The Use Of Force And Gender Symmetry

Domestic violence against women happens around the world every day, but the main focus of location discussed in this paper is Washington State. Females are most likely to suffer domestic violence abuse from someone that they know. In such cases, it has been a spouse that is the attacker. Women escape these violent crimes and reach out for help, but not every time. Based off of the data collected, I strongly believe that females are more often victims of domestic violence than males.

Research and theories often have an undertone, if not blatantly describing the male offender. However, there is another gender, that also participates in criminal behavior. Although the violent female offender is not as prevalent as violent male offender, reason being women and men have different triggers that create the outward violent behavior. The violent behavior shown by male offenders some time is motivated by money, sexual desires, and possibly power. Women, however have other way of obtaining money or satisfying sexual desires that don’t include violent behavior and sometimes not even criminal behavior. Women by nature are nurturing and in general don’t pursue power in the way that the male offender does. Women typically commit violent

is tolerated under these traditional conditions as discipline (Cohen, 1996). Domestic violence is overwhelmingly committed by men ".. to discipline and coerce women" (Cohen, 1996). "Husbands use violence against their wives as a way of coercing them, establishing control, and conveying rules to regulate 'proper' female behavior (Dobash & Dobash, 1977-1978)." This type of abusive behavior often comes from the ideology that women are subordinate to men (Cohen, 1996). This way of thinking

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

As mentioned before and regarding gender, women are far more likely than men to be victims of domestic violence (Kimmel and Holler, 2011, 375). Sev’er (2002) suggests an interesting finding regarding men and women who have fallen victim or have witnessed domestic abuse in their childhood. In her findings, Sev’er concluded that in comparison to non-violent men, violent men were three times more likely to have witnessed violence as a child, meanwhile, women who were raised in violent homes were twice as likely to fall victim to a form of domestic violence as opposed to women who were not raised in non-violent homes (109). As a child, if their role models, such as their fathers, got away with violence, they would assume that violent behaviour was acceptable (Sev’er, 2002, 109)

The earliest literature reference to domestic violence against men can be found in the studies of Suzanne Steinmetz (1977,1978) entitled, “The Battered Husband Syndrome.” She hypothesizes that the incidents of husband-on-wife beatings rivals the incidents of wife perpetrated batterings, and that it was husband abuse not wife abuse that was underreported form of domestic violence. Steinmetz used two United States populations, a broadband nonrepresentative group and a random sample in New Castle, Delaware in the form of police reports and family surveys. The small study found only small differences in the percent of men and women who resorted to violence in the context of pushing, shoving, or hitting with hands or an object. This suggested early on that domestic violence is not a one way street. Husband beating is a serious issue and needs attention due to the fact that it is grossly underreported. Steinmetz received numerous criticism from her colleagues on this concept. In later studies, Murray Straus, Richard Gelles, and Suzanne Steinmetz (1980), authors of the book, Behind Closed Doors: Violence in The American Family, supports Steinmetz’s earlier studies in finding that women acted violently during marital affairs compared to a similar number of men who act violently in the United States. The study used 2,413 family surveys, finding in majority of them that the level of violence was a mutual or bilateral activity, with only 27% of cases finding that husbands were the

The history of battering has been around since the beginning of patriarchal systems. The cultural makeup of North America and other countries include the psychological, sociological, and cultural roots of violence in relationships. Battering is universal through all socioeconomic levels of society and is not limited to any boundaries, such as age, race, religion or sexual preference. The pervasive nature of partner violence is regarded as an association with power, which can make an immense impact on everyone involved in the situation. Power and violence in relationships are a serious issue.

In other studies, women have been found to be more sympathetic toward the victim compared to the men. However, the victim’s gender has been found to play a less important role in influencing the women, as they are more likely to believe the domestic abuse victim and either call the police or recommend that the victim press charges against the perpetrator (Poorman, Seelau, & Seelau, 2002). Therefore, when women and men are involved in a romantically abusive relationship, the gender roles as well as their expectations may dictate the perceived acceptability of the abuse. For instance, the men are traditionally believed to be bigger and stronger, while

Domestic violence is also a result of gender inequality (Furze et al, 2008). Gender acts as a stratification system that creates inequalities between men and women by ranking men above women within the same race and class (Lorber, 2003, as cited by Knoblock, 2008). Because men had a higher rank, they had more power and more prestige than women. This paved way for male domination of women in society (Knoblock, 2008). Gender inequality also reinforced stereotypes about masculinity and femininity i.e. men were tough, authoritative, powerful whilst women were passive, weak and dependent (Knoblock, 2008). These ideas permeated society, and hence provided reasons for men to think that they have a right to assault a woman (Knoblock, 2008). The link between domestic violence and gender inequality is

Meta-analysis of 82 mainly US studies found women were more likely than men to use acts of physical aggression (Archer, 2000). Such studies have attracted criticism for claiming gender symmetry in partner violence and for ignoring or obscuring the meaning, nature, context, and consequences of aggressive behaviour (Dobash et al, 1992, Hagemann-White, 2001, Dasgupta 2002, Saunders, 2002). Supporters of a gender symmetry hypothesis also fail to square it with men’s disproportionate use of violence and aggressive behaviour relative to women’s, in every other sphere of life (Kimmel, 2002).

Research on gender symmetry as it relates to domestic violence has been greatly explored. Martin Fiebert (1997) found seventy-nine empirical studies and nearly twenty reviews of literature which supported gender symmetry amongst couples. Archer (2000) reviewed eighty-two studies that supported gender symmetry. In understanding domestic violence, we generally rely on two types of information. The “crime victimization studies,” which rely greatly on large-scale aggregate data on victimization, and “family conflict studies,” which provides measurements in the prevalence of aggression between couples (Kimmel, 2001). These two data sources relay different rates of domestic violence, simply because they are measuring two different things.

When one talks about gender symmetry in domestic violence, they are referring to the idea of domestic violence being perpetrated against both genders equally. There is an assortment of studies that address both sides of the issue. Often when one thinks of domestic violence, they think of a husband beating his wife and/or children. However, there has been much controversy over whether both genders are victims and perpetrators of domestic violence equally.

Domestic violence or crime committed by family members increased slightly from 1.1 million in 2010 to 1.4 million in 2011 ( National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, 2011, p.2). Violence against women is common and results from association of gender with power and social control. According to Andersen, feminist scholars state that violence is a weapon men use to control women. Domestic violence emerges when one person demonstrates power over the other through violent means (Andersen, 2011, p. 189). Violence is one way men maintain their power over the women. Andersen claims, domestic violence emerged directly from the patriarchal structure where men were allowed to beat their wives to express male authority. Throughout the seventeenth and nineteenth century, based on the law, men were allowed to beat their wives as long as the method remained within certain tactics (Andersen, 2011, p.187). Anderson points out that there were cases where men were also victims of family violence; however, their injuries are not as sever when compared to injuries females face in violent relationships (Andersen, 2011, p.189).

The subject of husband-battering had finally been addressed, but not to the great satisfaction of anyone. Although it had finally been shown that there was violence being perpetrated both by wives and husbands, there was no information about relative frequency or severity, or who initiated the abuse and who was acting in self defense. Furthermore, some researchers became concerned that the use of police or social services references in choosing subjects to study might be biasing the results. In short, they recognized that battered husbands might be nearly invisible next to their female counterparts.

Gender asymmetry and gender symmetry are two different topics that are in a heated debate, when it comes to domestic violence. It’s not only talked about in the sociology department but in the criminal justice system, government officials, and feminist talks. Over the years we see a growing effect on domestic violence towards women. According to goodhousekeeping.com 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have been victims of physical violence by an intimate partner; and every 9 seconds in the U.S., a woman is assaulted or beaten. (Domestic Violence Statistics: The Horrific Reality) Researcher want to know how it started, how to prevent it and where it is coming from. There are numerous studies that show that men are the main focus in domestic violence. You hear it from the media, statistics, and victims themselves about the violence that is perpetuated by men against women. Some researchers think that the rates of domestic violence are equivalent to both genders, which is called gender symmetry. Since the 1990s, people have supported the name violence against women until the shifted of gender neutral terms. Some researcher and activist even think that women are the main causes of domestic violence and researchers show very little to no study of that. But that’s not the point, activist and researcher who agree with gender symmetry say that men are victimized by domestic violence are in equal numbers. Most antifeminist believe that women are violent as men. Women and men are equally violent, but the use different ways to show it. Both genders are trying to dominate and terrorize their partners, and for women it’s far less injuries and physical damages to the male partner.