Walter S. DeKeseredy

The incidence and prevalence of woman abuse in Canadian university and college dating relationships

This paper presents incidence and prevalence data gathered from the first Canadian national representative sample survey on the sexual, physical, and psychological victimization of women in university/college dating relationships. The results, derived from the Conflict Tactics Scale and the Sexual Experiences Survey, reveal that men are more likely to report having engaged in less lethal forms of abuse, and women are more likely to report having been victimized by such behaviour.

Current Controversies on Defining Nonlethal Violence Against Women in Intimate Heterosexual Relationships Empirical Implications

There is considerable disagreement about what harmful behaviors should be included in a definition of nonlethal violence against women in intimate heterosexual relationships. For example, many researchers restrict their focus to physical and/or sexual assaults, whereas others offer formulations that include a much broader range of injurious acts. The main objectives of this article are to describe and evaluate narrow and broad definitions and provide some suggestions for achieving consensus in defining violence against women.

Understanding the Complexities of Feminist Perspectives on Woman Abuse A Commentary on Donald G. Dutton's Rethinking Domestic Violence

All books, including Donald G. Dutton’s (2006) Rethinking Domestic Violence, are written and published in a specific political and economic context. As vividly described by Faludi (1991), Hammer (2002), and many others who made progressive contributions to an interdisciplinary understanding of the enduring discrimination against contemporary North American women, we still live in a climate characterized by vitriolic attacks on feminist scholarship, practice, and activism intended to secure women’s basic human rights (DeKeseredy & Schwartz, 2003; Stanko, 2006). Despite its title, Dutton’s new book does not focus on rethinking domestic violence. Instead, it is another example of the conservative backlash against feminism in general and feminist research on woman abuse in particular, a response that “helps to veil the extent and brutality of this problem and to block efforts to deal with it” (Hammer, 2002, p. 5). Dutton’s preoccupation with feminism is reflected in entire chapters dedicated to criticizing feminist theory and research and the book’s “bottom line” summary, where half of the main points concern Dutton’s interpretation of feminism rather than new insights about domestic violence research. Accordingly, the main objective of this commentary is to respond to some of Dutton’s criticisms of feminist inquiry and practice.

The meanings and motives for women's use of violence in Canadian college dating relationships: Results from a national survey

Data from a Canadian nationwide representative sample of 1,835 female college students were used to test a variety of propositions about womens use of violence in dating relationships. It has become progressively common in both Canada and the United States to argue that women are as violent as men. Although in a crude counting of violent acts these data confirm the contention that women commit a large number of such acts, a further investigation of the womens motives shows that a substantial amount of their violence was in self‐defense, or “fighting back.” The more these women had been victimized, whether physically or sexually, the more likely they were to report that they had used self‐defensive violence. The finding that a substantial amount of womens

Male peer support and woman abuse: An expansion of Dekeseredy's model

Although all‐male friendship networks may have an important effect in motivating some men to physically, sexually, and psychologically harm female intimates, particularly in dating relationships, the study of the dynamics of these groups is still limited. DeKeseredys early model has some of the best explanatory value, but it fails to address a number of factors, including macrolevel forces, the role of alcohol abuse, membership in formal social groups such as fraternities, and the absence of deterrent factors on many campuses. This paper attempts to build a stronger theoretical model by adding these factors to DeKeseredys base. Further, it argues that an important next step, in addition to strong multivari‐ate analysis, is ethnographic study to look at the work of mens peer groups in promoting a discourse and dramaturgy of everyday student life that legitimates the use of various forms of violence against women.

Male Peer Support and Woman Abuse: The Current State of Knowledge

Abstract This paper reviews the current empirical literature on the relationship between male peer support and woman abuse in intimate, heterosexual relationships. Suggestions for future quantitative and qualitative studies are provided. Furthermore, this review concludes with a call for more rigorous attempts at theory construction and testing.

Aggregation Bias and Woman Abuse Variations by Male Peer Support, Region, Language, and School Type

Many researchers have been attracted to broad, national-level surveys as an antidote to the more usual practice of studying woman abuse in one location or campus and presuming that the results generalize to the entire population. However, the reverse error is also possible: presuming that one national rate may adequately represent a variety of different regions, types of schools, and cultural groups. This article analyzes the Canadian National Survey data to compare geographic regions, types of schools, and whether the students took the survey in French or English. None of these factors influenced the results. Male peer support measures, as hypothesized, did strongly affect male behavior in both physical and sexual abuse.

Women's Fear of Crime in Canadian Public Housing

That women have a greater fear of crime than men has often been termed irrational or paradoxical, but this article joins those who argue that the gendered nature of fear is well grounded. The authors investigate the extent to which various factors—including prior victimization, perceptions of neighborhood disorder, routine activities, and neighborhood satisfaction—predict womens perceptions of personal safety. Survey and semistructured interview data were collected from 219 women living in six urban public housing estates in eastern Ontario. Both disorder and neighborhood satisfaction have a moderately strong impact on perceptions of insecurity, whereas prior victimization is a negligible factor. One conclusion is that improving services (e.g., removing garbage, graffiti, vandalized items) may reduce fear as much as reducing crime.

Rethinking Estrangement, Interventions, and Intimate Femicide

North American research shows that interventions and their type, appropriateness, timing, and patterning may help explain variations in the relationship between estrangement and intimate femicide on one hand and reintegration or conciliation on the other. The main objective of this article is to build on Wilson and Dalys male proprietariness thesis by integrating it with a theory of interventions.

Woman abuse in dating relationships: The relevance of social support theory

Many women are victimized by their boyfriends. Furthermore, male social networks may encourag e members to abuse their girlfriends. A review of relevant literature shows that social support theory may be useful for understanding this problem. The purpose of this paper is to describe this social psychological theorys potential contribution to the study of woman abuse in dating relationships.