Domestic Violence

1
Domestic Violence

• Awareness of domestic violence has passed through
  3 stages
• relative ignorance of domestic violence
• Focus on male violence toward woman
• Awareness of mutuality of violence
• Controversial issue
• Male socialization?
• difficult to assess extent of domestic violence
• 1 in 6 relationships use some degree of force
• severe violence much more rare
• about equal levels of violence between males and
  females

2
The Debate

• Radical Feminists see DV as a function of
  patriarchy
• acknowledging violence BY women fosters
  oppression (Saunders, 1988)
• Believe frustration or anger are legitimate
  motives for female violence toward males (Dobash
  Dobash, 1992).
• The Rule of Thumb
• Does US society encourage violence toward women?
• Ultimately it has been acknowledged that most DV
  is mutual
• Steinmetz (1977), Straus and Gelles (1986),
  Robinson and McNeely-Simpson (1987)
• women engage in equal amounts of DV
• women have same motives for DV as men
• differential injury rates (approx 20-30 male)
• Violence in gay/lesbian relationships

3
OJ Simpson

• Long history of conflicted relationship and DV.
• Documented violence toward Nicole Brown Simpson
• history of calling 911
• June 1994 NB Simpson and R. Goldman murdered
• low speed chase
• profile crime?
• Subsequent acquittal
• Wrongful death suit

4
Evolution and DV.

• Evolutionary psychologists suggest DV may be
  evolutionary
• Chimps and baboons engage in domestic violence
• males may use DV to control female access to
  other males
• do females engage in DV out of jealousy?
• For both males and females, however, motives may
  be idiosyncratic including
• jealousy
• control
• anger
• displacement
• genuine cruelty

5
Whats love got to do with it?

• What are the contexts of DV relationships?
• Most women are NOT at risk of DV
• relationships are often co-dependent, volatile,
  mutually abusive, with two miserable partners
• FAR more likely in low SES families
• When does DV occur?
• When one partner appears to be straying
• during an attempt at separation
• When abusive partner is experiencing depression
• cyclical nature
• remorse is often genuine (particularly for
  borderlines)

6
Characteristics of Abusers

• Retrospective link between abusers and witnessing
  abuse
• spurious and misleading finding (self-reports)
• Often have borderline personalities
• Sometimes antisocial
• Tend to brood over, exaggerate events
• hostility/ambivalence toward opposite (or same if
  homosexual) sex
• Dependence upon partner
• Economic problems

7
Battered Wife/Husband Syndrome

• How to tell legitimate self-defense from
  violence
• methods used in retaliation (typically
  disorganized)
• immediate expression of remorse
• low effort to hide crime
• efforts to shield children
• repeated efforts to leave which have been
  unsuccessful
• to what extent are women able to leave DV
  relationships?
• DV reports used as a weapon
• violence is spontaneous, not premeditated
• occurs during or immediately after physical
  threat
• Verbal/Emotional abuse is NOT a valid motive for
  homicides committed by men, women or children

8
Lorena Bobbitt

• June 23, 1993, alleged marital rape perpetrated
  by J.W. Bobbitt
• Lorena responds by cutting of 2/3 of his penis
  and hiding it in a field
• Both are acquitted
• Was Lorena acting out of self-defense or hatred?
• Lorena and JW have both since been involved in
  multiple DV incidents with subsequent partners.
• Lorenas sister has been arrested for attempting
  to castrate her husband

9
Stalking

• Repeated attempts to follow or contact another
  individual in such a manner that is unwelcome and
  perceived as threatening.
• Erotomanic Stalking
• Jealous Stalking
• Stalkers may either be male or female.
• Mark Chapman and John Lennon
• Robert Bardo and Rebecca Schaeffer
• David Letterman
• Selina
• Stalkers usually motivated by some desire to
  establish or reestablish romantic relationship

10
Erotomanic Stalkers

• Typically suffering from delusional disorder
• Believe themselves to have special relationship
  with victim
• does not need to be famous individual
• Most are non-violent
• romantic attachment not based in sexuality
• content with distant contact
• Violence is most likely when confronted with
  evidence contrary to their delusions
• attempts to contact in person
• particularly if have grandiose visions of
  themselves becoming famous
• may target competition

11
Jealous Stalkers

• More likely to have had prior relationship with
  victim
• share many similar characteristic with DV
  perpetrators
• view partner as possession
• may reverse charges against victim
• more likely to be confronting
• motivated by jealousy
• typically suffering severe depression
• Legal efforts to intervene work only partially
• Best predictor of cessation of stalking is new
  relationship for perpetrator

12
Child Abuse

• Causing willful injury to a child
• 200,000/year cases of physical child abuse in US
• though estimates run as high as 1.3 million
• repeat cases
• part of difficulty is defining child abuse
• corporal punishment
• Does spanking teach children violence?
• Also reporting issues
• many cases not reported
• no indicators

13
Who commits child abuse?

• Though cultural stereotypes would suggest male,
  most child abusers, particularly of young
  children, (55-60) are female
• Most often biological mother (Overpeck et al,
  1998)
• low SES
• antisocial or borderline personalities
• view children as burden
• lack of male in family
• children obstacle to mating
• Susan Smith
• Maternal infanticide is most common form of child
  murder across almost all cultures (Lowenstein,
  1997)

14
Other perpetrators

• Second most common perpetrator is step-fathers
• Makes sense from evolutionary perspective
• children of other males are genetic competition
• may find children to be irritating
• may kill children to get revenge on mother
• kill older children
• Other females
• step-mothers
• babysitters/nannies
• Louise Woodward

15
Motives of Maternal Infanticide

• Impediment to youth
• borderline personalities
• denial of pregnancy
• view child as object/threat
• violence is swift and expedient
• Economic strain
• evolutionary psychology
• more antisocial personalities
• see children as parasites
• kill in anger

16
Examples of Infant Homicide

• Melissa Drexler Gives birth to baby in bathroom
  stall at high school prom. Suffocates child,
  leaves body in garbage can and returns to dance
  floor.
• Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson Kill newborn
  infant and leave body in a dumpster
• Mary Beth Tinning and her 8 kids
• Andrea Yates
• Marilyn Lemak poisons 3 kids in 1999

17
MDBP

• Waneta Hoyt and SIDS
• Munchausens Disorder By Proxy
• research suggests this is NOT truly a mental
  illness
• perpetrators DO know right from wrong
• calculate, premeditate and deny their crimes
• are motivated by clear goal to gain personal
  attention
• Has been suggested to be a version of Psychopathy
  (Schreier and Libow, 1993).
• No treatment exists
• Typically not considered a valid defense

18
Postpartum Depression Defense

• Assumptions
• Women who kill their children commonly have
  postpartum depression
• Postpartum depression, whenever it does occur, is
  potentially severe enough to incapacitate
  rational thought
• In England
• 1922 Infanticide Act automatically reduces the
  crime of a mother (but not a father) killing her
  own infant from murder to manslaughter under the
  presumption of insanity. In 1938 the grace
  period is extended to one year after birth.
• 10 of mothers convicted of manslaughter of
  children of any age spend any time in jail.
• Almost no mothers who kill infants spend any time
  in jail.
• Men who kill their children three times more
  likely to have jail time

19
Support for Postpartum Depression Defense

• J. Morton (1934) suggests that maternal murder of
  children is due to lactational insanity. This
  article is the impetus for the English 1938
  revision of the Infanticide Act.
• Dalton (1989) suggests postpartum depression
  might be partially due to maternal exhaustion and
  suggests mothers remain in hospital for up to 14
  days post birth.
• 1989 Lifetime Documentary Postpartum Depression
  Beyond the Blues which suggests that mothers who
  kill their infants are more victim than
  victimizer.

20
Why is this important?

• Infant homicide rates may be on rise (Pearson,
  1997)
• Mothers account for 80-86 of newborn infant
  homicides (Overpeck et al., 1998 Crittenden
  Craig, 1990).
• Infanticide may go underreported. Some cases may
  be attributed to SIDS (e.g. Steinschneider, 1972
  and W. Hoyt)
• Mothers (or step-mothers) may be perpetrators in
  over 50 of cases of physical child abuse
  (Margolin, 1992 Straus, Gelles, Steinmetz,
  1980)
• About 50 of women experience some postpartum
  symptoms of depression. One in 500 may
  experience a post-partum psychosis

21
Does research support the postpartum defense?

• Research suggests postpartum mental illness is
  not a factor in most cases of infanticide
• Overpeck et al. (1998) 80 of infanticide cases
  are due to fatal child abuse. The remaining 20
  split between postpartum mental illness, revenge
  toward the father and destruction of unwanted
  child
• Lowenstein (1997) Similar figures. Mercy
  killing of sick infants was very rare.
• Ishihara (1984) Japanese women who kill infants
  tend to be motivated by revenge toward the father
• Resnick (1970) Women who kill newborns fall into
  2 categories
• 1.) Young, immature, women who deny the pregnancy
  and impulsively kill the infant soon after birth
  because it is unwanted
• 2.) Older more antisocial women who see a new
  infant as an economic obstacle

22
Ultimate Conclusions

• Child abuse committed by males or females is
  similarly motivated
• Both sexes may be equally prone to violence
  toward children, however
• females tend to have more exposure to children
• males can more easily leave
• More often than not law-enforcement returns
  victims to perpetrators
• particularly if perpetrator is female