Why do Men Batter their Wives?

Ptacek, James

doi:10.4135/9781483328348.n12

Cited by 82 publications

(86 citation statements)

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“…Studies have explored how men talk about, or account for, perpetrating violence in their relationships (Hearn, 1998;Ptacek, 1990;Stamp & Sabourin, 1995). Researchers have found that men typically justify, minimise or deny their own violence against female partners.…”

Section: Victims and Perpetratorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Woman Abuse: The Construction of Gender in Women and Men's Narratives of Violence

Boonzaier

Rey

2004

South African Journal of Psychology

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Violence against women is a widespread social problem affecting millions of women. For more than three decades, researchers have explored the experiences of women in abusive relationships. Victims' accounts have been the main focus, often deflecting attention away from men who are most frequently the perpetrators. Consequently, woman abuse has come to be regarded as a 'woman's problem' -blaming women and rendering them responsible for change. The literature on perpetrators and victims of violence seems to be developing independently of each other and commonly provide one-sided accounts (mostly from victims and less often from perpetrators). This article reports on an ongoing research project that aims to explore how both partners in a violent heterosexual relationship understand and attach meanings to their experiences. In-depth interviews were conducted with five couples. An analysis of the narratives revealed that women and men's understandings of violence are both similar and different. They construct particular forms of gendered identities, which are sometimes contradictory and ambiguous. In their talk about violence and relationships, they 'perform' gender and enact hegemonic constructions of femininity and masculinity. The analysis also shows that women's and men's talk about violence is linked to broader socio-cultural mechanisms that construct woman abuse as a serious social problem in South Africa.

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Section: Victims and Perpetratorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Woman Abuse: The Construction of Gender in Women and Men's Narratives of Violence

Boonzaier

Rey

2004

South African Journal of Psychology

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“…It is also part of a troubling, albeit discredited, academic tradition of blaming victims generally (Von Hentig 1948) and rape victims (Amir 1971) specifically. Additionally, victim-blaming rationales support batterers' justifications for beating their wives (Ptacek 1988) and rapists' excuses for raping women (Scully and Marolla 1984). Victim-blaming rationales also explain polls that find 32% of women and 45% of men agreeing with the statement that ''some wives provoke their husbands into abusing them'' (Klein et al 1997).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Social Bridges Falling Down: Reconstructing a ‘Troublesome Population’ of Battered Women through Individual Responsibilization Strategies

Silverstein

Spark²

2007

Crit Crim

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The Bridges work preparation program is a deliberate government-sponsored strategy to help and empower battered women to take responsibility for their own lives. However, while the Bridges program promotes the freedom to make choices, in reality there is little choice when powerful governments coerce battered women to align their personal choices with government goals. The Bridges work preparation program presents ultimatums to powerless women in the same way that male batterers present ultimatums to their female victims. Ultimatums to battered women in order to stay in the Bridges program are that they take individual responsibility to be free of their abusers, to be alcohol and drug free, to have their children in day care, and to be motivated to get employment. The Bridges program arguably puts too much responsibility on individual battered women to extricate themselves from the everyday lives of assault and violence and distances government from its social responsibility for helping battered women. In order to help battered women, governments must engage in social programs assisting them to relocate from one welfare office to another and assist with day care, transportation, and cash. This assistance will make disengaging from batterers a real alternative. Otherwise, alternatives for battered women are dependence on batterers or dependence on the state for social assistance.Following World War II, governments believed that they could defeat major social problems in peacetime in the same way that they had defeated foreign enemies during wartime (Garland 1996). This was a Keynesian view, whereby governments did most of the 'rowing' and 'steering' not only of economic issues but of social life generally

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“…The men's account suggests that they are not quite abnormal enough to be considered`mentally ill', since they are`normal' and in`conscious control' over themselves most of the time. However in the moment of violence, he is not suf®ciently`sane',`aware' and`responsible' enough to be considered a criminal (Ptacek, 1988). Consequently they need`help' not punishment'.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pragmatic post‐structuralism (II): an outcomes evaluation of a stopping violence programme

Morgan

O'Neill

2001

Community & Applied Soc Psy

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This paper reports features of a distinctly post-structuralist`outcome evaluation' of a New Zealand stopping violence programme for men who have assaulted their spouses. Through analysis of preand post-programme interviews it was found that the men's accounts of their violence shifted as a consequence of their participation in and exposure to the programme's discursive resources. Overall the men's accounts demonstrated movement towards taking greater ownership and responsibility for their actions. However this trend was not universal and was mitigated through other pre-programme discursive resources.

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Why do Men Batter their Wives?

Cited by 82 publications

References 0 publications

Woman Abuse: The Construction of Gender in Women and Men's Narratives of Violence

Woman Abuse: The Construction of Gender in Women and Men's Narratives of Violence

Social Bridges Falling Down: Reconstructing a ‘Troublesome Population’ of Battered Women through Individual Responsibilization Strategies

Pragmatic post‐structuralism (II): an outcomes evaluation of a stopping violence programme

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