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