Abstract
The literature on the relationship between violence against women and a norm protecting women (NPW) is reviewed. I suggest that the effects of the NPW are suppressed because violence against women tends to occur in intimate relations and such disputes tend to be kept private. The offsetting effects of NPW and intimacy (or relational distance) are demonstrated in a study of 384 self-reported violent disputes. In support of an NPW effect, I find that disputes are more likely to be reported to the police if an attack on a woman is witnessed by third parties. This gender effect is offset by the fact that disputes between intimates tend to be concealed from the police and from witnesses.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Archer, John 1994 “Power and male violence. ” In John Archer (ed.), Male Violence: 310–331. London: Routledge.
Arias, Ileana and Patti Johnson 1989 “Evaluations of physical aggression among intimate dyads. ” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 4: 298–307.
Baron, R. A. and D. Richardson 1994 Human Aggression. Second edition. New York: Plenum.
Baumgartner, Mary Pat 1993 “Violent networks: The origins and management of domestic conflict. ” In R. B. Felson and J. T. Tedeschi (eds.), Aggression and Violence: Social Interactionist Perspectives: 209–231. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Beaulieu, Mark and Steven F. Messner 1995 “Race, gender and outcomes in first degree murder cases: Analysis of convictions and charge reductions. ” 66th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, MA, March 28–31.
Black, Donald J. 1976 The Behavior of Law. NewYork: Academic Press.
1993 The Social Structure of Right and Wrong. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Block, Richard 1974 “Why notify the police: The victim's decision to notify the police of an assault. ” Criminology 11: 555–569.
Bograd, M. 1988 “Feminist perspectives on wife abuse: An introduction. ” In M. Bograd and K. Yllo (eds.), Feminist Perspectives on Wife Abuse. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Browne, Angela and Kirk R. Williams 1993 “Gender, intimacy, and lethal violence: Trends from 1976 through 1987. ” Gender and Society 7: 78–98.
Brownmiller, S. 1975 Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Bureau of Justice Statistics 1992 “Criminal victimization in the United States—1990. ” U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Washington, DC: USGPO.
1994 “Criminal victimization in the United States: 1973–1992 trends. ” U.S. Department of Justice. Washington, DC: USGPO.
1995 “Spouse murder defendants in large urban counties. ” U.S. Department of Justice. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Washington, DC: USGPO.
Carver, C. S. 1974 “Physical aggression as a function of objective self-awareness and attitudes toward punishment. ” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 11: 510–519.
Castin, Nicole 1976 “Divers aspectes de la constrainte maritale, d'apres les documents judiciaires du XVIII siecle” (Documents of 18th century France). (Trans. by K Ryal.) Paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, New York, August.
Cazenave, Noel A. and Margaret A. Zahn 1992 “Women, murder and male domination: Police reports of domestic violence in Chicago and Philadelphia. ” In Emilio C. Viano (ed.), Intimate Violence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives: 83–97. Bristol, PA: Taylor & Francis.
Chagnon, N. A. 1977 Yanomamo, The Fierce People. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Chesney-Lind, Meda 1978 “Chivalry reexamined: Women and the criminal justice system. ” In Lee H. Bowker (ed.), Women, Crime, and the Criminal Justice System: 197–223. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath.
Coleman, D. H. and M. A. Straus 1986 “Marital power, conflict and violence in a nationally representative sample of American couples. ” Violence and Victims 1: 141–157.
Criminal Justice Services 1993 Crime and Justice Annual Report. Albany, NY: Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Daly, Kathleen and Rebecca L. Bordt 1995 “Sex effects and sentencing: An analysis of the statistical literature. ” Justice Quarterly 12: 141–169.
Dengerink, H. A. 1976 “Personality variables as mediators of attack-instigated aggression. ” In R. G. Geen and E. C. O'Neal (eds.), Perspectives on Aggression: 61–98. New York: Academic Press.
Dobash, R. Emerson and Russell P. Dobash 1979 Violence Against Wives. New York: Free Press.
Dobash, Russell P. and R. Emerson Dobash 1981 “Community response to violence against wives: Charivari, abstract justice and patriarchy. ” Social Problems 28: 563–581.
Eagly, Alice H. and Maureen Crowley 1986 “Gender and helping behavior: A meta-analytic review of the social psychological literature. ” Psychological Bulletin 100: 283–308.
Fagan, Jeffrey and Angela Browne 1994 “Violence between spouses and intimates: Physical aggression between women and men in intimate relationships. ” In Albert J. Reiss, Jr., and Jeffrey A. Roth (eds.), Understanding and Preventing Violence: Social Influences, Vol. 3: 115–292. National Academy Press: Washington, DC.
Fagan, J. D. Stewart, and K. Hansen 1983 “Violent men or violent husbands? Background factors and situational correlates of domestic and extra-domestic violence. ” In D. Finkelhor, R. Gelles, G. Hotaling, and M. Straus (eds.), The Dark Side of Families: 49–67. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Feld, Scott L. and Dawn T. Robinson 1993 “Gender and violence among college students: Norms, identity, and rationality. ” Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the the American Society of Criminology, Miami, FL, October.
Felson, Marcus 1993 “Crime and everyday life: Insights and implications for society. ” Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge.
Felson, Richard B. 1982 “Impression management and the escalation of aggression and violence. ” Social Psychology Quarterly 45: 245–254.
1996 “Big people hit little people: Sex differences in physical power and interpersonal violence. ” Criminology 34: 433–452.
Felson, Richard B., Steve F. Messner, and Tony Hoskin 1999 “The victim-offender relationship and calling the police in assaults. ” Criminology 37: 931–947.
Frost, Ginger 1995 “Promises broken: Courtship, class, and gender in Victorian England. ” Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Frude, Neil 1994 “Marital violence: An interactional perspective. ” In John Archer (ed.), Male Violence: 153–169. London: Routledge.
Gelles, Richard J. 1983 “An exchange/social control theory. ” In David Finkelhor, Richard J. Gelles, Gerald T. Hotaling, and Murray A. Straus (eds.), The Dark Side of Families: 151–165. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Gordon, Linda 1988 Heroes of Their Own Lives: The Politics and History of Family Violence Boston 1880–1960. New York: Viking Press.
Greenberg, Martin S. and R. Barry Ruback 1992 After the Crime: Victim Decision-Making. New York: Plenum Press.
Greenblat, Cathy S. 1983 “A hit is a hit is a hit. Or is it? Approval and tolerance of the use of physical force by spouses. ” In D. Finkelhor, R. Gelles, G. Hotaling, and M. Straus (eds.), The Dark Side of Families: 235–260. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Harris, Mary B. 1991 “Effects of sex of aggressor, sex of target, and relationship on evaluations of physical aggression. ” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 6: 174–186.
Hotaling, Gerald T. and David B. Sugarman 1986 An analysis of risk markers in husband to wife violence: The current state of knowledge Violence and Victims 1(2): 101–124.
Kaleta, R. J. and A. H. Buss 1973 “Aggression intensity and femininity of the victim. ” Paper presented at the meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, May.
Kanekar, S. V. J. Nanji, M. B. Kolsawalla, and G. S. Mukerji 1981 “Perception of an aggressor and victim of aggression as a function of sex and retaliation. ” Journal of Social Psychology 114: 139–140.
Kertzer, David I. 1993 Sacrificed for Honor: Italian Infant Abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control. Boston: Beacon Press.
Landes, R. 1971 The Ojibwa Woman. New York: Norton.
Levinson, D. 1989 Family Violence in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Lips, Hilary M. 1991 Women, Men, and Power. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
Messner, Steven F. and Richard Rosenfeld 1994 Crime and the American Dream. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
New York State Department of Health 1994 Injury Facts for New York State. Unpublished.
Pleck, Elizabeth H. 1979 “Wife beating in nineteenth-century America. ” Victimology 4: 60–74.
1987 Domestic Tyranny. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
1989 “Criminal approaches to family violence, 1640–1980. ” In Lloyd Ohlin and Michael Tonry (eds.), Family Violence: 19–57. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Reiss, Albert 1971 The Police and the Public. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Reiss, Albert and J. A. Roth, eds. 1993 Understanding and Preventing Violence. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Rosenthal, A. 1964 Third-Eight Witnesses. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Rossi, P. H., E. Waite, C. Bose, and R. E. Berk 1974 “The seriousness of crime: Normative structure and individual differences. ” American Sociological Review 39: 224–237.
Scheier, M. F., A. Fenigstein, and A. H. Buss 1974 “Self-awareness and physical aggression. ” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 10: 264–273.
Shortell, J. R. and H. B. Miller 1970 “Aggression in children as a function of sex of subject and of opponent. ” Developmental Psychology 3: 143–144.
Shotland, R. Lance and Margret K. Straw 1976 “Bystander response to an assault: When a man attacks a woman. ” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 34: 990–999.
1984 “Reporting crimes to the police: The status of world research. ” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 21: 113–137.
Smith, Douglas A. 1987 “Police response to interpersonal violence: Defining the parameters of legal control. ” Social Forces 65: 767–782.
Steadman, Henry J. and Richard B. Felson 1984 “Self-reports of violence: Ex-mental patients, ex-offenders, and the general population. ” Criminology 22: 321–342.
Steffensmeier, D., J. Kramer, and C. Streifel 1993 “Gender and imprisonment decision. ” Criminology 31: 411–446.
Straus, Murray A. 1993 “Physical assaults by wives: A major social problem. ” In R. J. Gelles and D. R. Loseke (eds.), Current Controversies on Family Violence: 210–221. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Publications.
Straus, Murray A., Glenda K. Kantor, and David W. Moore 1994 “Change in cultural norms approving marital violence from 1968 to 1994. ” Paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association. New York, August.
Taylor, S. P. and S. Epstein 1967 “Aggression as a function of the interaction of the sex of the aggressor and the sex of the victim. ” Journal of Personality 35: 474–485.
Tedeschi, J. T. and R. B. Felson 1994 Violence, Aggression, and Coercive Actions. Washington, DC: APA Books.
Thibaut, J. and H. H. Kelley 1959 The Social Psychology of Groups. New York: Wiley.
Van Kirk, M. L. 1977 Response Time Analysis. Kansas City, MO: Kansas City Police Department.
Visher, Christy A. 1983 “Gender, police arrest, and notions of chivalry. ” Criminology 21: 5–28.
Wolfgang, Marvin E. 1958 Patterns of Criminal Homicide. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Young, David M., Ernst G. Beier, and Paul Beier 1975 “Is chivalry dead?” Journal of Communication 25: 57–64.
Zimring, Franklin 1989 “Toward a jurisprudence of family violence. ” In Lloyd Ohlin and Michael Tonry (eds.), Family Violence: 547–569. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Felson, R.B. The Normative Protection of Women from Violence. Sociological Forum 15, 91–116 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007598204631
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007598204631