/28/can-bolivias-new-measures-counteract-gender-violence.

Moloney, Anastasia. “Bolivia Declares Gender Killings a National Priority.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 16 July 2019, www.reuters.com/article/us-bolivia-women-killings/bolivia-declares-gender-killings-a-national-priority-idUSKCN1UB2WR.

n.d, n.d. “ECLAC: At Least 2,795 Women Were Victims of Femicide in 23 Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2017.” Press Release | Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, CEPAL, 19 Nov. 2018, www.cepal.org/en/pressreleases/eclac-least-2795-women-were-victims-femicide-23-countries-latin-america-and-caribbean.

n.d, n.d. “NCADV: National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.” The Nation's Leading Grassroots Voice on Domestic Violence, 2018, ncadv.org/STATISTICS.

n.d, n.d. “World Report 2018: Rights Trends in Bolivia.” Human Rights Watch, 18 Jan. 2018, www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/bolivia.

Nikolau, Lisa. “Activists: Bolivia Needs to Do More to Stop Killings, Violence against Women.” Humanosphere, 4 Jan. 2017, www.humanosphere.org/human-rights/2017/01/activists-bolivia-needs-to-do-more-to-stop-killings-violence-against-women/.

Varnado, Debra. “Domestic Violence, America's Dirty Little Secret.” Center for Health Journalism, 27 Mar. 2019, centerforhealthjournalism.org/2019/03/11/domestic-violence-america-s-dirty-little-secret.