Family Systems Theory-Feminist Theories Of Domestic Violence

There are three main theories that can associate themselves with the issue on domestic violence. These theories are of the following: conflict theory, structural functionalism, and symbolic interactionism. Out of these theories though, the one that seems the most logical dealing with domestic violence would be symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism best fits with this topic because it deals with the individual and their construction of identity that can be a part of a small group or even an organization. In this case of domestic violence, the small group would be their intimate partner or family and the construction of identity would clearly be the abusive person they are when around she or he. It examines the social world from the small-scale perspective of how people interact with one another on an everyday basis. Abusers have negative repetitive behaviors, which is why it fits this description and theory the

Domestic violence has been plaguing our society for years. There are many abusive relationships, and the only question to ask is: why? The main answer is control. The controlling characteristic that males attribute to their masculinity is the cause to these abusive relationships. When males don’t have control they feel their masculinity is threatened and they need to do something about it. This doesn’t occur in just their relationships, but rather every facet of life. Men are constantly in a struggle for power and control whether it is at work, home, during sports, or in a relationship, this remains true. So the only way for them to get this power is for them to be “men”; tough, strong, masculine, ones that demand and take power. Where

Families in which husbands are abusive to their wives depict these social attitudes and furthermore, convey messages to their children that domestic violence is tolerable in society (Abraham, 1995). This notion is also argued by Gelles and Smith who stated that “wife abuse is more common among couples who witnessed their mothers being abused and/or were abused when they were a child” (as cited by Furze et al, 2008, p213). Therefore, domestic violence is caused by patriarchal structures and male domination in socialisation.

A second example of a theory that would explain domestic violence would be the social learning theory. This theory falls under the category of the psychological theory. The social learning theory is the most relevant theory that applies to criminology. “Behavior is supported by rewards and extinguished by negative reactions or punishments” (Siegel, 2007, p.109). The social learning theory believes people are not born with the ability to act in

Domestic violence, alternatively referred to as Intimate Partner Violence, is defined by the Department of Justice as “a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner.” While domestic violence is commonly thought of as only physical or sexual abuse, domestic violence can also be emotional, economic, or psychological. Domestic violence has remained constant in society throughout history, even though over time society’s response to the issue has changed. While domestic violence affects everyone regardless of race, gender, age, etc. it is estimated that approximately 90% of all victims are women. For the purpose of this paper, I will be focusing on

The article constructs domestic violence as an issue of gender, race and socioeconomic status. Women are identified as the “majority” of victims (Taylor 2014). Consequently, the article conceptually represents domestic violence as events of intimate terrorism where one partner violently terrorizes the other partner to gain complete control over the relationship, which is entirely perpetrated by men (Johnson 2012). With that said, Johnson (2012) points out that majority of domestic violence is situational couple violence, where both the man and the

This began to change in the 1980s, as women’s groups were organized locally and internationally to demand attention to the physical, psychological, and economic abuse of women (p.369-370). Domestic violence is a serious social issue that happens to many women in our world today. This type of abuse is not declining but continually rising on a daily basis. There have been issues in the past with the way these cases were being handled. Today, there has been some improvement concerning the laws that have been enforced in order to protect women from this type of abuse. There has been extensive research done on this issue in the past concerning domestic violence. Over the last ten years there have been a number of surveys on domestic violence that have been published from around the world.

Domestic violence has been an ongoing problem for many years women are often abused physically mentally and emotionally. When domestic violence occurs there are past reasons that the domestic partner is mentally capable of distributing this type of violence. Women have fallen victim to domestic abuse forever, domestic abuse is an undeserved issue that someone with sociological issues develops a violent rage and then acts and reacts in a violent manner. Over time domestic violence has increased and this increase can be attributed to the contribution of how people are treated as children, the examples that their parents set for them, as well as people and issues in their present situations that may also contribute to violent attributes.

Domestic violence became a realization and a serious concern in the mid 1970’s for many Americans. “This realization is due to the women advocating on behalf of the battered women movement”

Our culture refuses to hold women equally accountable as men for their participation in Domestic Violence. Women’s behavior whether perpetrator or victim, is understood and passed off as socialization or poor economic status. On the other hand men are held fully accountable for all of their behavior. “Despite the tough guy stereotype all boys are encouraged to embody and the abuse many bear as a normal

Domestic violence used to be considered a private family matter and was not considered a societal problem until feminists in the 70's started pushing the matter. Beginning in the 1970’s, social policy toward female victims of domestic assaults focused on improving legal response and

Domestic Violence is a human tragedy, and has been a part of life for many individuals. It is not subjective to a particular group, race, or culture. Historically, the feminist movement preserved the theory that domestic violence is a growing matter because of the continuous power differential between the male gender and the female gender. Remarkably, this approach on domestic disputes unveiled the inner workings of barriers men, women, and children would face when in a domestic violence situation. The feminist theory emphasizes on studying “the gendered nature of all relationships…which aims at understanding how gender is related to social inequalities and oppression” (Marsigila & Kulis, 2015, p. 148). Disastrously, an ignorant notion that once dominated our culture was the belief that emotional agony was less painful than physical brutality. However,

It is an intervention that effects connections of individuals in a relationship. In other words, anything that affects one part of the system will have an impact on the other part (Ward & Bélanger, 2014). The family systems theory analyzes the communications of individual within a nuclear family, as well as behaviour patterns that are transmitted to generations. The strengths of this theory is that family is a system within a larger system which can influence others to contribute in particular sorts of behaviours (Ward & Bélanger, 2014). For instance, when domestic violence occurs at home it will change the patterns of individuals within the family. On the other hand, this theory focuses on the whole family rather than focusing on each person. Similar concept is shown in domestic violence whereas abuse takes place, it focuses on how the family is dealing with affects as opposed to how the specific individual is feeling that is being mistreated. Additionally, when aggressive behaviour occurs in families, it causes stress; for example, if spouses commit misuse on one another, it causes adolescents to end up depressed. Family systems theory proposes that when couples cannot balance their emotions, they become emotionally reactive and do whatever is necessary to reduce their anxiety. Violence is one of the solutions that individual use to get out of emotional stress and lessen tension in the

A Theoretical Framework are theories that is formulated to explain, predict, and understand phenomena and, in many cases, to challenge and extend existing knowledge, within the limits of the critical bounding assumptions. The theoretical framework is the structure that can hold or support a theory of a research study. The theoretical framework introduces and describes the theory which explains why the research problem under study exists. There are three topics that will be discussed: (a) the background on domestic violence and the different reasons why women stay, (b) the criminal justice system and how the laws need to be

Domestic violence refers to abusive behavior in any relationship that is inflicted on a partner to gain or maintain power and control over another partner. Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological. Domestic violence includes behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone. Domestic violence can happen to anyone, regardless of their race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender; and it also occurs in both opposite-sex and same-sex relationships; domestic violence also affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels (Justice, The United States Department of, 2017). This topic has attracted a lot of discussion and research because of its dominance and complexity. This essay, therefore seeks to look at the causes and effects of domestic violence.