Understanding Gender and Intimate Partner Abuse

Abstract

This issue represents our efforts to apply a feminist or gender lens to the research on violence in intimate relationships and to forward our understanding of gender and interpersonal violence. The paper introduces the articles in this special issue on "Understanding Gender and Intimate Partner Violence" within a framework of theoretical and methodological issues in feminist research. The current articles are viewed as contributing to our understanding of gender and interpersonal violence: by investigating patterns of interpersonal violence; by examining interpersonal violence with the context of lifespan and culture; by positing or testing theoretical models for gender and interpersonal violence; and by arguing for methodological or conceptual advances in the field. KEY WORDS: feminist research; intimate abuse; partner violence; interpersonal violence; women's use of violence; gender.Many feminist psychologists and sociologists are committed to feminist research in order to improve the lives and experiences of women or to work for gender equity. As more research has been conducted and published in the area of interpersonal violence, we might pause to ask ourselves: What have we learned about gender and the use of interpersonal violence in the past decades? How has our research benefited women? Have we developed theoretical perspectives or interventions? Have we advanced our understanding of women? Of gender? Of aggression? Of interpersonal violence?Evidence of women's use of violence and conclusions regarding gender symmetry has accumulated since the mid 1970s. For example, using quantitative data from a randomized national sample, Brush (1990) found no significant differences between men and women in committing violent acts of hitting, shoving or throwing objects at one's partner. Archer's (2000) review indicated that overall, women are slightly but significantly more likely to use one or more acts of physical aggression against their heterosexual partner and to use aggression more frequently than men. In Archer's (2002) second meta-analysis, both men and women reported acts of aggression against their partner across the entire range of aggressive behaviors in terms of seriousness, but women were more likely to commit low levels of violence, whereas men were more likely than women to engage in serious violence. Some studies published since Archer's meta-analysis confirmed the finding that more women than men engage in physical aggression toward a partner (e.g., Hird, 2000).These sex-symmetry findings are seen as contradicting feminist conceptions of intimate abuse as a problem of gender and power (Currie, 1998). Frieze (2000 has written about women's use of violence in interpersonal relationships, and has received some hostility and resistance from colleagues because of this (Frieze, personal communication). For some time it appeared that many feminist researchers preferred to document the negative consequences of male violence toward women, and to ignore the question of gender symmetry or differences in violen...

Are Female Stalkers More Violent Than Male Stalkers? Understanding Gender Differences in Stalking Violence Using Contemporary Sociocultural Beliefs

“…Patriarchal beliefs that support males being justified in using violence against their partners may be more prevalent in stalking cases sampled from victim services, refuges or intimate partner violence intervention programs (e.g., Brewster 2003, US victims). Similar trends have been identified in the intimate partner violence literature (e.g., Archer 2000, cross-national metaanalysis;de Vries Robbe et al 1996, Australian emergency patients;Headey et al 1999, Australian community;McHugh 2005;. For example, common couple forms of domestic violence predominate surveys of community members and university students, whereas patriarchal terrorism is more prevalent in samples from victim services, refuges or intimate partner violence intervention programs (see Archer 2000, cross-national meta-analysis;McHugh 2005;.…”

“…Similar trends have been identified in the intimate partner violence literature (e.g., Archer 2000, cross-national metaanalysis;de Vries Robbe et al 1996, Australian emergency patients;Headey et al 1999, Australian community;McHugh 2005;. For example, common couple forms of domestic violence predominate surveys of community members and university students, whereas patriarchal terrorism is more prevalent in samples from victim services, refuges or intimate partner violence intervention programs (see Archer 2000, cross-national meta-analysis;McHugh 2005;. Therefore, similar to the intimate partner violence literature, both the chivalry and patriarchal explanations may be valid in the contexts of relational stalking and should be considered in future research.…”

Women’s Experiences of Their Violent Behavior in an Intimate Partner Relationship

“…Because there is increasing evidence to suggest that women commit as much or more IPV than do men (Archer, 2000;Harned, 2001;Straus, 2004;Williams et al, 2008), we need to acknowledge, investigate, and try to understand women's use of violence in their intimate relationships. This challenges our notions about men and women, disputes our representations of IPV, questions the adequacy of our explanatory theories of violence, and contests our conceptions of gender (McHugh, 2005). In Finland, progress in this field of research is insignificant.…”

“…The researchers with a feminist position see IPV as violence against women by their male partners (e.g., Berns, 2001;Coker et al, 2000;Garcia-Moreno, 2002;Jewkes, 2002;Langford, 1998). The bigender nature of violence is not very well understood, and the gender symmetry findings are seen as contradicting feminist conceptions of IPV as a problem of gender and power (McHugh, 2005). Because there is increasing evidence to suggest that women commit as much or more IPV than do men (Archer, 2000;Harned, 2001;Straus, 2004;Williams et al, 2008), we need to acknowledge, investigate, and try to understand women's use of violence in their intimate relationships.…”

Toward an integrated approach in research on interpersonal violence : Conceptual and methodological challenges

“…She illustrates this with the famous proverb about the blind men examining an elephant. The man positioned at the tail cannot comprehend what the trunk is any more than the man standing at the trunk can comprehend the tail (McHugh, 2005).…”