Policy changes and violence prevention

Policy changes affect everything that we, as social workers, are doing now and in the future. With this in mind, I decided to research some of the latest policy changes that affect the violence prevention efforts right here in the Marion County Health Department. One bill that sticks out to me specifically is SB 27 which introduced in the Fall of 2007. This Bill calls for a "cooling off" period when someone is arrested for domestic violence (Legislative Services Agency, 2007). Currently, in many places, the rule is that if someone can post bail, then the arrested offender can walk as soon as they pay. With this Bill, they would be required to sit in jail for a mandatory eight hours after their arrest. This would allow the victim of the domestic violence a chance to seek other emergency shelter and move his or her things without interference from the abuser. This Bill would go into effect in July of 2008.

Another aspect I wanted to explore when looking at violence prevention is internet bullying. What kinds of policies do we have to protect our children from internet bullies and slander? In Indiana, cyber-bullying is seen as the same thing as bullying. According to Indiana Code 20-33-8-0.2, bullying is defined as follows, "overt, repeated acts or gestures including: (1) verbal or written communitcations transmitted; (2) physical acts committed; or (3) any other behaviors committed; by a student or a group of students against another student with the intent to harass, ridicule, humiliate, intimidate, or harm the other student" (Indiana Department of Education, 2006). The "cyber" part could be a reference to blogs, MySpace, Facebook, instant messages, and e-mails. H.R. 284 (2005) was a bill that was introduced in order to force schools into developing rules and regualtions for Internet usage and define/prohibit "cyber-bullying".

Policies change every day and night. Sometimes they are so mutated when they are finally enacted, they look nothing like the Bill as it was originally introduced. A Bill might also look like it is going to accomplish one task, when it is really for the oppositition.