NCJ Number
210603
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 49 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2005 Pages: 427-449
Date Published
August 2005
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This study examined attitudes toward domestic violence among people living in communal secular and religious kibbutzim in Israel.
Abstract
For years kibbutzim in Israel have functioned as closed communities distinct from other communities by clearly defined physical, cultural, and social boundaries. The religious kibbutz is rooted in a communal religious ideology reflected in internal social-control and judicial systems. The value of family is central to the religious kibbutz, and the woman's traditional role in the family has been maintained. Unlike the religious kibbutz, the secular kibbutz has perceived the family as a competing factor for the individual's loyalty to the larger community; consequently, the kibbutz as a unit has assumed familial features; and in kibbutz tasks, women have assumed the traditional female roles of childrearing, doing the laundry, and cooking. A survey of attitudes toward violent felonies between intimate partners involved members of four kibbutzim (two religious and two secular) of medium size located in the center of the country. Of the 78 usable questionnaires returned, 22 men and 20 women defined themselves as secular; and 17 men and 19 women defined themselves as religious. The findings show that most of the kibbutz members, regardless of gender or religious orientation, considered the kibbutz as not having any problem of partner violence toward women. The view that the kibbutz is a safe place for women was indeed stronger among women than among men. There was little support for the view that men's violence toward women, whether within or outside the kibbutz, is rooted in patriarchal cultural values. Such violent behavior was typically viewed as resulting from individual mental or substance abuse disorders. Possible explanations of these findings and their implications for the prevention of domestic violence are discussed. 6 tables and 42 references