Nancy Lombard

Equal Victims or the Usual Suspects? Making Sense of Domestic Abuse Against Men

This article reports on research commissioned to address the topic of domestic abuse against men in Scotland. The research addressed three key questions: (1) Why do male victims appear much more frequently in crime survey data than in recorded crime statistics? (2) Are there significant differences in the nature and frequency of domestic abuse experienced by men and women? (3) In what kinds of relationships does domestic abuse against men occur? The article explains that the relative absence of male victims in the domestic abuse statistics gathered by the Scottish police can be accounted for in terms of gender differences in experiences of victimisation and reporting patterns. Drawing upon in-depth interview material elicited from a sample of men originally counted as ‘male victims’ in the Scottish Crime Survey, the article also argues that statistics collated on the basis of crime survey data overstate mens experiences of domestic abuse. The article concludes with a discussion of the methodological and policy implications that should be drawn from this finding.

Young People’s Temporal and Spatial Accounts of Gendered Violence

This article is based on qualitative research that took place with 89 11- and 12-year-olds in Glasgow to find out their understandings of men’s violence against women. The research found that young people’s position within childhood directly impacts on how they conceive of, construct and understand violence. These positions within childhood are constituted and experienced differently. Therefore, young people’s understandings of men’s violence need to be theorised within a framework that illuminates the gendered, temporal and spatial elements of their accounts. This was achieved by developing a transitory framework to illustrate what young people define and name as ‘real’ and ‘unreal’ violence. Young people use gender but also space, childhood, temporality and age to frame their understandings of violence.

‘Because they're a couple she should do what he says’: Young People's justifications of violence: heterosexuality, gender and adulthood

This article is based upon research that explored how 89 eleven- and twelve-year-olds understood and explained mens violence against women. The research found that young people examined the motivations of individual male perpetrators though the context of heterosexuality. For the young people, adulthood appeared to generate a more rigid framework of heterosexuality, where the gender differences begin to exemplify inequality upon which justifications can be based. Young peoples justifications can be collated into the themes of: heteronormativity, the endorsement of marriage, restrictive gender roles and blaming women for the violence. Violence is justified because inequality is not questioned – it is endorsed and taken for granted as being part of an adult heterosexual relationship. This has implications for young peoples own existing and anticipated relationships.

‘It’s Wrong for a Boy to Hit a Girl Because the Girl Might Cry’: Investigating Primary School Children’s Attitudes Towards Violence Against Women

The quotation in the title is from Joanne, aged 11. It is representative of the gendered dichotomies used to comprehend and explain male violence during fieldwork with 90 primary school children between the ages of 10 and 12 in Glasgow. Here, Joanne locates her understanding of male violence against women within binary concepts of femininity and weakness. The majority of participants concurred that girls (as opposed to boys) would be more likely to be hurt during physical violence, that females were weaker and that male violence against women was mismatched and unfair as boys (men) are bigger and stronger than girls (women). Alongside the implicit acceptance of normative masculinity and the alignment of this construction with power is the perception that male violence against women is wrong because of the perceived weakness of females. Therefore, women are complicit in their own victimisation because they are not strong enough to counter it. So although the young people were most likely to challenge physical (as opposed to emotional) violence, they were less likely to overtly resist the gendered practices which contributed to it.

Same old story? Children and young people's continued normalisation of men's violence against women

Globally, nationally and locally men’s violence against women is an endemic social problem and an enduring human rights issue within all societies and cultures. Challenging attitudes that condone violence both at the individual and community level is a key priority in its prevention. This paper brings together findings from two separate studies based on children’s and young people’s understandings of men’s violence against women. Both studies were located in Glasgow, Scotland, and used qualitative methods to explore children’s and young people’s views of men’s violence against women. The two studies, conducted nearly ten years apart, involved children aged 11 and 12 and young people aged 15 to 18. Despite the differences in age and the interval between them, there are remarkable similarities identified within both studies centring around children and young people’s normalisation of men’s violence against women. This paper presents a discussion of three of the key themes identified from these studies: the construction of men’s violence; gender roles and the naturalisation of difference; and the normalisation of men’s violence. In both studies the techniques of normalisation were employed by the participants to minimise both the seriousness of the violence and the significance of it to the victims. The findings clearly illustrate the widespread justification of gendered violence by both boys and girls. Thus, while the development and implementation of domestic violence/abuse education programmes need to take into account gender differences, targeting only boys’ attitudes fails to acknowledge an important component in reducing domestic violence/abuse: the internalisation of patriarchal norms by girls and women.

'Home game': domestic abuse and football; the role of research in policy and practice

Increased reports of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) following football matches have been documented, within both quantitative studies and the media, leading to questions about the policy and practice responses required. However, qualitative research facilitating understanding of the apparent link between football and DVA is lacking. Drawing upon research with key stakeholders across England and Scotland, this paper provides a rare insight into their understanding of the contested and complex relationship between football and DVA, including the role of contributory and confounding factors such as alcohol, match expectations, masculinity, entitlement and permissions. It is argued that while football may provide a potential platform for challenging DVA, focusing on football (or other specific factors or events) as causative risks re-incidentalising DVA and detaching it from feminist frameworks that have established DVA as a sustained behaviour grounded in gendered inequalities. This paper concludes by considering the broader conceptual implications of these findings for future research, policy and practice.