The Battered Husband Syndrome

lightning_palm · 2021-11-24T05:58:26+00:00

An old study from 1977. What I found particularly interesting is that this study quotes Curtis (1974) which found that men and women were practically identical in their frequency of performing cross-sex partner homicides. Remember that this is old data, and that this was during a time that domestic violence shelters for women were not as common and awareness was low.

Abstract:

This article examines the phenomenon of husband battering utilizing some historical data, comic strips as a reflection of popular values and the data derived from several empirical studies. Husband abuse is not uncommon, although many tend to ignore it, dismiss it or treat it with "selective inattention". The reasons why men do not report their victimization and why they stay in an abusive situation are examined in depth. Some of the myths commonly held about men's place in the family, their attachment to their offspring and their ability to easily move in and out of relationships are explored. The article ends with a plea for a more comprehensive approach to study and treat family violence seeing it not as an isolated phenomenon but as another manifestation of a basically violent society.

Some excerpts I wanted to highlight:

Using two United States populations — a broadbased non-representative group and a random sample in New Castle DE — and a Canadian sample of college students, Steinmetz (1977c and b) found only small differences in the percentage of husbands and wives who resorted to throwing things, pushing or shoving, hitting with the hand, or hitting with an object. In fact, the total violence scores, for these three studies, were very similar.

The data from the nationally representative sample (Straus et al., 1977), based on reports of violence that occurred during 1975, found wives to be slightly higher in almost all categories except pushing and shoving. The total violence scores, however were identical.

Only one study (Gelles, 1974) found that husbands exceeding wives in the use of all types of violence except "hitting with something," a mode which de-emphasized physical strength. In this study, 47 percent of husbands had used physical violence on their wives, while only 33 percent of the wives had used violence on their husbands. However, half of the respondents were selected from the police blotter because of reported domestic violence or by the social service agency which selected families because it was suspected that violence might be occurring. This may explain why more wives than husbands were victims of physical violence in Gelles' study, since it is wives who report domestic violence to the police and seek help from social services and agencies.

While these data represent the percentage of husbands and wives who have used physical violence against a spouse, it does not tell us the frequency with which these acts occur. Surprisingly, the data suggest that not only the percentage of wives having used physical violence often exceeds that of the husbands, but that wives also exceed husbands in the frequency with which these acts occur.

[…]

Curtis (1974) reported that while violence by men against women was responsible for about 27 percent of the assaults and 17.5 percent of the homicides, violence by women against men accounted for 9 percent of the assaults and 16.4 percent of the homicides in this study. Thus, while women commit only about one-third as many assaults against men as men commit against women, the number of cross-sex homicides committed by the two groups are nearly identical. Wilt and Bannon (1976: 20) warn that caution should be applied when interpreting Curtis' findings. They note that "non-fatal violence committed by women against men is less likely to be reported to the police than is violence against women; thus, women assaulted who come to the attention of the police are likely to be those who have produced a fatal result."

(emphasis mine)

Title	The Battered Husband Syndrome
Author	lightning_palm
Upvotes	9
Comments	1
Date	November 24, 2021 5:53 AM UTC (4 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/Male_Studies
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/Male_Studies/comments/r0xvwh/the_battered_husband_syndrome/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/Male_Studies/the-battered-husband-syndrome.1216120 https://theredarchive.com/post/1216120

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