The research literature of the 1970s and 1980s created a rather singular image of the battered woman. This image functioned as a standard to be met by battered women who attributed their own acts of violence or their failures to protect their children to the violence they endured. Three severely battered women, Hedda Nussbaum, Frances McMillian and Damian Pizarro illustrate the real diversity that exists. Each woman coped differently with her fear of her abuser's violence and domination. Nonetheless, the experiences of all three were unified by the intensity of their fear and by the fact that their acts (or failures to act) were so serious that they led to these women's involvement with the criminal justice system. The psychological consequences of extraordinary violence and the criminal justice system responses are discussed specifically, in relation to each case. The woman's social class and race are emphasized as important mediators of the criminal justice system response. In the final, general section, questions are addressed about society's role in idealizing the f d y and in silencing, ignoring, acknowledging, and/or solving the problems of severely battered women in desperately violent families.
MLUCH OF THE WORK on the perceptions of mass media communications suggests that the news does not simply provide information about the particular events reported. In fact, much of the research in this area notes that people take in and interpret information selectively, in relation to their prior conceptions. Kretch and Crutchfield commented that "data are perceived and interpreted in terms of the individual perceiver's own needs, own emotions, own personality, own previously formed cognitive patterns" (1973:251). This conclusion is supported by Hyman and Sheatsley (1973), who state that people seek information that is congenial to their prior attitudes and that these attitudes often cause distortions in the perception of incoming information. Although it is certain that people understand incoming information in terms of their existing condeptual schemata, the process of receiving news described by both Hyman and Sheatsley (1973) and Kretch and Crutchfield (1973) is both too static and too maladaptive to represent accurately the nature of informaAbstract The central concern in this article is with the ways in which good and bad news impact upon people's willingness to help strangers, their descriptions of human nature, and their perceptions of others and of themselves. This research suggests that, as people receive information about the actions of others, their views of the social universe and their estimates about human nature are constantly being influenced. That these informational influences seem to alter people's behavioral choices and their psychological perspectives lends these findings their particular significance for journalists and for others interested in the effects of media messages.Julie
No abstract
Increased cr#ention to family violence is reflected, in part, in the growingApproximately 1,000 husbands die at the hands of their wives each year in the United States (FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 1982). Women who kill their husbands, and particularly those who do so as the culmination of a relationship in which they have been severely abused. are beginning to attract considerable attention from the media, the legal system, and family violence researchers (see, forexample,
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.