Unit 7 - Ch. 9 Flashcards
What is the most prevalent form of violence in society?
Intimate partner violence
Why is intimate partner violence distinct from other types of violence?
Victims and perpetrators know each other
Often an ongoing relationship prior, during, and after a violence episode
Define intimate partner violence
Violence occurring between intimate partners who are living together or separated.
However, defining intimate partner violence is controversial.
Unfortunately, no consensus exists for a definition, although most current definitions of intimate partner violence include non-violent abuse (such as emotional or financial abuse) and sexual abuse. Differential rates of abuse can be the result of differences in who is sampled and what is counted.
Define spousal violence
Spousal violence is more specific and refers to violence between same-sex couples who are legally married, common-law, separated, or divorced.
For much of history, intimate partner violence had a quasi-legitimacy. Why is that?
Because of cultural and religious attitudes that effectively placed women in subservient roles within the family.
It was not until the _____ that major changes took place in Canadian law dealing with intimate partner violence.
1980s
When examining the frequency of violence, it is important to clarify the distinction between ________ and ______.
Prevalence: refers to the total number of people who have experienced violence in a specified time period, whereas
Incidence: is the number of new cases identified or reported at a given point in time, usually one year.
When reporting on the estimates of intimate partner violence, many factors will influence the prevalence and incidence figures.
Types of abuse
Psychological/emotional
Physical
Financial/Material
Sexual
What is the form of abuse that is often described as being the most hurtful?
Psychological
Financial abuse is most often studied in the context of _____ abuse, but can also occur within ______ ______.
Elder
intimate relationship
Conflict Tactics Scale
Scale designed to assess how a person and his or her partner resolve conflict; measures constructive problem solving, verbal aggression, and physical aggression.
The CTS consists of 18 items ranging from constructive problem-solving (e.g., discussing issues calmly) to verbal aggression (e.g., swearing or threatening to hit) and physical aggression (e.g., slapping or using a knife). Respondents indicate how often they have used different methods and how often they have experienced these acts.
In the 2009 survey using a modified version of the Conflict Tactics Scale, what were the findings?
19 422 respondents 15+
2% of male and female respondents had experienced physical and/or sexual assault.
In the 5 years preceding the survey (2005-2009) 6% of male and female respondents reported having experienced physical and/or sexual assault (17% of respondents reported experiencing emotional or financial abuse).
Women experienced triple the amount of severe forms of violence (choking, sexually assaulted, threatened with gun)
Women were more likely to experience repeated victimizations (57% women vs 40% men)
Women were more likely to have been injured (42% women vs 18% men)
Younger people (25-34) three times more likely to experience IPV compared to 45+ years old.
Violence was more common for Indigenous respondents and respondents having a physical or mental health problem. Less common for immigrants.
Highest rates of violence were reported by gay/lesbian individuals (twice as high as heterosexuals) and bisexuals (four times higher than heterosexuals).
Experience of IPV did not vary across income or education level.
Violence against women was more likely to be reported to police (23%) compared to 7% for men.
The primary reason for victims to report to police was to get the violence to stop and obtain police protection. The primary reason for not reporting was because they viewed it as a personal matter.
What are the limitations of the Conflict Tactic Scale? CTS
What was the response to these concerns?
-Failure to assess for the context and purpose of violent acts (offensive vs defensive)
-Few items measuring psychological aggression.
-No assessment of sexual aggression
-No assessment of the consequences of aggression (what types of injuries occur)
Straus, Hamby, Boney-McCoy, and Sugerman (1996) developed a more comprehensive version—the CTS-2, in which the following changes were made:
-The physical aggression scale was expanded to include more acts (e.g., burned or scalded partner on purpose, slammed partner against wall).
-The verbal aggression scale was renamed psychological aggression and additional items were added (e.g., did something to spite partner).
-The reasoning scale was renamed negotiation and additional items were added (e.g., explained side of argument).
-New scales were added to measure sexual aggression (e.g., I used threats to make my partner have sex) and physical injury (e.g., I had a broken bone from a fight with my partner).
-A better description was developed of minor versus more serious forms of acts.
-Items from each scale were interspersed to minimize response sets.
In 2013, the World Health Organization reviewed research from 79 counties and concluded that…
“Violence against women is pervasive globally”.
It found global lifetime prevalence of physical and/or sexual violence in intimate relationships to be 30 percent, however prevalence rates varied widely around the world.
The highest lifetime prevalence rates were found in central sub-Saharan Africa (66 percent), South Asia (42 percent), and Andean Latin America (41 percent), and the lowest rates were found in East Asia (15 percent), Western Europe (19 percent) and North America (21 percent).
In addition, findings showed that 38 percent of all murders of women were committed by their intimate partners. These survey results provide a clear indication that IPV remains a prevalent and ongoing societal concern.
Is there increased risk of engaging in IPV among people with a psychiatric disorder?
A recent meta-analysis of 17 studies found that there was an increased risk of lifetime physical violence against a partner in men and women with a psychiatric disorder.
However, it was not clear from the studies reviewed whether the violence occurred when the person was actively experiencing psychiatric symptoms. In addition, the authors were not able to examine whether the violence perpetrated might have been due to substance use. It has been shown that much of the increased risk of general violence in mentally ill people is due to substance use.
The International Dating Violence Study (Chan et al. 2008) used the Conflict Tactics Scale–2 to examine the prevalence of dating violence in 14 252 university students across 32 countries. What were the Canadian findings?
In comparison to other countries, Canadian dating violence rates were in the lower half of the nations surveyed. However, about one in five Canadian university students reported having experienced physical assault by their dating partners in the previous 12 months.
In contrast, the United States and Canada had relatively high rates of sexual coercion as compared to other countries.
In 2013, Statistics Canada (Beaupré 2015) provided information on the number of police-reported intimate partner and dating partner violence incidents across Canada.
How many were reported?
90 720 incidents were reported in 2013 (rate remained steady over the past five years).
The survey showed that violence often does not end when a relationship ends—in 33 percent of cases the perpetrator was an ex-intimate or dating partner.
The highest incidence of victimization was in younger people between the ages of 20 to 29. The data likely underestimate the amount of violent offences, since most victims do not call the police.
In addition, police data only include forms of intimate partner violence that are chargeable under the Canadian Criminal Code (most forms of psychological and financial abuse are excluded).
According to the 2013 Statistics Canada survey on IPV, which province had the most reported incidents? The least?
Highest in Saskatchewan and Alberta (635.0 and 512.7 victims per 100 000 population, respectively)
Lowest in Ontario and PEI (231.8 and 239.0 victims per 100 000 population, respectively).
However, in Nunavut the rate is six times higher than in Saskatchewan (3995.4 per 100 000 population)
Why are rates of police-reported IPV varied across provinces?
Differing number of risk factors across the provinces and territories: social isolation, younger couples, higher levels of unemployment, higher rates of alcohol consumption, more common-law marriages, lack of resources for victims, and the proportion of Indigenous Peoples.
According to the 2013 Statistics Canada survey on IPV, which gender is most the most likely victim to report IPV to police across all provinces?
What was the rate of charges laid for incidents involving female victims and incidents involving male victims?
Women
80%
74% of incidents involving female victims
64% involving male victims
A study by Akers and Kaukinen (2009), using data from the Canadian General Social Survey from 1999, examined which demographic and incidence-related variables were related to police-reporting decisions. What was the findings?
-Married women were less likely to report violence (likely due to stronger emotional and financial ties)
-Women with children in the home who witnessed the abuse are more likely to contact the police
-Minority women were more likely to contact police than caucasian women.
-Likelihood of reporting increased with age
-Women more likely to call police if injured of a weapon was involved
-If the abuser was drinking during the incident or if he also destroyed property, the victim was more likely to report the abuse.
According to some studies, women engage in more _______ violence than men.
Minor
Williams and Frieze (2005) analyzed the occurrence of violence in 3519 couples and found that the most frequently occurring type of violence was….
…mutual and mild violence followed by mutual severe violence.
This pattern indicates that, at least for some forms of intimate violence, the long-held belief that males are the primary instigators is false
Recent evidence indicates that it is possible to identify personality and behavioural features in _________ _____ that will predict their use of _______ in _____ _____ _____ _____ ____ regardless of whether their ____ _____ uses violence.
15-year-old girls
violence
dating relationships at age 21
male partner