Lecture three : Domestic Violence and Abuse

Question 1

What is Domestic Abuse?

Answer 1

Domestic abuse is abuse which occurs in the domestic/private sphere.

Question 2

What is Intimate Partner Violence?

Answer 2

Intimate partner violence (+16): this definition includes both current and former spouses and partners

Question 3

What is Adolescent to parent Violence and abuse?

Answer 3

Adolescent to parent violence and abuse (APVA) also known as parent abuse, child to parent abuse

Children under the age of 18 years who see or hear or experience the effects of domestic abuse

Question 3

What are the key effects of children as victims?

Answer 3

• Developmental difficulties are associated with a range of poor outcomes in later life, including mental and physical health problems, criminal justice contact, and socioeconomic adversity (Whitten et al., 2022)
  
• Children exposed to DVA are more likely to either experience or perpetrate DVA as adults (Stiles, 2002)

Question 4

Who does DV affect?

Answer 4

DVA can affect anyone, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, lifestyle or geographic location

Question 4

What are the behavioural features of intimate partner violence?

Answer 4

Outer ring: Physical and sexual violence

Inside of wheel: Subtle, continual behaviours- emotional, financial and controlling behaviours

Question 5

What is Coercive control?

Answer 5

Coercive behaviour is: An act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim (Home Office, 2013)

–> controlling behaviour

Question 6

How has technology facilitate Intimate partner violence?

Answer 6

Harassment: Repeated attempts to impose unwanted communications or contact in a manner that could be expected to cause distress or fear

Stalking: Technology used as a method of creating this sense of the perp being ever-present in the victims lives through constantly calling or texting the victims (Woodlock, 2017)

• Monitoring
• Smart houses: cameras

Question 7

What demographic experiences DV the most?

Answer 7

Women are more likely to experience domestic violence and abuse

This is a prevalence rate of approximately 6 in 100 women and 3 in 100 men

Question 8

What are the health implications of Male on Female Intimate partner Violence?

Answer 8

2 women a week are killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales.

One in eight of all female suicides and suicide attempts in the UK are due to domestic violence and abuse.

Question 9

What is the Psychological Explanation for?

Answer 9

The psychological effects of …Alcohol and Drug use

Domestic violence perpetrators who used alcohol/drugs more likely to inflict injuries, emotionally abuse their partners, and to escalate the frequency or severity of the domestic violence (Robinson and Clancy 2021)

Question 10

What is the limitation of the Psychological explanation of DV?

Answer 10

Not all intoxicated people perpetrate IPV and substance use alone cannot explain why or how these violent tendencies originate.

Question 11

What is the Psycho-social explanation?

Answer 11

Disempowerment Theory: suggests that individual factors such as self-esteem, personality and insecure attachment can make a person more prone to abusing their partner.

Question 12

What is the Sociological Explanation?

Answer 12

DVA as a ‘learned behaviour’

–> Straus (1980) found that children who witnessed parental violence were three times more likely to be violent to their own partners

The Intergenerational Transmission of violence:

This theory argues that experiencing domestic violence
and/or witnessing it particularly during childhood, leads to subsequent IV

Question 13

What are the limitations of the Disempowerment Theory?

Answer 13

• Not all children will grow up to become perpetrators/ victims.
• Why the different gender effect?
• Powers et al. (2020) look at victimisation and argues that the risk of entering and remaining in a violent relationship is shaped by the experiences and perceived reactions of close family and friends

Question 14

What is the Feminist explanation of DV?

Answer 14

• Feminist theories help to explain the motivation for violence perpetrated by men against women
• Point to cultural values that excuse or legitimise the use of violence against women in intimate partnerships
  Helped move it out of the family
  
• Feminist theories situate offending and victimisation experiences in a larger cultural context

Question 15

What are the strengths of the Feminist approach to explain DV?

Answer 15

Address gender inequalities; challenges male entitlement and privilege as well as the traditional notion that domestic abuse is a private family matter.

Question 16

What are the limitations of the feminist approach to explain DV?

Answer 16

The assumption that all intimate abuse is heterosexual; that violence is a one-way street (male to female) (Mills, 2003 pp. 6-7)

Question 17

What are the different types of IPV men experience?

Answer 17

Threats: 66% threats to harm

Intimidation: 57% Smashing property

Isolation: 84% restricting time spent with family and friends

Economic abuse: 71% controlling money

Question 18

What is the impact of DV/IPV on men?

Answer 18

• Men suffer physical health problems, and many are severely injured
• Men also suffer the mental health problems that are associated with IPV

Question 19

What are criticisms of using Feminist Theory to explain DV/IPV

Answer 19

• Patriarchy? Battered Women Syndrome: “It’s what all men do to all women”
• Danger of tunnel vision…Patriarchy, sexism, and the gendered perspective is relevant and an important paradigm to understanding IPV but as one explanation among many others.
• Bidirectionality: Many relationships have both parties interchanging between victimisation and perpetration. This highlights further the complex nature of relationships and domestic abuse situations.