Domestic Violence Miles Spring 2015
DV in Historical/Social Context & Dynamics of Abusive Relationships
Pg. 4-17; 44-52 & 59-68
§ Experiences with Domestic Violence
o Rely heavily on power dynamics
o Coercive control: the idea that domestic violence is a liberty crime, rather than one of assault
§ Planned Parenthood v. Casey
o Here, the challenged abortion statute included a provision that required a pregnant woman to notify her husband before undergoing an abortion
o Holding: The requirement that a pregnant woman notify her husband before undergoing an abortion is inappropriate due to pervasiveness of DV
§ Court provides statistics to show the severe impact DV has on a woman’s reproductive freedom
· EX: in 1985 1 out of every 8 husbands had assaulted their wife in the last year
· EX: 8.8% of all homicide victims are killed by spouses
· Battered women’s advocacy organizations argued that enforcement of this provision would mean that women who lived with violent partners would be unable freely to exercise their reproductive choice because they could not tell their partners that they were pregnant, or that they wanted an abortion, without fear of reprisal
§ Historical Context
o Used to be thought that victims of violent relationships were masochists who derived sexual pleasure from being abused; now we understand violent relationships as the result of one partner’s effort to dominate and control the other
o Experts have argued that the level of control that abusers exercise over their partners functions to deprive victims of their liberty
o Forms of abuse
§ Abusers commonly combine physical abuse with psychological, financial, or other forms of abuse, such as isolation
o Bradwell v. State of Illinois (1872)
§ Justice Bradley justified denying a woman admission to the Illinois state bar on the grounds that women were appropriately subordinate to men and should not seek to overturn the natural order
· Three aspects of the ideal of family in America that contributed to societal reluctance to intervene in violent familes:
o Idea that the family is private
o That it gives the husband conjugal rights over the wife
o That it is intended to endure for life
o Bradley v. State (1824)
§ Background: Husband appeals conviction for attacking his wife
§ Holding: A man can be convicted with assault on his wife, but, “moderate chastisement is still permissible” because:
· A husband is responsible/liable for actions misdeeds of his wife, and
· To bring these family issues to the public sphere would bring shame onto the family and privacy is important
§ Result: this was severe violence and the husband was found guilty of assault/battery
§ Bradley was overruled 70 years later in Harris v. State
§ DV statistics: pg 10-11
o 25-20% of disputed custody cases involve DV
o DV is the number one killed of AA women aged 15-34
o Increase in DV b/w gay and lesbian couples
o 25% of women in the United States will likely experience DV during her lifetime
o 85% of DV victims are women
o Young women, ages 16-24, experience the highest rate of DV victimization (16 per 1,000 persons)
o 3.3 million children are exposed each year to DV against their mother or female caretaker
o 30-60% of the time during DV arrests there is an overlap of violence against both women and children
§ Considering the statistics
o Sources of these statistics include:
§ National Crime Index
§ Reporting sources
· Law enforcement officers
· Shelters
· Victim self reporting
· Hospitals/medical providers
· DOJ office on violence against women
o Accuracy concerns:
§ Underreporting
· Victims may not report out of fear or deny/lie
· Law enforcement may not report due to not perceiving the incident as DV
· NOTE: over reporting can also be a concern and comes up often in the context of custody battles.
§ Inability to speak English
§ Lack of knowledge of options
§ No health insurance
§ Lack of immigration status
§ Excludes the poor
§ Excludes women who are homeless or in institutions or hospitals when the survey is conducted
§ Cost of DV to society
o Annual cost in the US of medical treatment, mental health services, and lost work productivity is $5.8 billion
§ This does NOT include the court time, police hours, relocation expenses, and other expenses
o Losing 1.8 billion/year because of lost productivity when battered women have to miss
e socialization to submit to men
Angela Brown: Courtship and Early Marriage: From Affection to Assault, When Battered Women Kill (Jim and Molly Story)
§ Molly is on death row for killing her husband and is in a support/informational group for women run by Angela Browne
§ She was attracted to him because he was attentive/considerate/gentle, cared about her feelings, and wanted to spend time with her
§ Initially, “neediness” can be a charming quality in a partner; i.e. wanting to everything together but alone, men’s need for an early commitment
§ The longer the couple is involved and the more serious their commitment, the more likely they are to remain together after a physical attack
§ In hindsight, WARNING SIGNS of jealousy and possessiveness existed that seemed romantic/ideal to Molly. These warning signs include:
o Intrusion: a constant desire to know the woman’s whereabouts
§ Example: Starts off making her feel cared for and missed but stiffens into a requirement of reporting whereabouts which could result in violent reprisals when unsatisfactory
o Isolation: a preference for not letting the woman interact with people other than himself
§ Examples: Goes unnoticed at first in the intensity of being together, but could turn into severe restrictions on the woman’s activities or forcing her to quit work
o Possessiveness: both emotionally and intimately
§ Example: Assaultive sex (too rough)
· Physical intimacy turned from a joy to the most threatening part of the relationship
· Hard to tell when it the touch would be affectionate or assaultive and thus intimate contact could lead to feeling at risk
o Jealousy
§ As a justification of violence
§ Many incidents of violence triggered by jealousy; in most cases the men’s jealous suspicions far exceeded all bounds of possibility by the end of the relationships
