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Example research essay topic: Violence Against Women Domestic Violence - 1,393 words

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Domestic violence against women is a serious and widespread problem that is just not confined to the UK as Heise et al (1994) indicates that between 20 to 50 per cent of women in most countries experience spousal abuse at least once in their lives. During 1995 almost one third of 4, 967 women murdered in the United States were killed by their boyfriend or husbands. Nor does domestic violence stop at mere physical abuse, but can include sexual, verbal, spiritual, emotional or longer lasting psychological abuse that can cause a broad range of health problems including full mental breakdowns. A study by Stark and Flitcroft (1991) suggests that domestic violence may be the single most important cause of female suicides especially among black and pregnant women. Domestic violence also contributes to the reason why 63 per cent of young men between the ages of 11 and 20 yrs who are serving time for homicide killed their mothers' abusers. For the purpose of this essay, I will concentrate on exploring the issues surrounding the question why do men abuse, and due to word limit, I will concentrate on spousal abuse and the causes and variables that contribute to domestic violence.

These causes will include patriarchy, social structural perspective, cycle of violence and alcohol. Domestic violence to women is commonly referred to simply as domestic violence but for clarity during this essay I will use the terms domestic violence and abuse interchangeably to refer to violence against women. The term domestic violence is also a confusing term. It covers many types of abuse and not just acts of physical abuse, as physical violence is usually but one aspect of a now well documented pattern of abuse which may include verbal threats, intimidation, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, physical and social isolation, economic deprivation and the like. (Dobash and Dobash 1980). Nor does there seem to be a consensus on the severity of violence required for an act to be considered abuse. Because of the above confusion, I have decided to use the definition from the American Psychological Association (APA), which is internationally recognised, respected and used by many professionals and academics.

The APA defines domestic violence as: A pattern of abusive behaviours including a wide range of physical, sexual and psychological maltreatment used by one person in an intimate relationship against another to gain power unfairly or maintain the person's misuse of power, control and authority (APA. Until relatively recently, British common law recognised women as the property of their men (the property of the father before marriage when this property transferred to the husband on marriage) and that men had the right to beat their wives under reasonable circumstances which was known as Lawful Correction. The husband also might give his wife moderate correction. For as he is to answer for his mis behaviour the law thought it reasonable to entrust him with this power of restraining her by domestic chastisement in the same moderation that a man is allowed to correct his servant or children (Blackstone, 1966, Vol. 1 432. Cited in Page 1985, 4).

In the United States during 1782 Judge Buller set a precedent that stopped the use of any instrument being used by a man to chastise his wife and brought in the rule of thumb. However, this law still enabled the husband to chastise his wife with any instrument that WAS no thicker than the man's thumb. This belief that men had the right under certain circumstances to chastise their wives behind closed doors virtually went unchallenged until the end of the second world war, when womens movements began to move into the forefront of society. However women still had to wait another 20 or so years until the late 1960 s and 70 s before domestic violence went through a evolution from a private matter to a social problem and in the case of wife battering to a statute crime. The reasons for men being abusive towards their partners are many and varied, however, the first suggested causal factor of domestic violence that I will look at is from the perspective of a feminist who believe mens violence stems from the patriarchy traditions of mens right to control their women. Feminist theorists such as French (1986) argue that domestic violence is rooted in gender and power that represents mens active attempts to maintain dominance and control over women and the heart of this debate centres on the relative importance of patriarchy.

French's example of patriarchy can be seen in mens participation in world conflicts. Throughout documented history, the man has always been called upon to go to war and violently respond to threats, attacks and invasions. Because war has been glorified, men have become heroes and moral judgement about the legitimacy of male violence is established. Thus violence has become the legitimated form of male behaviour, and the outcome of this process is that violent acts become implicit in the institutionalised definition of masculinity.

Men at birth become members of the superior gender and one automatically empowered to have superior rights, roles, opportunities and power in comparison to women. Consequently, men feel violence is an acceptable means of enforcing control (French 1986; Connell 1987; Stark and Flitcroft 1991). Genes (1993) acknowledges the role of patriarchy and the theory of unequal power relationships as a cause of domestic violence. However, he suggests that patriarchy is just one variable in a very complex constellation of causes. In contrast though, Johnson (1995) argues that the feminist explanation of domestic violence is flawed for two reasons. The first reason is that feminist analyses rely too heavily upon data collected from women who have been battered and especially from those who have been in contact with the police or other social service agencies, thus rendering the data uncertain.

The second reason is that feminist theorists employ a single-variable analysis that concentrates on patriarchy and ignores the impact of factors such as income, unemployment, cohabiting and age which may affect the perpetration of domestic violence which Johnson acknowledges as the social structural perspective. The social structural perspective draws the attention away from the single-variable feminist perspective of patriarchy and instead focuses on the way social structures define mens roles as dominant. The perspective suggests that due to mens inability to fulfil these roles because of structural disadvantages such as unemployment, men cannot be breadwinners, leading to frustration and stresses which in turn lead to violence. Other explanations that indicate economic stresses as the cause of domestic violence, at the outset, direct the attention to stresses derived from economic and social disadvantages. Thus it is claimed that such violence against wives was seen as primarily A lower-class phenomenon, as the lower classes are more susceptible to such pressures. The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) also recognised the role of stress in the aetiology of domestic violence and stated: Economic conditions, low wages, bad housing, overcrowding and isolation: unfavourable and frustrating work conditions for men: lack of job opportunities for adolescents / school leavers and lack of facilities such as day care (eg nurseries), adequate transport, pleasant environment and play space and recreation facilities for mothers and children were considered to cause personal desperation that might precipitate violence in the home (BASW 406).

Goode (1971), in principle, agrees that life stresses are a causal factor of domestic violence as he acknowledges that violence is an ultimate resource used to derive power within a relationship. However, Goode goes one-step further by suggesting that not only life stresses cause domestic violence, but that there are links with socio-demographic positions. For instance, middle-class professional men can maintain power and control within their families by controlling the economic recourses whereas these sources of power erode for working-class men when their female partners enter the labour force. Thus gender matters in cases of domestic violence may be linked to socio-economic inequality and from this perspective it is seen that both power differences between partners and socio-demographic positions influence propensities for violence (Goode 1971; Hornung et al 1981). However, Kalmuss and Straus (1990) found discrepancies in the above research as they found men were more likely to engage in domestic violence where the woman was economically dependent solely on the man. On reflection, although it may be possible for economic stresses to incite violence and stressful life events may distinguish fa...


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