Victimization of Women Essay

This essay will discuss the ways in which gender influences patterns and processes of victimisation, identifying key victimological perspectives and typologies. It will consider key authors in the discipline and offer definitions of terms used. The essay will identify three issues which may impact on gendered victimisation before acknowledging the argument that radical victimology offers a more balanced approach to gendered victimisation than positivist or critical viewpoints.

Mandell argues that regardless of class, race, age, sexual orientation, woman are subject to male violence. Nothing can protect women in a patriarchal society. Violence against women ranges from verbal and physical abuse to sexual abuse, rape, pornography, battering and rape. (Mandell, Fifth Edition) Violence against woman is common and persistent. Thirty years ago, most forms of violence against women were hidden under a cloak of silence or acceptance. SOURCE Although, years later, it became apparent that violence against woman occurs on a massive scale; that no woman is immune. She emphasises that women are targets to be victimized. Men are socialised to objectify woman, legitimate aggression, and blame woman for their own victimization. ‘Where woman dominate, men have to resort to greater use of force to remain dominant’. (Mandell, Fifth Edition) They set the glass just high enough, so women cannot reach to break it, keeping the male in the dominate position.

The book ‘Yes Means Yes!’ by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti contains articles written by themselves and articles written by other women about women’s sexual power and rape. Jessica Valenti’s ‘Purely Rape: The Myth of Sexual Purity and How it Reinforces Rape Culture’ and Jaclyn Friedman’s ‘In Defense of Going Wild’ discusses the problematic ideology of society towards sexuality, purity, and rape. Valenti argues that the way media depicts certain women and that chastity pledges supports rape culture; while Friedman argues that the “taboo” of women’s sexuality is what drives the porn business and rape.

“The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.”- Edmund Burke. The desire to have power can be traced through the natural instinct of competition for dominance over weaker beings, through the human need to be superior. Throughout history, humans have fought for control over everything they believed belong to them, such as land, territory, and food. As humanity has evolved, the fight for control and power has evolved as well, to where violence and rape have become a normal part of society as a whole. Through the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the novels Things fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and the poem A White man’s Burden by Rudyard Kipling, rape is used to insert superiority

If government officials are truly interested in assisting Indigenous communities in dealing with the violence in their communities, they should demonstrate this commitment by developing a national strategy to curb violence against Indigenous women. Special attention should be paid to the way race, gender, and power intersects in the violence faced by Indigenous women. Furthermore, as specifically mentioned by Professor Adam Jones of UBC Okanagan, the structural violence of their continuing poverty, discrimination and dispossession from ancestral territories, as well as the echoing trauma of the residential-school genocide needs to be assessed (Jones). Significantly, to address violence against Indigenous women successfully,

In contrast to the women who assembled at the Seneca Falls convention in 1948 and merely protested against the ill-treatment and abuse of women by drunken husbands and achievement of their legitimate rights in marriage, control of property and earnings and equal pay with men for the same work, the demands of the modern successors are far more radical. In the largest most enthusiastic Feminist demonstration ever held, on August 26, 1970, hundreds of women marched down Fifth Avenue, New York City carrying play cards which read:

This discussion about women as victims and defendants was insightful. There is a lot I did not know when it came to women in the criminal justice system. As a male myself I could not see it from a women’s point of view. It is funny how a man actually was up there explaining to us what women go through while in the criminal justice system. I think it is really significant when someone advocates for someone, or a group who is not affected by their injustice. Dr. Joseph P. Conti presentation was very good. His teachings on women as victims and defendants were intriguing. His lecture on how Pennsylvania laws changed over the years, when it had to do with women was fascinating. His merits showed he knew what he was talking about. This felt like a class I really would enjoy attending. Dr. Joseph lecture on Monday gave an extension to our class in Victimology.

Peace, freedom, stability, education, equality, and prosperity: the mere aspirations that every American wishes to achieve. The “dream” our founding fathers wanted every man to obtain. However, what we Americans forget to acknowledge is our own dreams. We are too myopic and are so apprehensive towards failure that we attempt to prevent others from succeeding. Every man desires equality; but where does this leave women? We constantly cast-aside the gender division that is prevalent in our country and dismiss intentions to move towards change. Men exists because of women. Women and men are of one entity: the human being. And we as fellow human beings must realize our place and demand change. But change for what? Change that we are too afraid

Feminist analysis has argued that the patriarchal system of gender inequalities which empowers men and oppresses women underpins sexual violence and that stratification and social control are fundamental elements in the sexual domination of women Brownmiller (1975:4).

As we creep into a more modern civilization, women’s role in society is rightfully evolving. No longer are women known as solely housekeepers, but are recognized as the intellectual and powerful beings they truly are. In Susan Glaspell’s short story “Trifles”, it is inherently clear that women are to be seen and not heard, which is not uncommon for the timeframe in which it was written. The women in the story “Trifles” are subject to male inferiority, psychological damage, and are considered as second class citizens.

In this essay I will examine the conflict of rape culture, the social normalization of rape and abuse. I see a connection between rape culture and patriarchy, although rape culture is a relatively new social topic it has been prevalent throughout history.

When the society perceive and acknowledge male dominance as a social norm, it will cause men to believe that they rule above other gender. According to Taylor (2012), men have the urge to be in all control and powerful. Men tend to view women as inferior beings, so they self-appointed themselves to manage women’s lives in order to boost up their dominance. On the other hand, women are expected to surrender to men’s dominancy without questioning their validity because revolt will only lead to violence. In New Delhi, an innocent girl was shot dead just because she refused to be sexually harassed. It is clear that in such cases, men use violence as a way to “tame” women and force women to succumb to their dominance. Consequently, women have

The Battered Women Syndrome is a series of characteristics in women who are physically and psychologically abused by an important dominant male in their lives. These women learn helplessness and dependency; sometimes these characteristics originate from childhood. According to Dr. Lenore E. Walker, a woman must experience two cycles, before she can be labeled a “battered woman”. The two cycles are called the “cycle of violence”. This cycle leads to the feeling that the abuse will never stop. It almost becomes natural. Sometimes the relationships will be calm, and the abuser will apologize for what happened. This part is called the “honeymoon cycle”, but at other points in the cycle the tension and

“A great achievement of women’s movements worldwide has been their success in ‘breaking the silence’ about male violence against women in intimate relationships” (Vickers, 2002). Having broken the silence of violence it has also broken the silence of oppression. The ongoing battle(s) of women’s rights suggests that the silence of oppression is of the past and the future holds equality for all alike. “…power is the capacity to terrorize, to use self and strength to inculcate fear, fear in a whole class of persons” (Dworkin, 1981). Male dominance exhibits and practices fear toward those of different classes, its use is to gain power to which control is given. “In the male system, sex is the penis, the penis is sexual power, its use in fucking is manhood” (Dworkin, 1981). The male mind indicates that without a penis an authority of power is dismissed and overlooked. Unfortunate for society today male hierarchy continues to be the dominant practice and the penis is a visual and vital form of power. “Male sexual power is the substance of culture” (Dworkin, 1981). Although women have come a long way their oppression and limited amount of power in society has yet to be broken and adjusted because of this visual of the male penis extracting power in society.

Violence against women and girls is internationally prevalent. Regardless of class, age, or race, women everywhere are subject to physical, sexual, psychological, and economic aggression (United Nations, 2015; 1). According to the World Health organization, 1 in 3 women will experience physical and/or sexual violence by a partner a non-partner. Moreover, studies conducted by the World Health Organization suggest that exposure to violent behavior can have detrimental impacts that can affect the physical, mental, and emotional health of a woman or girl; some instances of extreme violence also lead to death. Due to the epidemic of gender-based homicides, the term ‘femicide’ became apparent. The term ‘femicide’ was coined by a woman named Carol Orlock, but was later defined in 2001 by an expert on violence against women and girls, Diana E. H. Russell. Femicide, as Diana defines it, is "the killing of females by males because they are female”. Presented by the World Health Organization, the main types and prevalence of femicide are intimate femicide, murders in the name of ‘honor’, dowry-related femicide, and non-intimate femicide (Garcia-Moreno, Guedes and Knerr, 2012; 1-2). Indeed, the forms of femicide existing vary among all cultures internationally, however, in this paper; I will primarily focus on non-intimate femicide in the region of Ciudad Juarez.