Theological and Ethical Reflections on Men and Violence: Toward a New Understanding of Masculinity

Abstract

This paper explores the reasons why men express violence against women, children and other men, suggesting that men's violence represents one of the darkest features of masculinity. The way men are socialized and conditioned requires and produces violent behaviors that are destructive to men themselves as well as to women, children, and the earth. The author proposes the need to re-envision masculinity to enable men and women to create communities in which people are encouraged to participate in ‘adventurous partnering for peace’.     

The Formal Systems Response to Violence Against Women in India: A Cultural Lens

Violence against women (VAW) has become an increasingly salient issue in India, with women at risk for different forms of gendered violence. While there may be universal elements in the international phenomenon of violence against women, it is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that takes shape in a particular sociocultural context. The current study employs a narrative framework to systematically examine how culture is expressed in the formal systems response and women's help‐seeking in two metropolitan cities in India. Specifically, we sought to understand, among formal system responders (a) what characterizes the dominant cultural narratives on violence against women in India; and (b) how these are reflected in community narratives of formal responders. Interviews were conducted with formal responders working in different types of local agencies (e.g., police, health centers, and non‐governmental agencies). The paper illustrates the major themes that emerged from participants’ narratives describing the multilevel influences that shape the formal system response to violence against women and women's help‐seeking efforts. The implications of these findings for effective response and directions for future research are summarized.     

THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS. GENDER, ‘YOUTH’, AND THE DELHI GANG RAPE CASE OF 2012

Following the Delhi gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh Pandhey in New Delhi and the unprecedented levels of protest that followed, high numbers of young people in the subcontinent and specifically urban India were blamed for sexual violence, while also heralded as a progressive vanguard.¹1 The Justice Verma Commission report that followed the Delhi gang rape described a ‘…?mass of young, prospectless men’ who were blamed for violent assaults of women in urban India. The report further concluded that ‘?…?large scale disempowerment of urban man is lending intensity to a pre-existing culture of sexual violence’. Paradoxically, Justice Verma also praised the young for their political activism following the Delhi gang rape and murder case. Justice Verma specifically praised the Youth Movement, stating that:Much to Learn from the youth, not possible to name everyone who contributed. Even when there was provocation, they did not react and continued to maintain calm. It was the young men who were conscious that this gender inequality has to be done away with.One can see how discourses concerning young urban Indians are fraught with contradictions that gesture to how political leaders want to cease on the energies of young people to support national interests, while also blaming them for their insecurity within a neoliberal economy. In this piece, I discuss the paradoxical discourses that surround the Delhi gang rape and the unprecedented levels of protest that followed in relation to global austerity and anxieties concerning youth. While ‘idle young men’ are blamed for sexual violence and ‘young’ women are subject to paternalistic protectionism, I suggest that gendered violence in urban India must be thought of in relation to a wider moment of global recession and austerity. I use the Delhi gang rape case and discursive constructions of ‘youth’ as both deviant and politically progressive to discuss the gendered effects that increased forms of global precarity supports.     

Identifying violence among women patients attending family practices: the role of research in community change

Violence against women has serious consequences. Although victims use health facilities more frequently than others, violence is still not recognized in most services and in the larger community. This study had three aims: (1) to estimate the prevalence of violence among women patients in primary care, (2) to evaluate the feasibility of asking all women about violence, and (3) to make violence visible, and thereby initiate a process of professional and community change on the issue of violence against women. The study was carried out in a small Italian town, at the initiative of a local family doctor. We conducted a cross‐sectional survey among patients of six family practices and 444 women responded to a self‐administrated questionnaire. Five per cent of respondents experienced physical or sexual violence in the last year, and 25% had experienced it in the past. Nineteen per cent had experienced psychological violence in the last 12 months. Risk factors for current violence were: younger age, being pregnant or with young children, being separated or divorced, or lack of stable employment. Most women were in favour of being asked about violence by their doctor. The study's results were disseminated in public meetings, with good press coverage. This resulted in a dramatic increase in the visibility of victims of violence, the development of a training course for health professionals, and the creation of the first women's group in the town. Along with advocacy work, the group has prepared a booklet on violence addressing women, and is now raising funds to start an ‘anti‐violence’ telephone line. Overall, the study has become a tool for change within the health services and the community. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Masculinity and Homophobic Violence in Australia’s Recent Past

This paper examines a set of research evidence compiled in the last two decades by the author and several of his Australian colleagues to argue that violence directed at gay men, lesbians and transsexuals as ‘sexual minorities’ has not been wholly distinct from other general forms of male perpetrated violence with a broad range of victims including heterosexual women and other men attacked in general male-on-male violence. It observes that harassment and violence directed against sexual groups have been highly gendered and everyday phenomena and narrow views of homophobic prejudice should be refined in order to appreciate this. Furthermore, reflecting on these research findings indicates these violent acts have been widespread and collective social phenomena built on masculine understandings of a sexual mainstream and subordinate others. By focusing upon the masculine facets of this violence it can be seen that much of this violence has been a hostile response to sexual and gender non-conformity through which male perpetrators have sought to enact, police and reinforce sexual hierarchies and gender boundaries. There is contemporary research uncertainty about the real extent of sexual prejudice and related violence in Australia and similar liberal democratic nations around the globe. Nevertheless, it is evident that this social phenomenon had a key historical role in signaling socially acceptable masculine appearance and behavior.     

The Relation Between the Two Factors of Psychopathy and Intimate Partner Aggression

Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has emerged as a correlate of antisocial, impulsive, and violent behavior, including intimate partner violence (IPV). In the current study, we sought to explore the complex relationship between two factors of psychopathy and IPV perpetration. The Fearlessness-Dominance Factor I (PPI-I) assesses the affective-interpersonal traits of psychopathy, whereas the Impulsive-Antisociality Factor II (PPI-II) assesses the behavioral-lifestyle traits of psychopathy. Data from 114 couples was utilized in the current study. When using male self-report of IPV, all forms of violence were significantly correlated with PPI-I. No male self-report or female-report of any of the forms of violence were significantly correlated with PPI-II. Hierarchical regression was utilized to study the impact of psychopathy factors in predicting physical violence while controlling for demographic variables. In predicting women’s report of men’s violence, the addition of psychopathy factors to the model explained significantly more of the variance (F = 2.71; p < .05) above and beyond demographic variables. The addition of psychopathy factors to the model predicting men’s self-reported physical violence was also significant (F = 4.78, p < .001). These results suggest that individuals high in PPI-I may be at higher risk of IPV perpetration compared to those high in PPI-II.     

Pragmatic post‐structuralism (II): an outcomes evaluation of a stopping violence programme

This paper reports features of a distinctly post‐structuralist ‘outcome evaluation’ of a New Zealand stopping violence programme for men who have assaulted their spouses. Through analysis of pre‐ and post‐programme interviews it was found that the men's accounts of their violence shifted as a consequence of their participation in and exposure to the programme's discursive resources. Overall the men's accounts demonstrated movement towards taking greater ownership and responsibility for their actions. However this trend was not universal and was mitigated through other pre‐programme discursive resources. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scandalous subwomen and sublime superwomen: exploring portrayals of female suicide bombers’ agency

When the terms ‘women’ and ‘violence’ are used, it is usually in the context of women as victims and rarely as perpetrators of violence, and yet women do behave aggressively – for instance, as female suicide bombers. An ethical analysis of this role, however, has tended to be somewhat overlooked, partly because of the gender stereotypes at play, with little (or spurious) focus on the agency and autonomy of the women. This has resulted in an incomplete understanding of the unique ways in which societies treat female political aggressions, and the consequences of this for their agency. This paper seeks to redress these issues by evaluating two different societal portrayals of female suicide bombers; that of the ‘scandalous subwoman’ and the ‘sublime superwoman’. It argues that violent women's agency is often distorted to extremes beyond that of their male counterparts, and that it is imperative to avoid misrepresenting them either as agentless victims (‘subwomen’) or wholly agentic (‘superwomen’) since, even in times of political instability, they can rarely be dichotomised in this binary way.     

Attitudes Toward Violence Against Women: A Cross-Nation Study

An understanding of attitudes toward violence against women is vital for effective prevention strategies. In this study we examined attitudes regarding violence against women in samples of undergraduate women and men students from four countries: India, Japan, Kuwait, and the United States. Attitudes toward sexual assault and spousal physical violence differed between men and women and across the four countries. Variations in gender differences across countries indicated that, for attitudes regarding sexual assault of women in particular, sociocultural factors may be a stronger influence than gender. Findings suggest the importance of examining differences within the larger sociocultural context of political, historical, religious, and economic influences on attitudes toward gender roles and violence against women.     

Walking the Walk or Just Talk?: A Global Examination of Men’s Intentions to Take Violence Preventative Action

Given the increasing prominence of both bystander-based approaches to gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and of proactively engaging men and boys to join efforts to end GBV, understanding the factors that support men’s antiviolence bystander behavior is important. This study examined correlates of willingness to engage in violence preventative bystander behavior in a global sample of 299 adult men engaged in GBV prevention events or work. Participants came from over 50 countries and provided data via an online, anonymous survey available in English, Spanish, and French. Path analysis was used to model participants’ willingness to engage in a variety of violence-preventative behaviors in the future, with variable selection guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and by research implicating gender-related attitudes in bystander willingness and behavior. Findings suggest that bystander willingness was supported by past bystander behavior, self-efficacy to engage in bystander behavior, positive beliefs about the contributions of antiviolence involvement, and by an awareness of male privilege. Social network support for GBV prevention work, and support for gender equity were not significant correlates of bystander willingness in the full path model. These findings held across participants from the Global North and Global South, suggesting that self-efficacy, an awareness of male privilege, and positive attitudes toward antiviolence work are factors which may support men’s violence preventative actions across broad regional contexts.     

Female Offenders in Domestic Violence

SUMMARY

It is well accepted that large numbers of men batter women. Although some data also reveal that women report assaulting men in large numbers, interpretation of the latter data has been fraught with controversy. The present article reports on a sample of women arrested for domestic violence. When questions were asked about frequency of violence initiation, which partner began the overall pattern of violence in the relationship, and the women's reasons for using violence, it was found that about two-thirds of the women were battered and using violence to protect themselves or to retaliate for previous violence against them. Implications of these findings for conceptualizing women's violence as well as for training law enforcement personnel are discussed.     

Speaking of grief and the grief of speaking: martyrs’ speech and the perils of translation

In Derrida’s Monolinguism of the Other, a theory about the universal and constitutive alienation of the speaking subject from language finds its exemplary grounding in Derrida’s own experience as an Algerian Jew, one whose relationship to the French language is both totalizing and exiled (‘I have only one language, it is not mine.’). He equates speaking not only with contingent citizenship and a divestment of what one never really had in the first place, but also with the extreme experiences of torture, threat and physical violence. He indeed uses the words ‘passion’ and ‘martyr’ to describe his experience. In this paper, I will read Derrida ‘backwards,’ and against the universalizing move Derrida and those following him make in order to suggest a way of reading some scenes of violent death as scenes about diasporic cultural divestment. I’ll specifically attend to martyrs’ speech, and do so reading them as archives of the perils and inescapable expenses of entering dominant cultural ‘languages.’     

Abuse Committed by Women Against Male Intimates

SUMMARY

A review of the rapidly expanding empirical research exploring the incidence, prevalence and characteristics of domestic violence committed by women against male intimates supports several conclusions: (1) the majority of abuse- in intimate relationships involves mutual aggression; (2) women are as likely to aggress against partners as are men, and men arc as likely as women to be the victims of intimate assaults; (3) women are more likely to be physically injured; and, (4) severe systematic abuse in intimate relationships is rare.     

Practitioners’ Views on the Role of Spirituality in Working With Women Victims and Survivors of Domestic Violence

Based on a study of 1,481 domestic violence workers or practitioners from 180 organizations across 12 countries, this article studies their views on spirituality for domestic violence women victims and survivors. Results showed that spirituality is favored by domestic violence workers, and more so by Christians and those with higher spiritual self-inclination. Subtle variations exist between views of practitioners from European countries, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia vis-à-vis those from Asian and African countries. Whereas practitioners from the former attested mindfulness, peace, and letting go as spiritual techniques for domestic violence work, Asian and African practitioners were more in favor of practiced distance detachment. In terms of goals of spiritually sensitive interventions, Asian and African practitioners favored letting go and empowered reconciliation, whereas their counterparts favored moving on and detachment. Practitioners from European countries, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia endorsed ‘letting go’ as a technique of living in the present, with a sense of positive orientation. Spirituality creates spaces in the psychic domains for women to exert their free will and address hegemonic masculinity. Asian and African practitioners saw the potential of spirituality in engendering systems and structures. This calls for a culturally alert approach in deploying spirituality in violence against women work.     

Adult Male Perpetrators’ Perspectives on What Prevention Approaches Work Best for Young Boys at Risk of Future Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration

As part of a 2-year ethnographic study, 49 adult men who had been convicted of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration were interviewed on what they thought would have prevented them from engaging in perpetration behaviors, or rather what they believed prevention with young boys needed to include in order to prevent future IPV perpetration. The authors’ open-ended interviews yielded five main themes: (a) messages about healthy relationship behaviors, (b) the need to promote respect for women, (c) teaching effective skills for communicating and managing anger, (d) programs that provide role models and are school-based, and (e) addressing the impact of experiencing violence as a child. The authors conclude that prevention efforts focused on changing both attitudes regarding IPV and behaviors might be most effective for reducing perpetration, and that greater attention needs to be paid towards prevention among youth most at risk of IPV perpetration, those experiencing violence in their homes.     

Making sense of male rape: constructions of gender,sexuality and experience of rape victims

This study reports a preliminary investigation into accounting practices for male rape in conversation. Thirty men and women, in dyads, were asked to discuss an incident of male rape presented to them in a vignette. The findings showed that two main issues were discussed: the experience of the rape act and societal responses to male victims. In addition, participants established a ‘hierarchy of suffering’, where rape was judged to be worse for ‘heterosexual’ men than it is for ‘women’ or ‘gay’ men. Hegemonic, phallocentric representations of heterosexuality were mobilized to argue that acts of rape and consensual intercourse are the same for ‘gay’ men and ‘women’ and therefore less traumatic than for ‘heterosexual’ men. This obscures the violence of rape for gay men and women and exonerates perpetrators by minimizing injury sustained. Participants also argued that heterosexual victims are likely to experience ridicule for having departed from hegemonic masculinity. Arguments were constructed to avoid charges of being dismissive towards women and gay men and of victim blaming in relation to heterosexual men. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.