Domestic Violence

• • Physical domestic violence
  • Emotional domestic violence
  • Sexual domestic violence
  • Psychological domestic violence
  • Financial domestic violence
• 25% of women will be victims of domestic violence at some point of their lives
• 17% of men will be victims of domestic violence at some point in their lives.
• Domestic violence has the highest rate of repeat victims than any other crime.
• It is a form of violent crime which is least likely to be reported to police.
• Women aged 16 to 19 years were more likely to be victims of any domestic abuse in the last year than women aged 25 years and over.
• Partner abuse is much more common than other types of family abuse.
• Women are mostly the victims of abuse and violence.
• the radical feminist explanation

  • Families and marriages are patriarchal, as is society.
  • Domestic Violence is widespread and inevitable under Patriarchy- It explains why most domestic violence is committed by men against women.
  • Socialisation of gender roles reinforces traditional ideas about power and dominance in marriages.
• The Radical Feminist Explanation

  • Dobash and Dobash(2007) argue 'violent incidents' could be triggered by women challenging men's authority.
  • Marriage legitimises violence against women by making women dependent on men, and by allocating men most of the power and authority in the marriage.
• The Materialist Explanations

  • Focuses on inequality as an explanation i.e. economic and material factors.
  • Domestic Violence is the result of stress caused by social inequalities.
  • Those on lower incomes are more likely to have stress regarding money, housing, work etc. and this leads to increased tensions within Families.
  • Wilkinson finds when analysing official statistics those with less status, power and wealth are at the greatest risk of domestic abuse. " is domestic violence a working class problem?"
  • Ansely -"women as the takers of shit"
• The crime Survey for England and Wales estimates only 33% of domestic abuse is reported.
• Any crime in society which is not included in official statistics is said to be part of the 'dark figure' of crime.
• Underreporting contributes to the dark figure of crime, and the true rate of domestic violence may never be known.
• some victims are unable to report that they are victims.
• Cheal argues the police and other state agencies are reluctant to engage with families for several reasons:

  • The Family is a 'private sphere'.
  • Families perform a positive role and so the 'dark side of the family' is often neglected or ignored entirely.
  • Police may argue that "women are often economically dependent they wish".(women are often economically dependent on men).