Domestic Violence

Common View - behaviour of a few disturbed or 'sick' individuals - causes are psychological rather than social
1. Sociologists - DV is far too wipespread to be simply the work of a few disturbed individuals
  1. Mirrlees- Black found that there's 6.6 million domestic assaults a year
4 types of abuse: partner abuse, family abuse, sexual assault and stalking
1. Mirrlees- Black found that...
  1. Most victims are women
  2. 99% of all incidents against women are commited by men
  3. Nearly 1 in 4 women have been assaulted by a partner
Dobash and Dobash found
1. violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority
2. They argue that marriage legitimates violence against women by conferring power and authority on husbands and dependency on wives
Official Statistics
1. According to Cheal...
  1. The family is a private sphere, so access to it by state agencies should be limited
  2. The family is a good thing and so agencies tend to neglect the 'darker side of the family'
  3. Individuals are free agents so its assumed that if a woman is experiencing abuse, shes free to leave
Radical Feminist Explanation
1. Findings e.g. from Dobash and Dobash show evidence of patriarchy
  1. Key division in society is between men and women - men are the enemy and exploiters of women
2. See the family and marriage as the key institutions in patriarchal society and the main source of women's oppression - within the family, men dominate women through domestic violence or the threat of it
3. Help to explain why most domestic violence is committed by men - argue that violence against women is part of patriarchal system that maintain's men's power
4. Elliot rejects RF claim and says not all men are aggressive - RF reject this
Other Groups at Risk
1. Children and Young People
2. Those in low social classes
3. Those who live in rented accommadation
4. Those on low income
5. Those with high levels of alcohol, drugs etc
Wilkinson- Domestic Violence, Inequality and Stress
1. Sees DV as the result of stress on family members caused by social inequality
  1. Findings of Wilkinson and Mirrlees-Black show those with less power, status, wealth or income are often at greater risk
2. Wilkinsons approach is useful in showing how social ineuality produces stress and triggers conflict and violence in families
  1. Those in lower social classes face greater hardship and stress - helps to explain the class differences in the statistics on DV

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Domestic Violence

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	Created by treisemcmahon about 11 years ago

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