Domestic Violence Flashcards
What is domestic violence?
Includes physical, economic and psychological abuse that happens in the home
What are common views about domestic violence?
That it’s the behaviour of few disturbed individuals and that its caused by psychological rather than social factors
How have sociologists disproved common views about domestic violence?
- Domestic violence is too widespread as the Women’s Aid Federation found that domestic violence accounts for nearly 25% of all recorded violent crime
- Domestic violence follows a social pattern, that this violence is mainly by men against women. e.g. Coleman et al found that women were more likely to experience ‘intimate violence’
Describe a study that supports that there’s a social pattern to domestic violence
Dobash and Dobash found that violence could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority. They argue that marriage legitimises violence against women by giving power to men and leads to wives being dependent on them
Give a statistic that shows the gender gap in domestic violence is small
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (2013) found a narrow gender gap of around 7% of women and 5% of men reported experiencing domestic abuse in the previous year
How have sociologists criticised the idea that the gender gap in domestic violence is small?
- Statistics don’t tell us about the frequency, severity of effect of the abuse they suffered and there’s a severe gender gap.
- e.g. Walby and Allen found women were more likely to be victims of multiple incidents of abuse and of sexual violence
What are 2 disadvantages of official statistics on domestic violence?
- Victims may be unwilling to report it to the police. e.g. Dar argues that this is because the victim may believe it’s not a matter for the police or that it’s too trivial
- The police may be reluctant to investigate these cases as they’re not prepared to be involved in the family
What are 2 explanations of domestic violence?
- The radical feminist explanation: emphasises the role of patriarchal ideas and institutions
- The materialist explanations: emphasises economic factors like a lack of resources
Describe the radical feminist explanation of domestic violence
- They see the family and marriage as key institution in the patriarchal society and the main source of women’s oppression, and in the family, men dominate women through DV
- They argue widespread DV is inevitable in a patriarchal society and serves to preserve the power that men have over women, which explains why most DV is committed by men.
- In their view, male domination of institutions explains the reluctance of the police to deal effectively with cases of DV
Give evaluation of the radical feminist explanation
- Radical feminists wrongly assume that all women are equally at risk of patriarchal violence and fail to explain which women are most likely to be victims
- The Office for National Statistics suggests women from some social groups face a greater risk of domestic violence, such as young women, those in lower social classes and those on low incomes
Describe the materialist explanation of domestic violence
- e.g. Wilkinson and Pickett see domestic violence as the result of stress on the family caused by social inequality, as some families have fewer resources than others
- This reduces their chances of maintaining a caring relationship and increases the risk of violence
- Therefore, those with less status or income are at greatest risk of domestic violence
Give evaluation for the materialist explanation
- It fails to explains why women rather than men are the main victims.
- e.g. Marxist feminists also see inequality causing domestic violence and argue that it’s a product of capitalism, as male workers are exploited at work and take out their frustration on their views.
- This explains why domestic violence is male violence against females
