Domestic Violence and Homicide (TEST5) Flashcards
what gender primarily commits domestic violence?
Males
definition of ‘Abuse’
-the ongoing use of intimidating tactics, threats of violence, or violence, to gain control of an individual
Difference between domestic violence and abuse
Domestic violence= goes both ways in one household
Abuse= goes one way
*domestic violence doesn’t equal abuse
what happens as degree of assault goes up?
the proportion of men committing also increases, and so does men receiving
ratio of women to men committing violent acts to each other
1:1 (“goes both ways”)
ratio of women murdered, explain reasoning behind
5: 1
- women suffer more severe injuries
Learning theory in regard to men and domestic abuse
- commit violence because want something, probably subconsciously
- learn they can get what they want; when they do this with no repercussions or minimal repercussions
- for women violence doesn’t produce drastic harm (not successful strategy), but men can cause a lot more pain (successful strategy)
Historically what was the approach professionals took to battering?
- doctors treated patient but didn’t ask questions
- police rarely arrested abusers
- judges sometimes insensitive
- family therapists often not responsive
historically, what was public reaction to domestic violence?
- If they are wide open, amount of scorn against the women who were being abused was horrific
- There must be some beliefs about ppl in these situations that are problematic
What is the Ewing’s scenario
- Patrick Ewing did research in domestic abuse
- created a scenario that he would provide to participants and then give questionnaire to gain general perspectives on abuse
- scenario involved a married couple, husband thought wife cheated and beat her
Why might ppl blame the victim?
- they get what they deserve
- they are free to leave (not true)
- batterers are not loving partners
- battering relationships can change for better (doesn’t often happen)
- “good” battered women defend themselves (not true)
- abuse is not common
- battered women are masochistic in some way
prevalence of women serving sentence for killing abuser?
about half women who kill their abuser get life in prison
who is more likely to kill their partner?
men are 5x more likely to kill their partner (escalation from previous abuse)
reasoning behind men vs women in killing partner
Men: kill b/c are abusing
women: kill as way to get away from abuser, way to end abusive relationship
what is most common way women kill their abuser?
kills him when he is asleep
what is the most common defense strategy in court?
self defense
what constitutes self defense?
- the least amount of force necessary to repel danger when the person reasonably perceives that she or he is in imminent danger of bodily harm or death
- imminence can be extended to when they believe they are at risk of harm
Battered Women Syndrome
- group of symptoms:
1. learned helplessness
2. lowered self esteem
3. impaired functioning (planful behaviour)
4. invulnerability disappears
5. fear and even terror
6. anger / rage
7. diminished alternatives (hard to see way out of situation)
8. cycle of abuse - tension building to acute battering incident
9. hypervigilance
10. high tolerance for cognitive inconsistency
-If can demonstrate symptoms of syndrome; can demonstrate abuse occurred
problem with learned helplessness and self defense killing
Originally developed to help people in this situation, but problematic b/c if have learned helplessness shouldn’t be able to kill abuser
Battered women defense data
- seriousness of threatened harm
1. imminence
2. ‘overt act’
3. rule of retreat (tried to retreat at some point but was unsuccessful)
4. not provocative
5. equal force rule
6. force not to exceed that necessary
7. reasonableness
Psychological self defense
- proposed by Ewing- comes back to what is yourself?
- Rational victims of Purely psychological abuse have preferable alternatives to homicide–>Rational and psychological abuse don’t go together
stalking= criminal harassment
- Constant pursuit of unwanted contact
- Not illegal until person being stalker is afraid
what must be done by victim to classify as stalking?
- Must make a clear written statement to them saying you don’t want them to contact you anymore, then must not respond to anything they do
- hard to make communication clear that don’t want their contact
Rate of complaints of male vs female stalkers
5:1
- men usually don’t make complaint though so closer to 1:1
- men also don’t necessarily get afraid
Risk Assessment Principles (4)
- keep low base rate in mind (not a lot of ppl killed from partner abuse)
- The more sources of info, the better – Victim info is ‘gold-standard’ – Perpetrators will minimize
- All DV should be taken seriously
- never say a case is ‘low risk’ or ‘no risk’ – Danger is variable/ no such thing as low risk in this situation
Danger assessment scale- revised (2003)
- Designed to tell you how dangerous person you are with is (answer yes/no questions- no not as bad but also not necessarily good)
- Developed from interviews where ppl have and haven’t been killed–> look for similarities between situations
- Discriminates between murdered women (or those who survived attempted homicide) and women who are abused but not murdered
- designed for lethality assessment, not recidivism
- risk factors may overlap but are not the same
Calendar rating
- encourage women who calls in to call back
- If suspect person you are with is problematic–>encouraged to keep calendar to keep track of things that have happened
- Frequency of occurrence–>Helpful in getting objective perspective
- include rating/ number of things that occurred (every time incident occurs)
- unfortunately have to wait awhile while calendar builds
Danger assessment scale- revised (2003)
~STATS~
- average of 7 ‘yes’ responses for homicides
- 10+ ‘yes’ responses denotes serious danger (advise women of serious danger- must get police involved)
what must happen if she is planning to leave him??
- o She must NOT confront / break-up / leave face-to- face
- She must STAY AWAY no matter how much he wants to see her
-Most amount of danger during separation, but can be at risk for 2 months to 1 year after separation (somewhat depends on how long relationship was)–>but eventually she will become safer
- Do not assume that because he left her she is now safe
- ->She needs to still do the same things as if she left
domestic violence definition
any violence occurring between family members, usually in private settings
Intimate partner violence (spousal violence) definition
any violence occurring between intimate partners who are living together or separated
types of violence (4)
- physical
- sexual
- financial
- emotional
conflict tactics scale (CTS2)
- scale to measure violence
- 39 items divided into 5 subscales
- Asked how frequently have engaged in the behavior and how often they have experienced the acts
- Asses prevalence of intimate partner violence
what kind of physical aggression are women more likely to engage in? how about men?
- Females more likely to engage in minor physical aggression
- men more likely to beat/ choke partner
what is most common form of emotional abuse?
=verbal aggression
women use more than men
criticisms of conflict tactics scale
- Doesn’t include al potential violent acts
- Doesn’t take into account different contexts or consequences of same act for men and women
- Doesn’t assess motive for violence and therefore initiating and responding with violence are treated equally
what is the most common violence>
Mutual mild violence
how do homosexuals differ in prevalence of intimate partner violence?
- Homosexuals 2x more likely to suffer from intimate partner violence in last 5 years
- Lesbian and bi women 4x more likely than heterosexual women
Risk factor for same sex partner violence
alcohol and substance abuse
mental health
HIV-pos status
what frequently occurs to lesbian couples when intimate partner violence is occurring?
become socially isolated as a couple
what is most common reason to report intimate partner violence to police?
prevent from reoccurring
what is most common reason to not report intimate partner violence to police?
felt it was a personal matter to resolve
who has higher rates of intimate partner violence?
Younger residents and aboriginal ppl
Dating violence in university students
- Females less likely to be perpetrators of serious assaults and sexual coercion
- 1/5 Canadian university student reported having experienced physical sexual assault by dating partner in last 12months
-Canadas rates of physical violence lower, but coercion higher than other countries
-Drug and alcohol use increase risk of perpetrating dating violence
theories of intimate violence
- Patriarchal society
- Social learning theory
- Nested ecological model/Dutton’s model
- Evolutionary psych theory
Patriarchal society- theory of intimate violence
- Some believe a patriarchal society contributes to men’s relationship abuse of women
- Patriarchy= broad set of cultural beliefs and values that support the male dominance of women
- YLLO and Straus (1990)- compared rates of spousal abuse across states with degree to which each state was characterized by patriarchal structure
- ->States with male-dominant norms had higher rates of spousal assault
social learning theory- theory of intimate violence
-Three main components: origins of aggression, instigators of aggression, and regulators of aggression
-Acquire new behavior through observational learning:
- major sources= family of origin, the subculture a person lives in, televised violence
- behavior must have functional value (rewarded)
- studies of male batterers–> most likely witnessed parental violence
- behavior regulated by its consequences
-
instigators
events in environment that act as stimulus for acquired behaviors (2 types in partner assault)
aversive investigators
- produce emotional arousal, how label arousal determines how respond
- male emotional funnel system–>male batterers label many emotional states as anger
incentive investigators
perceived rewards for engaging in aggression–> when believe can satisfy needs by using aggression, may decide to be violent
regulators
events in environment that act as stimulus for acquired behaviors
external punishment and internal punishment
Nested ecological model/Dutton’s model-theory of intimate violence
Focus on relationship among multiple levels that influence intimate violence- cultural beliefs/ attitudes, social institutions and laws, relationship qualities, unique psychological and biological factors of individual
evolutionary psych theory- theory of intimate violence
-Selective pressure: environmental circumstance that presents an opportunity for new genes to develop that give a survival and/or reproductive advantage to individual that has those genes
-Selective pressures in intimate partner relationships
=Losing access to resources from the relationship, Events that threaten access to those resources
-Result of pressures, opportunity for strategies that fight to maintain access to relationship resources and from preventing events that threaten access to those resources may have developed over time
three phase cycle of abuse (Walker, 1979)
- Tension building phase: prior to assault with increasing conflict and stress between partners
- Acting out phase: batterer engages in intimate partner violence
- Honeymoon phase: batterer apologizes and often promises not to engage in future violence–>This phase sometimes disappears
primary reason for leaving abuser?
- experiencing an increase in severity of violence
- having children witness violence
- reporting abuse to police
why do 70% of women return at least once?
- For sake of children
- to give relationship another chance
- partner promised to change
- lack of money or place to go
Kim & Gray (2008) –>women’s decision to leave
-Decision influenced by how much women were financially dependent on perpetrator and level of fear, self esteem, locus of control
3 types of male batterers
- Family-only batterer (50%)
- The dysphoric/ borderline batterer (25%)
- The generally violent/ antisocial batterer (25%)
Family-only batterer (50%)
• Least amount of violence
- Typically, not violent outside home or engages in other criminal behavior
- Doesn’t show much psychopathology, if personality disorder present most likely passive-dependent personality
- Doesn’t report neg attitudes supportive of violence and has moderate impulse-control problems
- Typically displays no disturbance in attachment to partner
The dysphoric/ borderline batterer (25%)
• Moderate to severe violence
- Exhibits some extra-familial violence and criminal behavior
- Most depression and borderline personality traits, has jealousy problem
- Moderate problems with impulsivity and alcohol and drug use
- Attachment style that would be best described as preoccupied
The generally violent/ antisocial batterer (25%)
- Engages in moderate to severe violence
- Engages in most violence outside home and in criminal behavior
- Antisocial and narcissistic personality feature
- Likely drug and alcohol problems, High level impulsive-control problems, many violence supportive beliefs
- Dismissive attachment style
types of abusive female batterers
- Partner-Only (PO)
- Reactive violence primarily out of fear or self defense - Generally violent (GV)
- Instrumental violence, more traumatic symptoms, experience more physical abuse from their mothers
Sherman & Berk (1984)
-Random assignment of 314 partner assault calls to 3 police responses separation, mediation, or arrest
-6 month follow up
- Recidivism rates for arrested men lower than separation or mediation
- Other study found arrest only worked if men had something to lose (like job)
treatment types for male batterers
- feminist psychoeducational group therapy (Duluth model)
- Cognitive behavioral group therapy (most common)
- Correctional service of Canadas family violence prevention programs
Strongest predictor of treatment completion
employment, age, (older more likely to complete), referral source (court mandated more likely)
Feminist psychoeducational group therapy (Duluth model)
-Primary cause thought to be patriarchal ideology
-Challenges men’s perceived right to control partner
-High drop out due to blaming, punitive orientation
criticisms of Feminist psychoeducational group therapy (Duluth model)
- Focus on violence done by men on women
- Violence viewed as one sided- not an interaction
- Focus on shaming man- no therapeutic bond with clients
- Limited focus on changing mans attitudes about power and control in relationship
Cognitive behavioral group therapy
-Belief that violence is learned behavior and that use of violence s reinforcing for offender b/c perp obtains victims compliance and reduces feelings of tension
-Rationale for group therapy is to break through barriers of denial and minimization
Correctional service of Canadas family violence prevention programs
- Focus on male offenders who have been abusive in their intimate relationships with female partner or ex-partner
- Based on social learning model-learned behavior that can be modified
-75, 2.5hr group sessions over 15 weeks
-Moderate intensity family violence prevention program
–>Intended to help offenders at moderate risk of reoffending
-Aboriginal high intensity family violence prevention program–>Reflect teachings, traditions, and cultural values of aboriginal ppl
Results=
Moderate to strong treatment effects found
Treated offenders less likely to engage in recidivism
most likely victims of stalking
-women between ages of 15 and 24
also doctors, politician, university faculty
what variables are related to violence in terms of stalking?
- Clinical variables- substance abuse disorder, personality disorder, absence of psychotic disorder predicted violence
- Case-related variables- former intimate relationship between offender and victim and threats toward the victim predicted violence
typologies of stalking (4)
- Ex-intimate stalker
- Love-obsessional stalker
- The delusional stalker
- The grudge stalker
Ex-intimate stalker
- Most common
- Engages in stalking after intimate relationship breaks up
- Individual is disgruntled and estranged, unable to let go of partner
- History of domestic violence in intimate relationship
Love-obsessional stalker
- Rare
- Individual has never had an intimate relationship with victim, but has been an acquaintance or co-worker
- Intense emotional feelings for victim
- Doesn’t have symptoms of depression or psychosis
The delusional stalker
- Rare
- Never had an intimate relationship with victim, but believed that a relationship exists
- Sometimes targets celebrity, media figure, or politician
- Often diagnosed with delusional disorders, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder
The grudge stalker
- Rare
- Individual knows victim but hasn’t had intimate relationship with victim
- Is an angry person seeking revenge for perceived injustice
