CH 13

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CH 13

• VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

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VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IS UNIVERSAL

• Women are likely to be victimized by someone they
  know, and those assaults by acquaintances are
  most often more violent and result in more
  physical trauma than assaults committed by
  strangers.
• Cultural norms condoning violence/aggression as a
  tool of the powerful to subdue the weak when
  combined with gender inequalities to create a
  climate that is conducive to violence against
  women.

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How DO WE Describe IT?

• Wife abuse
• Domestic violence
• Wife battery
• Family violence
• Spousal abuse

• Dating violence
• Lesbian battery
• Partner abuse
• Partner maltreatment

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CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE

• Childhood sexual abuse Sexual interaction
  between an adult and a child or between two
  non-adults in which coercion is used.
• 90 of children who are raped are victimized by
  someone they know, 43 are family members
• Somewhere between 15-25 of children are sexually
  abused, with girls more often victims of sexual
  abuse than boys, but these events often go
  unreported.

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CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE

• Males perpetrate 91 of sexual abuse of girls,
  most often older brothers, fathers, stepfathers
  and other relatives
• Asian American and Latino children are likely to
  be living in the same home as the perpetrator,
  and are likely to be victimized over time in a
  continuing cycle of abuse. Psychological impact?

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CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE

• Increasingly inappropriate comments and behavior
• Strategies to induce compliance include gifts,
  attention, privileges, and afterward promises,
  remorse, guilt, blame etc.
• Risk factors Children living without a father or
  with a stepfather, rigid traditional gender
  roles, emotionally distant families

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Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

• Powerlessness
• Lack of clear boundaries
• Confusion about power, authority, love and trust
• Adult resurfacing of issues in sexuality,relations
  hips, memories, fears for own children, etc.

• Self-destructive strategies to cope
• Difficulties in school
• Bedwetting or fear of going to bed
• Reactions to being alone with the perpetrator
• Depression and withdrawal
• Running away
• Being sexually active
• Suicide ideation

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How Do We Protect Them?

• Professional training and accountability
  Teachers, Doctors, Mental health Social Work
  professionals
• Empowering children by talking openly!
• Teaching children appropriate boundaries and what
  to do, who to tell when the boundaries are
  violated

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COURTSHIP AGGRESSION

• Verbal aggression name-calling and screaming is
  engaged in by more than 80 of the college
  population, male and female
• Psychological abuse verbal aggression and
  intimidation, frequently experienced by males and
  females
• Physical aggression hitting, punching, and other
  more serious forms of harmful physical contact is
  experienced by 30-40

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WHO?

• 3 types of dating violence perpetrators
• Relationship-only Not aggressive outside the
  dating relationship (50)
• Violent/antisocial Generally males, are
  aggressive in other aspects of their lives,
  likely to have witnessed an abusive family of
  origin, likely to abuse alcohol and have
  difficulty forming social relationships (20)
• Histrionic/preoccupied Likely female,
  experienced childhood sexual abuse physical
  punishment, intensely reactive, dependent and
  expressive (30)

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WHO?

• For men, dating violence is associated with being
  quick to react to anger, believing that violence
  will win an argument, and with having
  successfully used violence in other situations.
• Other predictors for men drug use, divorced
  parents, stressful life events, belief that
  violence between intimates is justifiable. Less
  traditional gender role attitudes

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Historical contexts in Intimate Relationships

• Early research focused on the women who were
  battered and sexually victimized (yet ignored
  lesbians, gay male couples)
• Why does she stay?
• Lack of financial resources (money,
  transportation, place to go)
• Fear of retaliation, escalation (termination
  terrorism)
• Suggestions of pathologyvictim blaming

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WHEN?

• Private Settings
• Serious relationships
• Weekends
• Relationships plagued by situational factors,
  jealousy,fighting, interference from friends,
  lack of time together, difficulties outside the
  relationship, disagreements about drinking and
  sexual denial

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What do we do?

• Education changes attitudes and awareness
• Youth Relationships Program targets at risk teens
  (experiencing maltreatment witnessing domestic
  violence) reduced psychological physical
  violence

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You Think You Know Him

• Sexual assault, coercion or aggression Unwanted
  sexual behaviors, ranging from kissing or
  fondling to rape
• Rape definitions vary across agencies
• Oral, vaginal or anal penetration by the penis or
  other objects against the persons will
• Can include forced ed sex within a marriage,
  child rapes in arranged marriages, genital
  mutilation
• Tactics include coercion, verbal persuasion,
  psychological pressure, intimidation, physical
  threat or use of a weapon
• Rape has gendered meanings

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Who? Perpetrators of Sexual Assaults

• The greatest risk factor for sexual assault is
  being female
• Adolescents are most vulnerable
• Past victimization is a predictor of recurrence
• Majority of perpetrators are men

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Who? Batterer Characteristics

• Likely history of violence in family of origin.
• Higher rates among the unemployed
• Higher incidences of antisocial, borderline
  narcissism, depression
• Drugs alcohol, with binge drinkers having
  highest rates of battering
• Lower self-esteem, tendency to attribute more
  negative intent, higher need for power

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CONTEXTS OF INTIMATE VIOLENCE

• Intimate violence escalates in severity
  frequency over time
• 27 of college women surveyed characterized at
  least one of their relationships as abusive
• 70 of domestic violence doesnt occur until
  after the relationship has ended.

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Mutual Woman-Initiated Violence

• As many as 75 of battered women reported using
  violence (protect self retaliate)
• Abusive husbands use violence to get what they
  want/ women use violence in self-defense
• 25 of women arrested for DV reported initiating
  the violence 100 of the time

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Gender, Sexuality Violence

• Battered gay men conceptualize their experiences
  differently from battered heterosexual women,
  dont label themselves as battered, dont
  differentiate between who initiates violence and
  defensive violence

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Impacts on Survivors of Sexual Assault

• Emotional Fear, anxiety, depression, phobias,
  diminished self-esteem, nightmares, PTSD,
  inability to acknowledge (label) what happened
• Acquaintance rape may have worse psychological
  impact than stranger rape
• Physical possibility of pregnancy, AIDS and
  STDs, chronic health problems
• Social Isolation, victim-blaming, trivialization
  of the assault

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Shifting Paradigms

• Shifting Paradigms
• Individual level
• Family Systems level
• Socio-Cultural level
• Restorative Justice Programs Defender
  accountability through reparations and
  rehabilitation
• We continue to restrict potential victims with
  warnings, which simply allows perpetrators to
  someone else
• Generic rape prevention programs have little
  impact on women whove already been victimized
• Rape prevention programs for men by men