R. Emerson Dobash

Community Response to Violence Against Wives: Charivari, Abstract Justice and Patriarchy

Here we analyze the forms of community and institutional responses to the problem of wife beating. The regulation of domestic affairs in European communities is traced from the fifteenth century to the present. The historical analysis begins with direct and personal responses of members of the community, such as misrules and charivaris, and traces the development of the more abstract and impersonal responses of the state institutions that emerged during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Both community and institutional forms of response were directed at upholding patriarchal authority and the husbands right to control his wife through various means, including the use of physical force. The intent was not to stop the violence but to set limits on the amount of violence a husband might use in pursuing his rights. With the transformation from ritualized forms of community response to abstract forms of institutional regulation, battered women were forced to seek help from institutions, such as the police, that were not established to deal with problems of domestic order and that remained relatively unconcerned with the problem of wife beating. The refuge movement within the Womens Aid movement in Britain is trying in an egalitarian way to return the problem to women and the community and also to get social agencies to respond positively. It rejects male violence unequivocally and challenges the patriarchical domination underlying-the acceptance and continuation of wife beating.

Social Science and Social Action The Case of Wife Beating

Elationship between social science and social action as they have developed in the context Of research on violence against wives. After providings brief history of the rise of this social problem in Britain, the social scientist will bc placed in this arena. There, the article examines the existing proposals relating to social science and social action and then develops three fundamental aspects of action research: the methodology. the message, and the relationship between social scientists and statutory bodies and community soups . Throughout, the discussion draws comparisons with the traditional approaches that have not been oriented to action research.

The Response of the British and American Women’s Movements to Violence Against Women

In charting the discovery of the problem of wife abuse, the building of a social movement, and the formulation of responses in Great Britain and the USA, it is only possible in this chapter to touch upon some of the most important events and issues within the larger struggle for change. In both countries, the battered women’s (BW) movement emerged from the broader women’s movement and has formed a significant part of it since the early 1970s. The accomplishments of the BW movements during the last decade involved numerous crucial struggles over the recognition of the problem, recognition and legitimation of grass-roots activists, definitions of causes and solutions and construction of pragmatic and direct ways of working within these movements as well as with outside agencies. It is important to stress that the achievements have been gained through continuous struggle and confrontations, although this chapter will concentrate more on the outcome than the process by which it was achieved.

Gewalt in heterosexuellen Partnerschaften

Die Forschung zur Problematik der Gewalt zwischen Intimpartnern in heterosexuellen Beziehungen stand seit ihren Anfangen in den 1970 er Jahren im Zeichen von Auseinandersetzungen und Kontroversen.1 Fast alle Aspekte des Forschungsprozesses sind ebenso umstritten wie die verschiedenen sozial- und rechtspolitischen Masnahmen mit dem Ziel, geeignete und effektive Interventionsmoglichkeiten zu finden. Einige der wesentlichen Themen, um die es dabei ging und geht, waren Folgende: die Suche nach angemessenen Definitionen und Erklarungen fur diese Gewalt; geeignete Forschungsmethodologien fur die Untersuchung von Gewalt und die Erfassung ihres Umfangs und ihrer Verbreitung innerhalb von Gesellschaften; die Schwere der Folgen fur die betroffenen Personen und die Frage, wie fur Opfer und Tater gleichermasen sinnvolle und effektive Reaktionen aussehen konnten (unter Beteiligung der Strafgerichtsbarkeit, der Sozial- und Gesundheitsdienste und/oder informeller, freiwilliger oder auf Gemeindeebene aktiver Netzwerke oder Unterstutzungssysteme).