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Chapter 12
Power and Violence in Families
Chapter Outline
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What is Power?
Classical Perspectives on Marital Power
Current Research on Couple Power
Power Politics versus Freely Cooperative
Relationships
Family Violence
Gender and Intimate Partner Violence
Chapter Outline
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Violence Against Children-Child
Maltreatment
Sibling Violence
Child-to-Parent Violence
Stopping Family Violence
Power
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Power is the ability to exercise one’s will.
Personal power or autonomy – power
exercised over oneself
Social power – the ability of people to exercise
their wills over the wills of others
Parental power – power between parents and
children
Marital power – power between married
partners
Six Bases of Power
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Coercive power – based on dominant
partner’s ability to punish partner with
psychological, emotional, or physical
abuse
Reward power – based on ability to give
material or nonmaterial gifts and favors
Six Bases of Power
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Expert power – stems from dominant
partner’s superior judgment, knowledge or
ability
Informational power – based on the
persuasive content of what the dominant
partner tells another individual
Six Bases of Power
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Referent power – based on less
dominant partner’s emotional
identification with the dominant partner
Legitimate power – based on individual’s
ability to claim authority
Bases of Social
Power as Applied to
the Family
Classical Perspectives on
Marital Power
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Research on marital power began in the
1950s.
Today, research in this area is highly
politicized.
The Resource Hypothesis
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Spouse with more resources has more
power in the marriage
Focuses on background characteristics
and doesn’t consider how partners
interact
Explains marital power only when there is
no overriding egalitarian or patriarchal
norm
Resources and Gender
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Power-granting resources are socially
structured by gender and hence unevenly
distributed in heterosexual relationships.
Although more couples today are moving
toward equal, or egalitarian relationships,
research continues to support Gillespie’s
insight that American marriages are not
yet fully equal
Resources in Cultural
Context
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Perspective that resources are not effective
in conferring marital power in traditional
societies that legitimate male dominance
with a patriarchal norm.
When traditional norms of male authority are
strong, husbands will likely dominate
regardless of the partners’ personal
resources.
Current Research on Couple
Power
Current research measures couple power in
the following four ways:
 Decision Making
 Division of Labor
 Allocation of Money
 Ability to Influence
Generations and Power
How mothers and fathers
spend their time, 1965 and
2011: Average number of
hours per week spent on…
This family is having breakfast in a household where
roles may be somewhat differentiated by gender.
Working for wages or even outearning a husband are
resources that enhance a wife's conjugal power.
However, she still may not be a fully equal partner
(Teachman 2010). In this photo, is mom standing so
that she can more readily serve whoever might need
something?
Diversity and Marital Power
Because the United States is a pluralistic
society, we expect to find varied visions and
enactments of marital power.
Egalitarian Unions
Gender-Modified Egalitarian Unions
Neotraditional Unions
Immigration and Marital Power
Power Politics Versus Freely
Cooperative Relationships
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Power asymmetry often characterizes
dissatisfied couples
Supportive partners avoid power politics.
Developing a Freely
Cooperative Relationship
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Partners who see themselves as mutually
respected, equally committed, and
listened to when they raise concerns are
more likely to see their relationship as
egalitarian and are more satisfied overall
with their relationship.
Changing power patterns can be difficult.
Family Violence
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The use of physical violence to gain or
demonstrate power in a family
relationship has occurred throughout
history, but only in the last 50 years has
violence been labeled a social problem.
Intimate Partner Violence: Spouses, exspouses, and current or former boyfriends
or girlfriends, including same-sex
partners, are considered intimate
partners.
Intimate Partner Violence Nonfatal
Victimization Rates, by sex,1993–2010
The Incidence of Intimate
Partner Violence
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Intimate Partner Violence has declined
significantly in recent decades.
Family violence still makes up 11% of all
violence and 1/3 of all police recorded
violence.
Correlates of Family Violence
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Cohabitating couples have more IPV.
Those who are exposed to family violence
in childhood are more likely than other to
abuse their own children and spouses.
Stress is another contributing factor.
Gender and Intimate Partner
Violence
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There are conflicting findings about
whether IPV is asymmetrical (with men
abusing women) or symmetrical (with
both parties contributing equally.
Evidence suggests that IPV by women is
largely in self-defense.
Research on Intimate Partner
Violence
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Situational Couple Violence
 Mutual violence between partners that often
occurs in conjunction with a specific
argument
 Involves fewer instances, is not likely to
escalate, and tends to be less severe
 Intimate Terrorism
 Abuse that is almost entirely male and that
is oriented to controlling the partner through
fear and intimidation
Two Forms of
IPV—Intimate
Terrorism
Versus
Situational
Couple
Violence
Intimate terrorism and the
cycle of violence
Facts about Families: Signs
of Intimate Terrorism
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There are clear signs of Intimate Terrorism.
 Dominance
 Humiliation
 Isolation
 Threats
 Intimidation
There are clear signs about commitment to
change as well.
Power and Control Wheel: Behaviors Some
Male Partners Use for Power and Control
Why Do Intimate Terrorists
Do It?
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Attempt to compensate for feelings of
powerlessness or inadequacy
Attempt to maintain control over partners
trying to become independent of the
relationship
Why Do Victims Continue to
Live With It?
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Fear
Cultural norms – women encouraged to
put up with abuse
Love
Economic dependence
Why Do Victims Continue to
Live With It?
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Hopes for change
Belief that it’s a woman’s responsibility to
keep a relationship from failing
Childhood experiences with domestic
violence
Low self-esteem
Conceptual Model of Abused Women’s
Stay/Leave Decision-Making Process
Violence Against Children
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Child maltreatment: covers both abuse and
neglect
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment
Act defines child abuse and neglect as the
“physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, or
negligent treatment of a child under the age of
18 by a person who is responsible for the
child’s welfare…”
Violence Against Children
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Child Abuse: overt acts of aggression
Child Neglect: includes acts of omission,
failing to provide adequate physical or
emotional care
Data from 1992 to 2007 show a 52% decline
in physical abuse.
Fatalities of children from abuse and neglect
increased 15% from 2006 to 2007.
Violence Against Children
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Emotional child abuse or neglect: involves a
parent’s being overly harsh and critical, failing
to provide guidance, or being uninterested in
a child’s needs
Sexual Abuse: a child’s being forced, tricked,
or coerced, by an older person, into sexual
behavior for the purposes of sexual
gratification or financial gain
Incest: sexual relations between related
individuals
Risk Factors For Child Abuse
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A belief in physical punishment
Parents who have unrealistic
expectations about what the child is
capable of
Parents who abuse were often abused
or neglected as children.
Parental stress and feelings of
helplessness
Child-to-Parent Violence
 Relative little research in this area
 Adolescent boys are the most frequent
perpetrators, with their growth in size
and strength associated with
increases in violence.
 Overly permissive parents and those
who abandon their authority in
response to the violence tend to see
more of it.
Stopping Family Violence
 Micro, or Relationship Approaches
 Macro, or Structural Approaches
Stopping Relationship
Violence
 Separating Victim from Perpetrator
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A network of shelters for battered women
provides a woman and her children with
temporary housing, food, and clothing to
alleviate the problems of economic
dependency.
They also provide counseling, guidance in
attaining employment, and legal assistance.
Stopping Relationship
Violence
 The Criminal Justice Response
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Little legal protection for battered women in the
past.
Laws have changed to make arrests for
domestic violence more feasible, and some
states have policies that mandate arrest in
certain situations.
A literal reading of mandatory arrest law has
resulted in the arrest of victims.
The drop in male homicide rate is attributed to
the greater availability of options for abused
women.
Stopping Relationship
Violence
 The Therapeutic Approach
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Approximately 25% of male abusers engage in
repeat intimate partner violence. It is difficult to
evaluate the success of intervention programs
because of design problems, low response
rates, and high dropout rates.
Couples’ therapy programs are somewhat
controversial because they proceed from the
premise that a couple’s staying together without
violence after an abusive past is possible.
Macro, or Structural
Approach
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A macro approach notes the social,
cultural, and economic context of family
violence, then provides programs and
services to help reduce or otherwise
address it.
Unfortunately, statewide, and regional
budget cuts, along with increasing
difficulty of competition for donor funding
have resulted in program closings.