1. Power and Violence

2. What is power? The ability to exercise one’s will TYPES (p. 302):
1. Personal Power
2. Social Power
3. Marital Power

3. Marital Power Decision Making Division of Labor Sense of Empowerment
* Objective Measure of Power
* Subjective Measure of Fairness
(note: subjective measure matters most in marital satisfaction)

4. Six Sources of Power (French & Raven)
(Table 12.1, p. 303)
Coercive Power (punishment)
Reward Power (non/material gifts)
Expert Power (superior judgment)
Informational Power (persuasion)
Referent Power (couple identity)
Legitimate Power (patriarchy)

5. Dynamics of Power (Blood & Wolf)
Using the Resource Hypothesis, the researchers suggest that patriarchy as a power source was no longer prevalent
Interviewed 900 wives in 1960
72 % Egalitarian
25 % Male dominated
3 % Female dominated

6. Criticism of Blood & Wolf Study
Not all decisions are equal
Left out important areas of life :
a. sexual life
b. number of children
c. freedom to have friends of opp./same sex
There’s more than the final say, e.g., who comes up with the alternatives
Division of labor
Autonomy

7. Resources and Gender Men Women + Higher Wages + Older
+ Physical Strength
+ High remarriage rate
Women
+ Working in Paid Labor
Reproductive Role
Economic Dependence

8. Resource in Cultural Context
Patriarchal Norm v. Egalitarian Norm
Today, in American culture:
Transitional Egalitarian Situation
Love, Need, and Power
Principle of Least Interested (Waller)
How does gender play a role in these theories?

9. Family Violence
All forms of abuse have at their center the exploitation of a power difference

10. The Power and Control Wheel Behaviors some Males use for coercive power and control

11. What the Data Says National Crime Victimization Survey (2001)
700,000 (nonfatal) incidences of violence
(rape/sexual assault, robbery, aggravated Assault)
85 % against women (ages 16-24)
Men ages most victimized
Between violent crime against women declined by 40 Percent
Intimate partner homicide for men down by 45 %

12. Intimate-Partner Murder

13. Who Commits Intimate-Partner Violence?
Asymmetrical Violence:
Women are primarily the victims of abuse
Symmetrical Violence:
both men and women engage in intimate-partner violence

14. Three major Explanations
Sample Differences
Using college students versus wider age range
* College women more willing to strike out in argument
Measures
CTS does not include sexual violence
Typologies of intimate-partner violence
Patriarchal Terrorism
intended to establish a general pattern of dominance
* normally not focused on particular dispute
Common Couple Violence
mutual violence between couple over specific dispute
* involves fewer instances, not likely to escalate, may be more common than patriarchal terrorism

15. Why Do Men Do It?
Coercive power is invoked when all other power sources are unavailable
* this leads to Patriarchal Terrorism

16. Three-Phase Cycle of Domestic Violence
1. Tension forms from minor altercation
2. Situation escalates to violent explosion
3. (honeymoon stage) Husband treats wife with love and care
*similar pattern found in same-sex relationships

17. Why Do Women Stay? Fear Cultural Norm
* 75% of murders are reactions to leaving
Cultural Norm
* Rule of Thumb; Katz’s indifference to male violence
Love, Econ. Dependency, Hopes for Reform
Gender Socialization
* Women are the ones to keep marriages together
Childhood Experience
Low Self-Esteem