NCJ Number
85488
Date Published
1982
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This discussion considers the cultural and economic structures that foster wife-battering, the emergence of wife-battering as a social problem, and the nature of current State intervention and some of its consequences.
Abstract
The patriarchal structure which places men at the head of the family to be responsible for discipline and order and women in a subservient role to men fosters the rationalization of wife-beating, the blaming of the victim, and the noncriminalization of wife-beating. Challenges to the patriarchal structure also precipitate violence against the wife. As wives insist on a more independent lifestyle less oriented around the needs of the husband and the family, husbands whose needs have been met by a subservient wife may become angry and violently punitive toward the wife. The current, tentative emergence of wife-battering as a crime can be understood only by analyzing the feminist movement, State strategies of intervention, and the continuing public struggle over problem definition and policy. As the feminist movement and the financial needs of women, as well as their desire for recognition in the marketplace, have pressed for broader and more rewarding roles for women, wife-battering has been elevated as a critical pattern of exploitation of women. Shelters for battered wives sponsored by private contributions have emerged as a major response to the need for services to battered wives. While new legislation and criminal justice policy have focused on the criminal prosecution of the wife-beater, implementation is half-hearted and inconsistent. In seeking State support for shelters for battered women, competition with other social services has in many cases produced a trend to include battered women with other targeted groups. Restricted government budgets and the traditionally low priority given to helping battered women may produce a loss of some of the gains made in recent years. Forty-one notes are listed.