Domestic Violence
- Created by: jessstudiesx
- Created on: 02-01-20 18:39
Definition Of Domestic Violence
Home Office (2005) - 'any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are or have been intimate partners or are family members, regardless of gender or sexuality'.
Historically a private matter
Cultural expectations
Stalking
Mullen (2000) - 'persistent attempts to impose on another person unwanted communications or contact'
8.2% of women, 2.2% of men
62% of women stalked by prior intimate relationship, 23% by strangers
70% of men stalked by strangers
90% of domestic violence homicides involved stalking
Prevalence
29% of women, 18% of men (aged 16-59)
Domestic violence highest likelihood of death aged 19-44
16% of all violent crime
45% victimised more than once a year
27% victimised 3 or more times per year
50% of all female homicides
Cross Cultural Differences
Albania - right to beat wife encoded in law
Southern China - no legal protections from domestic violence
Poland - 78% of perpetrators found guilty & given jail sentences, 0% of these served any time in jail
Sweden - shelters opened in 1978 but still only 33% of victims speak with prosecutors
Male Perpetrator Responses (Hearn, 1998)
Thoughts on their violence
1. Repudiation (total) - either whole or parts of the violence are denied: full denial, removal of self or intention
2. Quasi-repudiation - as above but coupled with diminishing the violence e.g state 'not knowing', minimisation, reduction, relativisation
3. Excuses & justifications
4. Confessions
5. Composite & contradictory accounts - combination of the prev 4 types of accounts
Risk Factors Of Perpetrators
Not a casual relationship
Childhood experience of violence
Lower socio-economic status
Young
Prior arrest for assault
Substance misuse
Personality characteristics - insecure, low self esteem & impulse control, poor social skills
Psychopathological disorders - mood disorders, depression, ptsd
Effects - Intergenerational Transmission (Ehrensaf
Longitudinal study of 543 unselected children followed over a period of 20 years
Testing the effects of parenting, exposure to domestic violence, maltreatment, adolescent disruptive disorders & emerging substance abuse disorders on the risk to violence to & from an adult partner
Adolescent conduct disorder most frequent risk for perpetrating domestic violence followed by exposure as a child to parental domestic violence
Enable a target group for interventions?
Effects - Children's Functioning & Maternal Child
Studies show that young children who witness domestic violence have increased trauma, lower self esteem, lower levels of social functioning, higher depression & anxiety
Also shown to have more behaviour problems, be more aggressive with peers, difficulties in forming relationships with other adults including teachers
Domestic violence found to negatively impact children's behaviour with mothers in interactions but didn't influence maternal reporting of problem behaviours - suggests a lack of recognition that adverse relationship wasn't 'out of the ordinary'
Trauma Bonding (Dutton, 1993; Gordon, 2004)
Where a strong emotional tie develops between 2 people where 1 intermittently harasses, beats, threatens or otherwise abuses the other
Similarities with stockholm syndrome
Demonstrates an imbalance of power & often characterised as sporadic rather than continual abuse
In between there may be intensely positive behaviour e.g kindness or affection
Victim often engages in denial of abuse for emotional self protection & will often mask or hide abuse
Disassociation may also occur - victim experiences abuse but behaves and to some extent believes abuse isn't happening to them directly
Returning
Women often return once they feel more confident (e.g after experiencing the safety of a refuge for a while)
The cost of non-return (lack of personal income, being alone, losing emotional & social ties, losing their home) may start to outweigh the fear, so victim returns
Biological Perspective
Focus on genetic, congenital or organic roots of behaviour
E.g high levels of testosterone or low levels of serotonin (lower tolerance to anger/aggression, struggles with sleep/mood etc)
Tendency to treat any abnormalities as unalterable - takes responsibility away from individual
No single set level - based on generalities
Social Learning Theory
Observation of others behaviour & the consequences of that behaviour
Childhood exposure to violent behaviour on the part of family members of significant others resulting in exhibiting similar behaviour towards others in adulthood
Positive reinforcement of batterers in terms of 'successful resolution' of conflict, successful domination etc - therefore repeat & maintain battering behaviour
Deviant behaviour learnt in the same way as normative behaviour - why don't all witnesses follow this through in their own behaviour? - other factors that lead to becoming victim or perpetrator
Psychodynamic Perspective
Violence is seen as the manifestation of malfunctioning unconscious psychic problems about which the individual may not be aware
Problems probably stem from early childhood experiences
Takes away responsibility from individual
Feminist Perspective
The behaviour (of both the perpetrator and victim) reflects & is 'in line' with the ethos & experience of those involved (e.g cultural)
Power in relationship in line with societal norms
Interventions
Police perception/action - domestic violence units
Policy shift - 'go order' in Germany (raise alarm, but don't go through with charges): force perpetrator away, victim without them for a period of time that could lead to an allegation
Safe houses/refuges
CBT
Spousal assault risk assessment (SARA)
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