Sociology Plus
Domestic Violence Definition
Domestic violence is a pattern of coercive behavior designed to exert power and control over a person in an intimate relationship through intimidating, threatening, harmful, or harassing conduct (Dutton 1995). The term usually refers to physical abuse at the hands of a spouse or partner, though it may extend to the physical abuse of children by parents or step-parents (violence against children is more often labeled child abuse). Popularized by feminists in the 1970s — some of whom established refuges for battered women — it named male violence, psychological as well as physical, against women in the home, and pressed the policy case that such violence is not a private matter but a species of violence against the person that should be policed as aggressively as violence between strangers.
Definition and Measurement Problems
There is no full agreement on what the definition should include. Some argue for a broad definition embracing physical, sexual, and emotional or psychological abuse; others restrict it to actions resulting in physical injury. The disagreement complicates the already difficult task of measuring incidence: broad definitions yield much higher figures than narrow ones, and domestic violence is among the most widely underreported of crimes — most cases never reach the police, and many victims suffer in silence for years.
Patterns of Victimization
Despite these methodological challenges, research — much of it conducted in the last twenty-five years — reveals clear patterns. Victims are primarily women: in 1998 US women were victimized at five times the rate of men (Rennison and Welchans 2000). Women face a higher risk of violent attack from intimates than from strangers — up to six times more likely to be assaulted by a partner or ex-partner than by a stranger (Bachman and Saltzman 1995) — and are more likely to be injured when the assailant is an intimate. Domestic violence is one of the leading causes of injury to women in the US (Tjaden and Thoennes 1998). Rates vary by race, age, and economic status: African Americans experience the highest rates, and victimization is greatest among the poor and among women aged 16 to 24.
Why Victims Stay, and the Wider Costs
Many victims remain in abusive relationships out of fear, lack of resources, or hope of change — and the fear is well founded, since the risk of serious or lethal injury peaks at the point of separation. Each year roughly a third of all female homicide victims in the US are killed by intimates. The costs spill over to society at large: the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (2003) estimates domestic violence costs the US $5–10 billion annually in medical expenses, police and court costs, shelters, and absenteeism, and it has been cited as a primary cause of homelessness (US Conference of Mayors 1999). Many towns and cities now maintain women’s refuges where victims and their children can stay in safety.
Policing and the Law
Police and courts have typically been reluctant to intervene, preferring to treat the family as a private realm. This reflects partly the sexist attitudes long commonplace in male-dominated agencies, and partly the genuine difficulty of building a prosecution when the evidence often reduces to one person’s word against another’s. Political campaigns and the growing presence of women in law enforcement have changed the climate in most Western societies, so that family violence is no longer accepted — but the evidential problems remain.
Explanations and Research Directions
Feminists argue that domestic violence against women arises from the patriarchal system, in which men are assumed to hold power over women, who are expected — and often expect themselves — to play a subordinate role; on this account it reflects gender inequalities in power and women’s oppression. Early research concentrated on documenting the scale of the problem; more recent work examines prevention and intervention, assessing mandatory arrest laws (Sherman and Berk 1984; Hirschel and Buzawa 2002) and court-ordered batterer treatment programs (Davis and Taylor 1999). Other studies link domestic violence to related forms of violence: child abuse, dating violence, sexual assault, and violence among same-sex couples (Renzetti 1992). As understanding of its dynamics and causes deepens, more effective intervention and prevention should follow — to the benefit of all.