Convicted Survivors: The Imprisonment of Battered Women Who Kill

Chapter 3. Explaining Intimate Violence: Theoretical and Methodological Framework

Chapter Three
Explaining Intimate Violence: Theoretical and Methodological Framework Theoretical Framework Despite such gender neutral terms as “domestic violence,” “family violence ,” “partner abuse,” and “spouse abuse,” hospital records, law enforcement reports, court proceedings, victim surveys, and the historical record consistently show that violence between intimate partners is primarily and essentially the violence of men against women. The battering of women by their male partners occurs more often than any other type of family violence (Levinson 1989; Rasche 1990). Thus, social scientific theories that view intimate abuse as gender neutral (e.g., culture of violence theory [Straus, Gelles, and Steinmetz 1980]; general systems theory [Straus 1980]; resource theory [Goode 1971]; exchange theory [Gelles 1983]; and economic or social stress model [Gelles 1974]) obscure the fundamentally gender specific nature of male violence against wives, fiancées, and girlfriends. Stark and Flitcraft (1996) call attention to the deliberate, sexual, and familial dimensions of abuse . . . in the predominance of central injuries to the body, the chest, the breast and the abdomen and by the high rate of violence during pregnancy. (11) Gender neutral theories assume an equality of power in male-female relationships, a point of view that ignores centuries of male-dominated social systems and structures. Social policies and norms, laws, and physical strength systematically grant men more power than women. Historically, religion, law, traditional family structure, the economy , and other social institutions have supported the authority of 39 men over women. As Martin (1983) notes, “The historical roots of our patriarchal family models are ancient and deep” (26). Dobash and Dobash (1979) concur: The seeds of wife beating lie in the subordination of females and in their subjection to male authority and control. The relationship between women and men has been institutionalized in the structure of the patriarchal family and is supported by the economic and political institutions and by a belief system, including a religious one, that makes such relationships seem natural, morally just and sacred. (33–34) Feminists view patriarchal institutions as the source of the structural social control of women by men. They argue that woman battering has more in common with other forms of violence that target women, such as sexual harassment, rape, and incest, than with other forms of family violence, such as elder abuse, sibling abuse, and child abuse (Kurz 1993). Male domination of women continues to be widespread in the United States and around the world, occurring across socioeconomic groups, as well as ethnic, religious, and age groups. According to UNICEF (2000), Violence against women and girls continues to be a global epidemic that kills, tortures, and maims—physically, psychologically , sexually and economically. It is one of the most pervasive of human rights violations, denying women and girls equality, security, dignity, self-worth, and their right to enjoy fundamental freedoms. Violence against women is present in every country, cutting across boundaries of culture, class, education, income, ethnicity and age. (2) In most countries, rape and sexual abuse by intimates is not considered a crime and women victims often do not view forced sex with a husband or cohabitant as rape (UNICEF 2000). American legal reforms notwithstanding, forced sex (rape) in marriage is not considered much of a crime, further evidence that male-structured laws continue to view women as the property of men within marriage (Andersen 2000). Violence between intimates, therefore, is analyzed most effectively within the context of the gender and power relations that patriarchy generates. Andersen (2000) observes that “radical feminism has produced some of the best explanations of and 40 Convicted Survivors solutions to high rates of violence against women” (348). Levinson’s (1989) cross-cultural examination of family violence in ninety societies demonstrates the clear link between gender inequality and interpersonal violence: In general, it seems that in societies without family violence, husbands and wives share in domestic decision making, wives have some control over the fruits of family labor, wives can divorce their husbands as easily as their husbands can divorce them, marriage is monogamous, there is no premarital sex double standard, divorce is relatively infrequent, husbands and wives sleep together, men resolve disputes with other men peacefully, and intervention in wife beating incidents tends to be immediate. (103) Gender specific violence is a major social and health problem for women globally. Heise’s (1994) summary of thirty-five studies from twenty-four countries reveals from one-fourth to more than one-half the women report physical abuse...