Domestic violence and traditional focus

Apr 02, 2014 Editorial

The recent forum organized by SASOD, Red Thread, Colwyn Harding Support Group, and Help and Shelter highlighted several serious issues. The event addressed the prevalence of sexual and domestic violence in the country and pointed to the fact that very little is being done to bring justice to victims.
What is evident though is the traditional focus on the female victims in adult heterosexual relationships. Steinmetz & Lucca (1988) report that husband-battering and other forms of violence against men are often ignored in reviews of domestic violence because it is assumed that the overwhelming majority of victims of violence are women.
Generally the cases which usually make the headlines are those where the victims are in heterosexual relationships with hardly any mention being made about heterosexual and homosexual men as victims, or even females in lesbian relationships. This might be a function of the absence hard evidence associated with abuse in these types of relationships, and to present men as equal victims of violence would diminish the focus on women and would be misleading.
This position – if true, has serious implications for the methodology used to address domestic violence issues, and seems to be supported by Island and Letellier (1991) who suggest that victims in homosexual relationships are less likely to report the abuse, and are more likely to stay with their partner because of homophobia, heterosexism, and ignorance in the community regarding forms of domestic violence as well as homosexuality.
In a society such as ours, denying that men can be victims of violence and that women can be perpetrators of violence ignores that violence could even exist in gay and lesbian relationships. This denial effectively perpetuates the acceptance of domestic violence in such relationships.
Various writers (Ashcraft, 2000; Jacobson and Gottman, 1998; Lobel, 1986) have generally defined domestic violence as a pattern of violent and coercive behaviours, whereby one attempts to control the thoughts, beliefs, or behaviours of an intimate partner for resisting one’s control which according to Robertson, 1999; and Walker, 2000, is gained through fear and intimidation.
Control may be gained through physical abuse; emotional and/or verbal abuse; financial dependency; social isolation; sexual abuse; minimizing or denying; and abuse using coercion, threats, and intimidation.
It would be interesting to know the annual statistics regarding gay and lesbian domestic violence reports. But we should not hold our breath for any spectacular figures, since it is likely that these will be under-reported in the same way that most types of abuse are under-reported. It would be important to know if counselling services are provided for battered victims and their aggressors in those relationships. This would be another serious demonstration of support for the right to sexual preferences.
Gays and lesbians have suffered at the hands of their partners, but to be confronted by homophobic attitudes and reactions create a great reluctance in that community to acknowledge and report battering. The situation is not helped by mind-sets which would seek every opportunity to diminish the efforts of gay and lesbian rights groupings. The police treatment of such reports refuses to recognise the homosexual relationship, making it impossible to acknowledge that what is recorded as an assault is in fact an act of domestic violence.
Island & Letellier op cit argue that the incidence of gay domestic violence is probably greater than heterosexual domestic violence because where there are two men in a gay couple either could be a batterer, since there is still some social norm not to hit a woman, and there is no woman in such a relationship.
Experiences with the police recognise that the social norms accept that men would engage in mutual combat and therefore men will fight to resolve differences. They further argue that the rate for domestic violence in gay couples should be at least the same as in straight couples, as there is no evidence that gay men are any less violent than straight men.
Substance abuse may also present serious problems for both gays and lesbians since this has been empirically linked to committing acts of violence and being the victim of acts of violence in relationships (Schilt et al., 1990). Domestic violence therefore must be seen as conflict between humans, regardless of their sexual orientation, and taking appropriate steps to address resultant relational problems.

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Domestic violence and traditional focus

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