NCJ Number
185755
Date Published
2000
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The author contends the rise in the number of reports of domestic violence is due to women's increased awareness of the availability of social services and their willingness to use the services, not because of an actual increase in the behavior itself, and he also believes the extent of domestic violence is determined by how abuse is defined.
Abstract
Battering is seen as a basic means of intimidation by which patriarchal society maintains its power. Although feminists have brought the battering issue into the political mainstream, they were consciously or otherwise working in close alliance with another trend of the 1980's and 1990's, namely the vast growth in social service agencies. Social welfare expenditures by Federal and State authorities rose from less than 12 percent of the gross national product in 1965 to over 20 percent a decade later, and the number of clinical social workers dramatically increased from 25,000 in 1975 to 80,000 by 1990. Social service agencies gained strength from more intrusive powers to seek out social dysfunctions, especially laws requiring doctors, teachers, and other professionals to report suspected family violence. Although the author believes the frequency of domestic violence has been declining for decades, he indicates the figures are used to present the contrary "epidemic" view and the inflation of claims is achieved by an ever-expanding definition of abuse. He feels abuse has become an extremely generic term, one that infers every form of abuse will result in murder, and concludes the seriousness of domestic violence has been exaggerated.