Spousal Abuse
Causes of Spousal Abuse
Our society has made great strides in the last fifty years in terms of empowering women, granting them greater access to opportunities, income, self-realization, and the overall level of equality. Old patriarchal views which suggest that women should sit at home, be obedient, and know their "place" at home and in the society today are generally shunned. Yet stereotyping about women, sexism, and even misogyny in our society have not been eradicated. Violence against women remains at a frighteningly high levels. And most of the violence against women takes place at home.
Although there are families where women abuse men, overwhelming majority of spousal abuse cases involve abusive men who use violence against their wives. What are the causes of these abusive relationships? This paper tries to answer this question by utilizing conflict theory and reviewing literature on the topic. The conflict theory is premised on the idea that social relations can be explained by analyzing competing forces (Macionis, 2008). In the context of this paper, conflict theory looks at competing interests of men and women. The results show that different economic, social, and cultural factors may lead to violence against wives, but no independent factor can explain the phenomenon. Research on this problem should take into consideration not one but different factors -- social, economic, cultural, psychological -- that may account for spousal abuse.
There is a plethora of scholarly research that suggests that the desire to control drives men's violence against women. These works, for instance, measure the level of income husbands and wives earn and conclude that the lower husbands earn, the greater the level of violence they use against their spouses. McCloskey (1996) conducted a research by interviewing 365 women who were married at the time of the study or had been married in the past and had children. The racial and ethnic composition of the group was fairly diverse, Anglo-European constituting 54.4%, Mexican-American 35%, and African-American 5.5%, and the rest were of Native American background.
The author did not find any difference on the level of violence among different racial...
Spousal Abuse This wire story is about the increase in the, and the continuously increasing, of women in reported spouse abuse arrests since the passing of the "Primary Aggressor Law" in 1997 in the state of California (Clifford 1999). In the past, police officers were accustomed to handling domestic violence calls from women and delivering the men straight to jail. Now, the police in at least 24 states receive training on
Sexual jealousy may be the main factor for couples aged 18 to 30, but couples in their 50s have established hitting and getting hit as habits, their way of dealing with stress and problems, their bond itself. People wonder and ask why the victim does not leave the abusive relationship. Experts say that it is never easy to do so because leaving costs a lot of money and the
Burning Bed Theories Spousal Abuse Theories -- Walker's Cycle Theory & Learned Helplessness Theory 'The reasons why Mickey Hughes pounded on Francine Hughes repeatedly in many instances and in many locations can be examined by looking at theories of spousal abuse. There is no one exact theory would appear to explain Mickey's violent outbursts, but there are several theories that offer reasonable explanations. One theory found in the book Stopping Domestic Violence: How
interventions for cases of spousal abuse, estimates place yearly cases of women beaten by husband at nearly 2 million (Rue, 1996). Improved records on such incidents have documented the connection between domestic violence and cases severe enough to cause an arrest for either assault of homicide in recent years. By some reports, cases of domestic assault or homicide followed police calls to the address for reports of spousal abuse
Lastly, children that are abused and neglect tend to turn to spousal abuse and battering or intimate partner violence in adult life. The studies associate intimate partner violence with exposure to neglect, abuse, and witnessing parental violence in childhood (Widom & White, 2003). Moreover, children exposed to violence at home develop the same behaviors, by becoming more aggressive, and violence. This violence and aggression is alter turned to their peers
Spousal and Child Abuse Child and spousal abuse is an intentional act that results in physical and/or emotional or psychological injury on a child or spouse (or partner) by a parent or a mate, respectively (Gelles 2004). In a child, abuse more often takes the form of neglect. Child and spousal abuse and violence are major social concerns today. The extent that children are abused by their parents or adult caretakers is
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