Week 12 - Violence, Dominance, Control, and Masculinity

What is violence and violent crimes?

Severe forms of agression that have extreme harm as their goal

For violence and violent crimes men more likey to be?

men more likely than women to perpetrate all types of interpersonal violence (e.g., intimate partner violence, murder, assault, rape)

• 90% of violent crimes and 95% of homicides committed by men

• men more likely than women to be victims of physical and interpersonal violence

• 81% of homicide victims were men in 2021

• assault, robbery, physically threatened, murder

What are the sex differences between physical agression and relational agression?

• stable sex difference in physical aggression

• no stable sex difference in relational aggression (non-physical harm)

• depends on direct observation, peer-report, teacher-report, self-report

• larger effects: younger vs. older, field vs. laboratory, provoked vs. unprovoked

What is young male syndrome?

Men are more likely to kill and be killed in their late teens and early 20s

Aggression

Behaviour intended to cause psychological or physical harm to a person or non-human animal

Physical Agression

physical acts intended to injure or hurt others

Verbal Agression

communications intended to harm others

Direct Aggression

Overt verbal or physical behaviour aimed directly at another person, with the intention to harm

Indirect (relational) aggression

Behaviors intended to harm another person's social relationships or status, often performed when the target is not physically present.

Bullying

Aggression (direct or indirect) that is repeated over time and in which the perpetrator holds more power than the victim

Cyberbullying

Aggression committed via the internet, mobile phones, or other types of electronic or digital technologies

Violence

Severe forms of physical aggression that have extreme harm as their goal

Sex-based harassment (sexual harassment)

Behavior that derogates or humiliates an individual based on the individual's sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

Stress harassment

Uninvited sexual attention or harassment from a stranger in a public space

Power Distance

the extent to which a culture has and accepts unequally distributed levels of status and power among its members

Intimate Partner Violence

any behaviour intended to cause physical harm to a romantic partner

• 30% women globally at some point in lifetime

• 38% of all murders of women committed by intimate partner

• both men and women in heterosexual and same-sex relationships

Situational Couple Violence

Intimate partner violence that results when heated conflicts escalate; committed by men and women about equally.

• does not usually result in serious injury

• men and women perpetrate roughly equally in Western nations

Intimate Terrorism

Intimate partner violence is when one partner (usually a man) repeatedly uses violence and fear to dominate and control the other.

• often results in serious injury

• gender asymmetry, women predominantly victims and men predominantly perpetrators worldwide

Sexual Assault

unwanted sexual contact without the explicit consent of the victim

• 1 out of 3 women over lifetime (WHO, 2016)

• higher risk: ≤15 years old, developmental disability, sex worker, homeless, poor, refugee, ethnic minority, sexual minority, gender minority

What is the one exception to men more often being the victims?

women more likely than men to be victims

- sexual violence, the extreme end of sexual objectification

What population is at risk for higher sexual assualt?

Being young, female, marginalized, and disempowered

Rape

Non-consensual penetration of the mouth, vagaina, or anus by the penis, finger or objects

• highest rates in North America, southern Africa, Oceania

• lowest rates in South Asia, Near and Middle East, Central Asia

Polyvictimization

experiencing multiple kinds of victimization

Unacknowledged rape

an experience that meets the legal definition of rape but is not labeled as rape by the victim

Rape Myths

Widely held false beliefs about rape, rape victims, and rapists

- People who more strongly endorse these beliefs are less likely to label acts as rape even when they meet legal definitions of rape.

False Rape allegations

accusations of rape that the accuser knows to be false

What are the consequences of cultural practices?

- There are cultural practices with roots in structural gender inequities that permit violence against women

- violence used to reinforce power difference and ties the value of women to childbearing and sexual gratification

Honor Culture

A culture in which individual and family honor is at the center of all social life and men are expected to defend their own and their family's honor with violence if necessary.

- male-to-female violence excused and accepted in honor cultures

- countries in Mediterranean Basin, Middle East, North Africa, Latin America, South Asia, Southern United States

Honor Killing

The murder of a (typically female) family member who is perceived to have brought shame or dishonor to the family.

- e.g., infidelity, refusing arranged marriage, seeking divorce, being raped

What are dowry deaths?

woman murdered by husband or in- laws if her family fails to pay adequate dowry

What are acid attacks?

rejected men throw sulfuric acid onto women and girls to punsih them

Male Discrepany Stress

Anxiety that boys and men feel about not living up to masculine expectations set by society

Socioeconomic dependence perspective

the hypothesis that men use violence as a means of maintaining control over partners who are economically dependent on them and thus unlikely to leave

Status inconsistency perspective

The hypothesis that men engage in partner violence more often when they feel threatened by partners who have greater economic status and power than they do.

Female genital Mulilation

Removing or injuring the external genitalia of girls or young women for nonmedical reasons; also known as female genital cutting or female circumcision

Child Marriage

arranged marriages of girls to much older men

Sex Trafficking

Forced, nonconsensual recruitment and retention of persons for sexual use and exploitation.

What are the individual factors that contribute to gender -based violence?

no single profile exists

• Hostile attitudes toward women

• Adverse childhood events

• Antisocial personality traits

• Alcohol abuse

What are the biological factors that contribute to gender - based violence?

do not make aggression inevitable

• Testosterone—correlational, complex hormone

• Physical size—larger people more aggressive, within and between sexes

What are the sociocultural factors that contribute to gender- based violence?

cultures vary widely in these tendencies

• honor cultures—Middle East, Southeast Asia, Latin American, southern US

• precarious manhood

• status and power

• devaluation of women

What is restricted Freedom of movement?

- Carry something to defend self

- Carry keys in a defensive manner

- Lock car doors when alone

- Check back seat of car for intruders

- Pretend to talk on cell phone when alone

- Walk with another individual for safety

- Plan route with safety in mind

- Stay home for fear of going out alone

- Avoid walking past strangers when alone

- Change routine or activities

What is the importance of language when it comes to victims and perpetrators?

- Language affects how people actor attribute harm and blame to victims and perpetrators

- Passive voice leads to less perceived harm attributed to

victims, and more responsibility is attributed to victims and less to perpetrators

What are unfounded cases?

sexual assault allegations dismissed as baseless or

unfounded–a crime was never attempted or occurred

- 1 in 5 sexual assault allegations in Canada 

-  London had one of the highest unfounded rates—30% (690 of 2278 allegations over 5-year period); national rate is 19.39%

• True unfounded cases are rare (2–8%)–police in Canada are closing a disproportionate number of rape cases as unfounded

What is the importance of understanding trauma and memory?

- Fight or flight - amygdala goes off, flooding the body with stress hormones

- Hippocampus is responsible for storing long-term memories, but function is impaired under intense fear

- Certain parts of the event may be burned into memory, others not recalled at all or stored poorly

What is the neurobiology of trauma?

• they can’t offer a linear account of attack but perceived as

unreliable if they can’t do so

• they can’t offer peripheral details, so not seen as credible

• recall sensory fragments (smell or image) that need to be

uncovered during the interview and woven together

• can take up to 72 hours for stress hormones to leave the brain–a

victim questioned immediately after an attack will not have

access to full memories

What is consent?

all parties have given clear and unambiguous agreement

- must have freedom and capacity to give consent

Who is unable to consent?

• a person facing intimidation cannot give free consent

• a person who is incapacitated or unconscious cannot give consent

• consent can be verbal or nonverbal

• consent can be withdrawn at any time

• consent to engage in one activity is not consent to engage in a different activity

• marriage does not automatically mean consent is given

• cannot be assumed by the way a person dresses, smiles or flirts

I3 Theory

The theory that partner violence depends on the interplay of three factors: Instigation x impellance x inhibition

What is instigation?

provocations by partner in conflict situations

What is impellance?

dispositional or situational forces that increase aggressive

response to instigation (aggressive personality; intoxication)

What is inhibition?

dispositional or situational forces that decrease aggressive

response (self-control, presence of police officer)

What is dependence and relationship maintenance?

• Some relationships should break up, but people who feel committed to toxic relationships might stay despite their best interests

• Dependence and commitment can explain why people stay in/return to unhealthy or abusive relationships

What is interdependence theory?

defines power as an imbalance in how much each partner in a relationship needs the other

- We feel satisfied when our partner exceeds expectations

- We feel dependent when our partner exceeds alternatives

What are the two factors that contribute to gendered power?

economic dependence and emotional dependence

What is economic dependency?

degree in which partner relies on the other for financial support, typically refers to when one partner has exclusive control over financial resources

What is emotional dependency?

need for nurturance, protection and validation, even when a person can care for themselves and meet their own needs

What are the factors that influence whether a person will go back to an abusive relationship or not?

• High satisfaction, low alternatives, and high investments = highest relationship commitment and most likely to return to abusive relationships

• Women with more alternatives left– those having the means to be independent (e.g., money and transportation) were the most likely to permanently escape from their violent partners

Aggressive Pornography

sexually explicit material that is meant to arouse and that contains acts of physical or verbal aggression, degradation, or humiliation

Erotica

sexually explicit nonaggressive, maternal that is meant to arouse

Sexual Callousness model

a model proposing that repeated exposure to pornography desensitizes and habituates viewers, leading to callous sexual attitudes toward women