Domestic Violence 1

Domestic Violence Theory

Deborah Kennedy

Kaplan University

CJ333: Family and Domestic Violence

Professor Kathy Minella

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According to the Domestic Violence Resource Center (2011), “one in four women will

experience domestic violence in her lifetime.” This means if you are not one of these women

being abused you know someone who is the victim of abuse. This paper is going to attempt to

talk about the theory that best explains, in this writers opinion, why people commit domestic

violence by finding as many supporting details and as much information and evidence as

possible.

The theory that this paper will be exploring is called the Multidimensional Theory, and

all that means is that there is more than one model that can explain what is going on with

domestic violence. Researchers have tried to define one model or theory and box this

phenomenon in but, choosing only one cause for why this happens is almost like trying to say

there is only one reason why people murder or even fall in love.

At this time, it is hard to determine who may be responsible for the discovery of the

multidimensional theory of domestic violence. However, through all the research the one name

that kept showing up was Richard J. Gelles, who is an American writer. “He is currently a dean

at the University of Pennsylvania and holds The Joanne and Raymond Welsh Chair of Child

Welfare and Family Violence in the School of Social Policy Practice. He is the Director for the

Center for Research on Youth Social Policy and Co-Director of the Field Center for Children's

Policy Practice Research. Gelles is an internationally known expert in domestic violence and

child welfare. He was influential in the passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997”

(in.com, n.d.). What this multidimensional theory really consists of is a few of the other theories

blended together to form a model that can not only explain what is going on with domestic

violence but how to help the people who are involved (Gosselin, D.K., 2010).

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Now the model within the multidimensional theory that best addresses the causes,

consequences, and treatments for abused women and children is called the Ecological Model,

“This model incorporates some of the research that was developed through the three traditional

schools of criminological theory” (Gosselin, D.K., 2010).

Imagine if you will a large circle and within that circle there are three other circles. This

represents the Ecological model of factors associated with family violence. The smallest circle

represents the individual, “the biological and psychological history that each [person] brings” to

the family structure, in other words, the behavior within the family. The second circle represents

relationships; this is where we find the stressors of life and this “circle represents the context in

which abuse against members of the family occurs.” The third bigger circle is community and

the formal and informal institutions and social structure which influence a family and their

interactions, you will find poverty and isolation along with limited access to services that can

help here. The largest circle belongs to society, this encompasses cultural norms which dictate

behavior, “laws and policies that tolerate physical punishment of women and children, and

acceptance of violence as a means to settle interpersonal disputes” (Gosselin, D.K., 2010).

By looking at the levels of this ecological model we see that it incorporates all the levels

that we live with each day, like ourselves number one, then the people we surround ourselves

with like family and spouses or significant others. Then we move outward toward community

which might involve people we work with, then the services we encounter or we may need to

help us day to day, we may not even have access to these services which is stressful. Then the

outermost ring is society, here we abide by laws, we conform to what is acceptable and turn

away from what people deem unacceptable. We have adopted gender roles that we seem to be

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alright with living within them. Males being masculine and dominant and women being

feminine and a bit more submissive, violence is even an accepted way of settling problems.

Perhaps as we look deeper into these situations we may see just how much violence there really

is out there surrounding us in our daily lives.

In order to support the ecological theory evidence must be presented that matches what

these circles are telling us. Statistics are the best way to support some of these theories, so this is

a good place to begin. Beginning with the inner circle, we had the individual, if you remember

that included “parent child characteristics, witnessing marital violence as a child, being abused as

a child, and alcohol use” (Gosselin, D.K., 2010). In a report from the Bureau of Justice

Statistics, Special Reports, State Court Processing Statistics, (2009), “most intimate partner

violence incidents occurred in the victim’s residence.” “Prosecutor files indicated that 58% of

IPV incidents occurred in the residence shared by the victim and the defendant, another 21% of

IPV incidents occurred in the residence occupied by the victim, but not the defendant, a greater

percentage of misdemeanor (60%) than felony cases (49%) arose from incidents that occurred in

a shared residence, less than 2% of felony or misdemeanor cases occurred in the workplace.”

This supports the theory that most domestic violence takes place in the home, now moving on to

the children.

Again according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Special Report, State Court

Processing Statistics, (2009), states that a direct witness was present for more than 40% of the

intimate partner violence cases and more than half of those were children. Child eyewitnesses

accounted for 22% of these witnesses and the other 14% were just present during the violence

but did not directly witness anything. Those statistics support the theory that children often

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witness marital violence or violence in the home. In that same report it mentions also that “a

third of defendants in intimate partner violence cases were using alcohol or drugs” and “most

IPV involved a female victim and a male defendant (84%), (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009).

That takes care of the rest of the theories for the first circle at least, children are often witness to

these acts of violence in families, drugs, or alcohol is abused, and many times it is the woman

who falls prey to the stronger more dominant male in the relationship.

Since children are often the eyewitnesses to this violence is it possible that they learn this

behavior and mimic it as they grow older only to repeat it in their own lives? According to

Rebecca Brooks, (2011), since children are not naturally prone to violence it only makes sense

that certain events and factors can cause a child to become violent. “Children who live in violent

homes tend to become violent. The Child Welfare website states that abused children are 3.1

times more likely to get arrested for violent crimes while they are still a child or even later on as

an adult.” It seems these children learn or think that violence is an acceptable way of handling

their problems because they have not been shown any other way to handle their problems.

The second circle includes “family stressors, marital conflict, and male control of wealth

and decision making in the family” (Gosselin, D.K., 2010). Family stressors can lead to marital

conflict which in turn can lead to anger and violence. Some of these stressors can be

environmental meaning the neighborhood in which people live if it is not safe, pollution, high

crime areas, noise like a dog barking that keeps you up all night, or even “war-torn areas where

the stress may be unrelenting” (Texas A&M, System, 2009).

Additional stressors include: disagreements between romantic partners, with friends,

rebellious teens, children with special needs, caring for aging parents, being unhappy at work,

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major life changes such as having a child, even small things like losing keys to the car, getting a

speeding ticket, or getting a flat tire can all cause major stress in a relationship and if people do

not understand or know how to deal with these feelings their first reaction will probably be anger

(Texas A&M Systems, 2009). These events all support the fact that there are many stressors that

are involved in family life that can have an impact on marital relationships enough to cause some

domestic violence in response to these stressors.

Circle number three is community and this involves poverty and isolation along with the

ability or lack of ability to access services within the community that can help families cope with

day to day survival when there is violence in the home. There is such a link between poverty and

domestic violence that the government stepped in and allowed states to adopt the Family

Violence Option (FVO). Under this program victims of violence are allowed extended time to

find employment (Satyanathan, D., & Pollack, A., n.d.). Having the ability to gain access to

services within your community reduces the chances for isolation, when a victim knows there is

a light out there or help they can turn to then they are not alone. Especially when there are kids

involved, victims need to know there is somewhere they can turn if the need arises.

The final part of this circle is society which involves the acceptance of this type of

violence, laws and policies that need to be stricter or better enforced, and the rigid gender roles

we are teaching our children. Violence is all around us from movies, television to our kids video

games. They see it on the playgrounds and if not at home they see it at their friend’s homes. It

does not take a rocket scientist to see that we could use policies to put ratings on some of the

video games that are on the market today. We could also as a society learn to teach our kids that

boys and girls do not have to act in certain ways. They can be and act however they want to act

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and it is alright. Boys are allowed to cry and be sensitive without being weak and made fun of,

while girls can be strong and smart without being called names.

The bottom line is that domestic violence has many causes it is almost impossible to

pinpoint just one. People are all different and we all have different personalities and problems.

Women are not the only victims of domestic violence. Men are abused by women in some

relationships; teens are now being abused in their relationships as they are mimicking what they

see in their parent’s relationships. Children who grow up in these types of homes are likely to

continue the cycle of abuse. There are shelters and many programs to help battered women

today; however an abusive relationship is harder to walk away from than people might believe.

It begins as a game of control, then it becomes isolation, then a breakdown of your mind and

everything you thought you knew, then the physical abuse begins. By that time the victim is so

helpless she does not believe she has the strength to get away, and if she does, she doesn’t

believe she can make it without him. It is a horrible circle and in the end the children suffer and

begin the circle again.

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References

Brooks, R. (2011). Reasons children are violent. Retrieved August 22, 2011, from

http://www.ehow.com/info_7905764_reasons_children_violent.html

Gosselin, D.K. (2010). Heavy hands: An introduction to the crimes of family violence (4th ed.).

Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/ Prentice Hall ISBN: 0136139035

in.com. (n.d.). Richard James Gelles. Retrieved August 22, 2011, from

http://Connect.in.com/richard.james.gelles/biography-233887.html

Satyanathan, D., & Pollack, A. (n.d.). Domestic violence and poverty. Retrieved August 25,

2011, from http://www.familyimpactseminars.org/s_mifis04c05.pdf

Texas A&M System. (2009). Identifying stressors. Retrieved August 25, 2011, from

http://fes.tes.tamu.edu/health/healthhints/2009/jan/identifying-stressors.pdf

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