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The Causes of Wife Abuse - Who Is Abused?, Who Are The Offenders?, A Question Of Power, Psychological Explanations Of Abuse
Although researchers have studied wife abuse for about thirty years, scholars from different intellectual traditions often disagree on its origins and the actions required to prevent and address the problem. Sociologists and anthropologists interpret data differently from economists and political scientists. Psychologists and
other therapists perceive different facets of the problem, as do social service and shelter workers. Abused women have their own perspectives on the problem.
Additional Topics
In the past, domestic violence was viewed as a phenomenon exclusively affecting the lower classes. But when researchers began investigating the causes of family violence in the 1970s, they noticed that although lowerclass women at first appeared to make up the majority of victims, domestic violence, in reality, spanned all
social and economic groups. Middle- and upper-class women were also abused,…
Like victims of domestic abuse, batterers come from all socioeconomic groups and all ethnic backgrounds. They may be male or female, young or old. They share a common characteristic—they all have personal relationships with their victims. In the Bureau of Justice Statistics report Criminal Victimization (Washington, DC,
September 2004), statistician Shannan M. Catalano analyzed general crim…
The struggle for power in a relationship appears to play a significant role in battering. Some researchers suggest that the need to exert control over one's partner begins long before marriage. In a study by Diane R. Follingstad et al. titled "Risk Factors and Correlates of Dating Violence: The Relevance of Examining Frequency
and Severity Levels in a College Sample" (Violence…
Most sociologists and psychologists agree that lower levels of aggression, such as slapping and shoving, can escalate over time into more severe forms of abuse, such as battering and weapon use. However, while most relationships characterized by severe violence begin with milder forms of abuse, many partners limit their
aggressive physical behavior to pushing and slapping. K. Daniel O'Leary…
Richard Gelles, the chair of Child Welfare and Family Violence and interim dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work, thinks it is risky to place too much emphasis on a psychological explanation of abuse. He contended that the picture of a mentally deranged, violent abuser focuses attention on only the most
extreme cases of abuse, stereotyped as a psychotic offender and an innoc…
The role of alcohol and drug abuse in family violence is featured in many studies, and it is a factor in physical violence and stalking, according to such researchers as Pam Wilson et al. who examined the issue in their article "Severity of Violence against Women by Intimate Partners and Associated Use of Alcohol and/or
Illicit Drugs by the Perpetrator" (Journal of Interpersonal Viol…
Research about intimate partner violence reveals that violence does not stop when women become pregnant. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Reproductive Health gathers data about the health of expectant mothers using its Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). An analysis of PRAMS data
revealed that between 2.9% to 5.7% of women reported being abused b…
Research demonstrates a relationship between having been a victim of violence and becoming violent in future relationships. In fact, a 1996 report prepared by the American Psychological Association Task Force on Violence and the Family concludes that children's exposure to their father abusing their mother is the single
strongest risk factor for passing violence down from one generation to …
Straus and Gelles have found that selected variables, including employment status, income, and number of children, are often associated with domestic violence in a given family. Families with the lowest incomes, the most children, and the lowest level of employment of the husband tend to be at greater risk for spouse abuse. In
Behind Closed Doors: Violence in the American Family (Garden City, NY: …
Jill Suitor, Karl Pillemer, and Murray Straus in "Marital Violence in a Life Course Perspective" (Physical Violence in American Families, [Piscataway, NJ: Transaction, 1990]), found that both marital conflict and verbal aggression consistently decline with age over every ten-year period. Analysis of the National Family
Violence Surveys data from 1975 and 1985 revealed that the rate o…
Can a woman expect to see certain signs of potential violence in a man she is dating or living with before she becomes a victim of abuse? The National Coalition against Domestic Violence published a checklist of predictive behaviors in men that signal violence. (See Table 2.11 in Chapter 2.) Along with the predictors described
in the checklist, there are other indicators, known as risk markers, wh…
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User Comments
over 3 years ago
I think it odd that it takes Ph.d's to tell us what wives go through with abusive husbands! Why won't experts listen to the wives? Oh, because we are still in a sexist world? I know that there are lying, deceiving "witches" in the world.
Most girls/women have this "knight in shining armour" dream! A man that will open her door, thank her for the mundain household chores and cooking-I've heard a good wife/mom is worth $300,000.00 per yr., unless you can get illegals!!
Why do men act so controlling? Their own mothers, obviously! Psychologists know about mother/son, mother/daughter relationships, as well as, father/son, father/daughter relationships, but no one can agree on any of it! I just saw on the History channel the Borgia family, now there's a winner of a "Daddy"! No one wants to touch the "Christian" concept, which clearly expects the man to treat his wife as Jesus Christ treats "the church". The scholars, the Ph.Ds don't want to touch the Christian Beliefs, because that clearly puts the man in the "hot seat!" A cheating wife is clearly a cheating wife and let's face it we are the ones the succumbed to the "snake" it is all our fault that we all fell from grace! I disagree! How about spoiled, rotten brat men that think only of themslves before their own children and wives? And it should not be in that order! I have done my research questioning why, why I have such a disloyal, selfish PIG of a husband? Because, he was the 1st born boy in 3 generations; he had granny, grandma and mama spoil him, believe his lies and it all worked, until me! My own sons tell me I've been a good mother and yet, I cry every day because I'm treated like some slave laborer!
I'm a woman that did 13 years Health Care, switched to Heavy Equipment Operating and the stories I could tell in that one aspect of my life. There are also differences with women who have sisters vs those who had only brothers; the feelings, emotions and the expectations. Add to that a father who was DAV, Purple Heart, saw massive; 300+ killings of fellow USA men, come talk to me! None of this makes ahill of beans to male law enforcers, nor the courts! Women are to wait for death for GOD's retribution on their own husbands? Why would we pronounce you, "Man and wife?" Obviously, "Husband and Wife" is the correct pronounceation!
"We've come along way, Baby!" is so false it is pathetic, and that was a good 30 years, ago! These men that don't know how to parent correctly, these police that clean their service revolvers while in a heated "discussion" with their wives, these cheatin' politicians is JUST THE TIP OF THE ICE BERG OF WIFE ABUSE!