domestic violence- focus on power

The Women’s Aid Federation (2008) defines domestic violence as ‘physical, psychological, sexual or financial violence that takes place within an intimate or family-type relationship and forms a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour. It may involve partners, ex-partners, household members or relatives.’

Statistical evidence shows:

· In 2019, 2.4 million adult’s experiences domestic abuse, 1.6 million of these were female.

· In the last year, 746,219 domestic abuse related crimes were recorded by the police, which is an increase of 24% from 2018.

Mirrlees-Black found that:

· Nearly 1/4 women has been assaulted by a partner at some point in their life.

· Nearly two women every week will be killed by a partner or ex-partner.

However, official statistics on domestic abuse are usually invalid because women do not report it.

EXPLAINING DOMESTIC ABUSE

Challenging the power and authority of men – Dobash & Dobash

Their research using unstructured interviews further confirms the view that domestic violence is social in origin rather than psychological. They studied police and court records, as well as conducting interviews with women in women refuges and found that violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority, such as his wife asking why he was late home from work.

They argue that marriage legitimates violence against women by conferring power and authority on husbands and dependency on wives

It’s all about patriarchy – Radical Feminism

Radical feminists see domestic violence as a result of patriarchy, and the family and marriage as the key institution in patriarchal society and the main source of women’s oppression. They link patterns of domestic

violence to dominant social norms about marriage. Within the family, men dominate women through domestic violence, or the threat of it.

Widespread domestic violence is an inevitable feature of patriarchal society and serves to preserve the power that all men have over all women. Also, male domination of state institutions, such as the police and the courts, explains their reluctance to deal effectively with cases of domestic violence.

Marxist-Feminism – Ansley

Women act as an emotional sponge to soak up their husband’s frustrations at work often becoming the takers of shit within the family home. Such experiences can lead to episodes of domestic violence, which makes women less confrontational and revolutionary, which in turn maintains the power of the ruling class.

Duncombe & Marsden supports this view with their notion of the triple – shift.

Evaluation

1. Elliot rejects the Radical and Marxist Feminist claim that all men benefit from violence against women and adds that not all men are aggressive and most are opposed to domestic violence. Radical feminists ignore this.

Furthermore, today statistics indicate that 757,000 men were victims of domestic abuse in 2020. Marxist Feminist ignore male victimisation.

2. The study by Dobash & Dobash as well as Radical and Marxist-Feminist views are arguably outdated now and not just due to more women working. Many women have been influenced by feminist views, also the law and approach of the police has changed regarding domestic violence, which means it is less tolerated now and there are greater prosecutions.