Family and Intimate Partner Violence

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Family and Intimate Partner Violence

• Dr. Michelle L. Meloy

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Defining Domestic Violence

• Elder abuse
• Child abuse
• Sibling Abuse
• Dating Violence
• Spousal Abuse
• Woman Battering
• Intimate Partner Violence

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Categories of Intimate Partner Violence

• Physical abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Psychological
• abuse
• Stalking
• Destruction of pets property
• Financial Control

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Common Law Heritage of IPV

• Violence in the home has not always been viewed
  as a crime
• Rule of thumb guiding legal principle
  permitted wife abuse so long as the husband did
  not use a rod wider than his thumb
• Curtain Rule guiding principle of courts
  nonintervention in domestic disputes
• 7-stitch rule guiding principle of police
  nonintervention if the wifes injury was not
  serious

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Stalking Crimes

• 1 in 12 women and 1 in 45 men will be stalked
• 1,000,000 women and 500,000 men are stalked
  annually
• Most stalking involves victims-offenders who know
  one another (current/former partners)
• About 30 of cases involve strangers
• Perpetrators are usually men
• Victims are usually women
• Can be an indicator of serious or lethal violence

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Overview of Stalking

• Studied primarily as a form of IPV
• The case that led to the discovery of stalking
  was a stranger stalking of actress
• Stalking is a crime in all 50 states
• Like other forms of IPV is a crime of power and
  control
• Repeated fear-driven victimization of the same
  individual designed to make the victim fear
  serious harm or death

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Stalking as a form of IPV

• Over half of female victims ( 30 of male
  victims) were stalked by a current or former
  partner
• Stalking often occurs while couples are still
  involved!
• Nearly all of these women were also physically or
  sexually abused by the stalker
• In roughly 75 of the intimate partner female
  homicides, the victim was stalked the year before
  her murder

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Frequency of IPV

• No solid exact numbers available
• Underreported crime!
• 1 out of 2 women may be exposed to domestic
  violence in some form
• Women are believed to be the victims in 80-95 of
  cases when men are the perpetrators
• Extent of female-perpetrated violence in intimate
  relationships is hotly contested
• When violent act is not contextualized,
  prevalence rates are nearly identical between men
  and women (see CTS)
• Common Couple Violence and Intimate Terrorism
  another way to understand IPV

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IPV against males

• NCVS 103,000 men reported physical abuse by an
  intimate partner
• NVAWS Seven percent of males physically abused
  by an intimate partner
• Less serious forms of IPV associated with higher
  levels of female perpetrated violence
• Gender symmetry in offending is usually
  associated with non injurious forms of violence
• Gay men are believed to be the victims of IPV at
  rates equal to or exceeding male on female IPV

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IPV against males (cont)

• Motivations for female perpetrated violence may
  not be limited to self-defense or retaliation for
  violence
• One study of college women found they use
  violence against their partners in response to
  anger, emotional harm, to get even and gain
  control in the relationship
• 1 in 4 violent relationships may have a female
  abuser

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Why does battering occur?

• Investigations generally begin with the family
  power distribution
• Social, political, economic structure reinforce
  familial power disparity and must be considered
• Gender socialization male abusers to feel
  justified in acts of violence when social rules
  and expectations are not met by victim

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Why does battering occur?

• Batterers lash out when they feel threatened and
  insecure violence (threat) is powerful to the
  abuser
• Risk factors for battering
• violence prone personalities, jealousy impulsive
  behavior, anger issues, substance abuse,
  personality disorders, traditional views on men
  and women learn the behavior

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Inhibitors to getting out

• Economic Restrictions
• Sociological Restrictions
• social problem recognition, socialization of
  marriage, religious teaching
• Psychological Restrictions
• learned helplessness, traumatic bonding, low
  self-esteem
• Constant Threats/Danger
• warns of violence escalation if left most lethal
  period
• Criminal Justice Systems Response

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Spousal lethal violence

• Homicide among intimate partners comes in three
  forms
• an abusive husband kills his wife
• an abused wife kills her husband
• an abusive wife kills her husband
• It is the 2nd category that is studied most often
• Lethal couple violence has been on the decline in
  recent years, especially case 2

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Spousal lethal violence

• 30 to 50 of all murdered women are killed by
  their intimates
• Around 5 of all murdered males are killed by
  their intimates
• Many, if not most, women who kill their intimate
  partners were abused by them
• Nearly all men who kill their female partners
  were the ABUSER

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Spousal lethal violence

• By some accounts, females convicted of killing
  their male partners receive an average sentence
  length of 15 to 20 years while males convicted of
  killing their female partners receive an average
  sentence length of 2-6 years
• However, studies on all forms of female
  perpetrated homicide question these sentencing
  patterns

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Husbands who kill

• The 1 motive for spousal homicide is the
  husbands fear of separation loss of control
• Husbands more likely to kill a separated spouse
  than a spouse with whom they live
• Characteristics of husbands who have killed their
  wives vs. abusers who do not kill dependency,
  generalized violence, exposure to domestic
  violence as a child, weapons possession, killing
  or abusing family pets

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Wives who kill

• When women kill their husbands two situations are
  most common
• An abusive wife kills her husband in an escalated
  pattern of violence
• An abused women kills her husband in
  self-defense this is the area that has been most
  frequently studied these women seem to be in the
  most violent of abusive relationships

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Wives who kill

• Most abused wives who kill their abusive husbands
  (about 75) do so during in self-defense
• However, about 25 of abused women who kill their
  abusive husbands do so during a non-confrontation
• Lenore Walkers research on these women has lead
  to the creation of the Battered Women Syndrome, a
  psychological condition used as legal defense

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Walkers Cycle of Violence

• 3 phases of abuse in the continual pattern of
  violence
• Phase I Tension Building/Eggshells
• Phase II Acute Abuse/Battering
• Phase III Make up/Wine Roses
• Over time, the violence will likely increase in
  frequency and intensity

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Walkers Cycle of Violence

• Each battering incident leaves the victim feeling
  more helpless, shame, embarrassment and fear
• Length of the phases changes over time tension
  building becomes longer and loving and apology
  becomes shorter
• Both come to believe it is HER fault

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Overview of Legal Response

• Historical Domestic violence was usually not a
  crime
• New laws Protection from Abuse Acts, Mediation
  Techniques by Police, Arrest laws change,
  Restraining Orders, Anti-Stalking Laws created,
  federal legislation created
• New Message Violence among family and dating
  persons is a crime

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DV Laws Change Impacted by

• Feminist movement 1960s/70s
• Social Science Research (1984)
• Failure of mediation
• Civil Liability Thurman v Connecticut (1984)

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Minneapolis Experiment

• Controlled experiment to test the deterrent
  impact of arrest on dv
• 3 options available to the officer when
  responding to a dv call
• A) Arrest with _at_ least one night incarceration
• B) Sending the offender away from the scene to
  cool off
• C) Mediation with the couple

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Minneapolis Experiment

• Final Report concluded three things
• A) laws should be revised to allow for easier
  arrests in misdemeanor cases
• B) mandatory arrest was the preferred response
• C) Further studies should be conducted to
  substantiate findings
• Within 5 years, 84 of all major police
  departments adopted proarrest policies

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Effectiveness of Arrest?

• Offender/victim demographics interact differently
  with arrest
• A one-size-fits-all police response to dv does
  not achieve desired outcomes
• Pro-arrest policies may be a better alternative
• Effectiveness of overall criminal justice
  response to dv should be evaluated for deterrence
  not just the impact of arrest