Domestic Violence

Causes

There are many different theories as to the cause of domestic violence. As with many phenomena regarding human experience no one approach appears to cover all cases.

Identified and proposed causes include the need for power and control, as a form of bullying and social learning of abuse by insecure men based on their own early abuse by their mothers.

Factors associated with domestic violence also include substance abuse, mental illness, poverty and various psychological characteristics, such as authoritarianism.

Power and control

… power in a relationship is often a matter of perception. A person may perceive themselves to be put-upon when a less involved observer would disagree.

A causalist view of domestic violence is that it is a strategy to gain or maintain power and control over the victim.

An alternative view is that abuse arises from powerlessness and externalizing/projecting this and attempting to exercise control of the victim. It is an attempt to 'gain or maintain power and control over the victim' but even in achieving this it cannot resolve the powerlessness driving it. Such behaviours have addictive aspects leading to a cycle of abuse or violence). Mutual cycles develop when each party attempts to resolve their own powerlessness in attempting to assert control.

Modes of abuse tend to be gendered, females tending to use more psychological and men more physical forms. The visibility of these differs markedly.

Questions of power and control are integral to the widely accepted Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project. They developed "Power and Control Wheel" to illustrate this, it has power and control at the center, surrounded by spokes (techniques used), the titles of which include:

• Coercion and threats
• Intimidation
• Emotional abuse
• Isolation
• Minimizing, denying and blaming
• Using children
• Economic abuse
• Male privilege

The model attempts to address abuse by one-sidedly challenging the misuse of power by the 'perpetrator'.

Critics of this model suggest that the one-sided focus is problematic as resolution can only be achieved when all participants acknowledge their responsibilities, and identify and respect mutual purpose.

Drug Abuse and Alcoholism

Statistics suggest that increasing numbers of domestic violence cases are being fueled by drug and alcohol use by the abusive partner.

Bullying

Domestic violence comes as a form of bullying, as a means to an end that is easier than other means. The heading on the UK National Website for Bullying in the Family states that 'Those Who Can, Do. Those Who Can't Bully.' It seems reasonable to add that those who won't also prefer violence too.