Critical Criminology

, Volume 14, Issue 1, pp 23–41 | Cite as

An Economic Exclusion/Male Peer Support Model Looks at “Wedfare” and Woman Abuse

  • Walter S. Dekeseredy
  • Shahid Alvi
  • Martin D. Schwartz
Article

Abstract

In recent years “welfare reform” has become a vehicle for many neo-conservative social commentators to invoke marriage vows as a cure for poverty and the abuse of poor women. Their basic claim is that cohabiting relationships are not only more violent than marriages, but that married couples are happier, healthier, and wealthier than cohabiting ones. A policy then of encouraging cohabitants to marry, they claim, would lead to increased family wealth and decreased family violence. We examine these claims in this article, along with the alternative argument that marriage per se is not a solution to these problems. Alternatively we propose an economic exclusion/male peer support model that explains why many cohabiting men abuse women in intimate relationships. If forcing these couples to marry is not a solution, then structural solutions are necessary, along with progressive policy suggestions that address the antecedents of poverty and abuse.

Keywords

Intimate Relationship Structural Solution Family Violence Married Couple Welfare Reform 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer 2006

Authors and Affiliations

  • Walter S. Dekeseredy
    • 1
  • Shahid Alvi
    • 1
  • Martin D. Schwartz
    • 2
  1. 1.University of Ontario Institute of TechnologyCanada
  2. 2.Ohio UniversityUSA

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