NCJ Number
102231
Journal
Signs Volume: 8 Issue: 3 Dated: special issue (Spring 1983) Pages: complete issue
Editor(s)
B C Gelpi
Date Published
1983
Length
96 pages
Annotation
These 14 articles, book reviews, and reports focus on domestic violence directed against women and on broader issues of the historical and social roots of racism, sexism, and women's roles during wars.
Abstract
An essay on racism and sexism in Nazi Germany shows the link between domestic violence and the public violence embodied in war. Two articles consider the theoretical and empirical aspects of women's participation in armed conflicts. Another essay compares and contrasts the patriarchal system of the private home with the professional system and relationships of the public world. A review of original research on child abuse, wife beating, and incest notes the relationship of domestic violence to the gender-based power relationships of society and criticizes scholarly research for failing to consider the social context of domestic violence. A study of marital rape shows its linkage with wife battering and its relationship to the husband's personal problems rather than to problems in the couple's sexual relationship. A description of a class-action lawsuit against a police department shows how such suits can both educate the police and the public and bring about changes in policies of avoiding arrests of wife beaters. Four book reviews, an article on infant abandonment in the 19th century, data tables, and reference notes.