Crime Theories: Intimate Partner Violence in the US

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Introduction

One of the social crimes whose prevalence is gaining popularity is intimate partner violence (IPV). The word intimate violence is best fit as compared to domestic violence basing on its accurate definition of the perpetrator/victim relationship. Within this definition, the word intimate partners implies those individuals who are dating or were doing so at some point in time, married couples or those who were married, and also includes the type of relationship i.e. same sex or opposite sex marriages. Also, this definition does not include parents, brothers and sisters or grandparents. This research paper will try to identify the demographic and historical differences within the perpetrators and victims of this social ill. It will also try to identify the existing literature concerning the topic and how the trend has been changing. In addition, it will identify the theories of crime and hence ascertain why more and more people are engaging in this crime.

Historical and Demographic Distribution

The rate of IPV varies greatly within different ethnicities, ages, gender etc. the greatest difference could be identified in the gender identities of the victims. For example, the NCJRS report of the year 2000 reported that 25% of women reported being sexually or physically assaulted by either their partner or a former partner. This could be compared to 7.6% of men who reported being assaulted in the same report. Of those who reported being raped or assaulted, 1.5% and 0.9% of women and men respectively reported to have been assaulted within a period of 12 months before the report was released. The report hence finalized that the approximate number of women and men being raped or physically assaulted by their current or former intimate partners annually in the United States was 1.5 million and 834,732 men respectively. These findings were a back up of the findings offered by the National Crime Victimization Survey which also pointed out that women were at a greater risk of being victims of IPV as compared to men. This was however in contradiction to the survey by National Family Violence Survey which on its part indicated that the rate of violence against intimate partners was equal for men and women (Tjaden $ Thoennes, 2000, p. 6).

On their part, the New Mexico IPV Death Review Team (2002) also had their own statistical data. In the year 2001 and 2002, the total number of autopsies carried out was 31 of which 23 consisted of females. All these were deaths related to IPV. Although one case remains open due to its nature, the remaining 30 cases pointed out that women were the most likely victims of IPV. According to the statistics, 77% of the cases were reported by females while the male cases consisted of 23%.

Apart from gender disparities, the ethnic classifications also pointed out disparities. The NCJRS report points out that the group that showed the least cases of IPV within the minorities was women and men from the Asian and the Pacific Islander ethnicities. On the other side, the highest rates of IPV for both men and women were reported by African-Americans and American Indians and Alaska natives. These differences disappeared when other factors like socio demographic variables were made constant (Tjaden $ Thoennes, 2000, p. 4). On the other hand, the New Mexican IPV Death Team (2002) identified that the number of the highest cases of violence was reported by the Hispanics who accounted for a total of 50%. The Anglo accounted for 36% while the African Americans accounted for 7% and the final 7% went to the American Indians. While the geographic location of New Mexico could have had an impact on the data, differences could be ruled out in the number of cases based on the ethnicities.

Age also points out great disparities. The report by the New Mexico points out that the victims of IPV had an average age of 34 years with the youngest being 17 while the oldest was 59. On their part, the perpetrators had an average age of 37. The following table was offered by the New Mexico IPV Death Review Team in 2002.

Victims and perpetrator charactaristics

The report by Tjaden $ Thoennes, (2000) points out that the number of women who experienced more chronic injuries as a result of IPV was greater than the number of men in the same category. It was also pointed out that 41.5 % of the women involved in physical assault ended up with injuries. On their part, only 19.9% of men sustained injuries out of the physical assault. The report finally points out that the rate of violence was more likely fro women living with female intimate partners as compared to those living with male intimate partners. The number that reported being assaulted physically or being raped or stalked was about 11% for the females living with females and 30.4% for women living with men. Contrary to this, the prevalence rate of IPV for same sex male partners was higher as compared to their counterparts who had female intimate partners. The report indicated that 15% of men who were intimate with men pointed out being raped, assaulted physically or stalked. This was almost double the number rate of those who were intimate with female partners who reported a 7.7% rate.

It is clear from the statistics offered by the New Mexico IPV Death Review team that the rate of violence related to intimate partners has been increasing. In their report that covered the IPV prevalence from 1994 to 2002, the number of homicides reported in the investigation department that were related to IPV was 38%. 1994 and 1996 exhibited the lowest percentage with the percentage number of IPV related as compared to all the homicide reports being 32. The years 1999 and 2000 provided the highest percentage at 48. This shows that the rate of IPV could be increasing with time (NMIPVDRT, 2002, p. 5).

Theories of Crime

The need to apply scientific findings, assumptions and techniques in the study of human behavior came into existence in the late 19^th Century when scholars revolted against the perspective of rational choice. The scientific perspectives was not at par with the assumptions of the rational choice which pointed out that human beings always seek for pleasure and tried to avoid pain. Being creatures that care about the future, human beings would therefore do anything to ensure that they ascertain a good future for themselves. This could be done by all means were it not for the powers of the state which acts as the regulator of this desire. As a result of these contradicting perspectives, theories were developed to explain the human behavior in a scientific scope that would not be similar to the rational choice. Several theories were developed. Among them was the Social Disorganization Theory (Hirschi).

The Social Disorganization Theory

This theory was not based on the real nature of the human being but on the disorganization of the human social set up. According to the theory, the causes of human disorganization were the aspects of mobility and heterogeneity. This theory was greatly influenced by the classical theory of rational choice. Just like the classical theory, the social disorganization theory purported that the wants of the body are far much more than the means available for attaining them. The theory goes on to point out that an individual usually knows that by using illegal means, the wants could be achieved. Before choosing on a certain illegal means, the individual would have weighed the costs and the benefits and ascertained that the benefits outweigh the costs (Hirschi, p. 108).

However this theory was subjected to criticism by sociologists who pointed out that it failed to show a factual picture of the human nature and the society. They also refuted the theory pointing out that it termed the differences in social set up for weaknesses. Finally, the theory was refuted for its assumption that “…natural propensities are deviant.” (Hirschi, p. 108) Due to the defects detected in this theory, more theories were developed. In the new theories, the developers tried to incorporate the perspectives of the classical theory of rational choice. Another theory that was brought up was the Social Control Theory.

Social Control Theory

The fifties and sixties came up with the development of the social control theories. These theories were based on the individual’s tendency to base their decisions on a course of action on the benefits and costs related to it. In addition, they based their decisions on whether the course of action was legal or illegal and therefore chose the means that looked much likely to offer the greatest pleasure. The several specifications within this social contract theory including the one specified by Hirschi highlighted the factors that played a role in the decision making. Among them were an individual’s attachment to other people or an institution, whether the individual is committed to a certain line of conventions, an individual’s involvement in non criminal activities and the individual’s perspective towards the validity of norms in moral terms. These factors could also be viewed as the individual’s interpersonal attachments, his economic investments, his moral considerations and constraints in terms of time (Hirschi, p. 109).

According to the theories, the stronger the individual’s relation to these factors, the lesser the chances of his involvement in crime because he would not find the benefits to outweigh the costs. In one of the branches referred to as the pure control theory, it is believed that every human being can involve himself in a crime provided the price is right. The price here stands for the benefits expected and the likelihood of being caught or detected (Hirschi, p. 109).

Strain Theory

This theory of crime has its basis within the theory of “anomie” by Durkheim. It is founded on the concept that crime is a consequence of social forces. Within the concept of strain, there is the structural strain and the individual strain. Structural strain occurs when the regulation mechanisms of crime fail to play their role and hence implicate negatively on the individuals’ perception of their needs. Individual strain implies the hardships and difficulties that individuals pass through during the day to day struggle to meet their needs. One of the greatest contributions within this group of theories is the ‘means-end theory of deviance’ or Merton’s strain theory. This theory is built on the fact that the society’s structured beliefs of economic success and the social structure’s distribution of develop gaps which eventually lead to crime. Due to the least possibilities of attaining economic success within the lower class, they tend to involve themselves in crime and hence a concentration of criminal activities within these neighborhoods. The societal definition of success and the unfortunate social structure hence puts pressure on the less fortunate who continue harboring aspirations of success despite their failure. This continuous strain for success eventually makes an individual deviate. To curb crime will therefore call for an organized effort in rewarding non economic pursuits (Hirschi, p. 109).

Application of Theory

How does this theory relate to IPV? It is clear that the strains of the society caused by the need to attain economic success eventually lead to frustration and strain. It is from this frustration that most of the individuals eventually look for an outlet of the frustration. This translates to their decision to engage in violence against their closest people. Feeling that the society is unfair to them and they can do nothing about it, they feel weak and helpless. When they meet their spouses who are in this case weaker than them, they have to prove that despite being weak compared to other successful members of the society, they are stronger than their spouses. To show this, they engage them in violence. Therefore, this violence is perpetrated just to prove that they are not the weakest of all creation and to relieve the frustration from the unfair society.

Research methodology

To come up with data for this research, I engaged in two methods. I used direct interviews. My interview entailed a sample which consisted of a thousand respondents in down town Chicago. In my sample, subjects had to be eighteen years and over from both sexes. The sample had four hundred and fifty men and five hundred and forty women who were directly contacted either through face to face interviews or through the telephone and e mail addresses. The remaining ten were interviews carried on professionals in the fields of domestic violence and gender violence.

This method was chosen because of its advantages. Firstly, it allows for the interviewer to guide the interview process basing on the responses of the interviewee. In case of an ambiguous statement, clarification is instant. In addition, if the respondent understands the purpose of the study, he can offer very elaborate answers that will be very important for the analysis of the interviewer. Use of personal interview was also very appropriate because the research topic was sensitive and using other methods would have led to inaccurate answers due to embarrassment. Using private interviews allowed the respondent to open up and express his feelings (Oatey, 1999).

The research carried out by the New Mexico IPV Death Review Team has been used extensively within this work. Despite this, there are several draw backs within their methodology. For example, they relied greatly on the information and reports offered by to the investigation department in New Mexico. Using this method offers two draw backs. Firstly, the information offered concerning the demographic distribution of the cases would be impaired. For example, New Mexico could be a region that is inhabited mostly by Hispanics. This could result in most cases being reported concern Hispanics. As a result, Hispanics would be viewed as the most likely ethnicity to engage in IPV. The second draw back in using this method concerns those victims of violence who sustain minor injuries or emotional abuse and who feel that such injuries are too minor for them to report. Also there are those who might feel embarrassed to report cases of abuse and rape. Accordingly, these cases will not be reported and thus will not be reflected in the within the research findings.

Literature

Several studies and researches have been carried out concerning this topic. While the statistics may vary in some incidences, others merge correctly. For example, most of the studies have pointed out that most of the victims of IPV have always been women while men came as the most perpetrators. It was also evident that the average age of the perpetrator and victims was almost equal. While the New Mexico IPV Death Review Team report gave an average age of victims being thirty four while the average age of the perpetrators being thirty seven, the report by Colorado gives statistics of 36 for victims and 38 for perpetrators. With such a small difference in age, it is possible that the young adults are the most perpetrators of this crime (Project Safeguard, 2007).

However, there are some differences exhibited in the statistics. For example, while the report by New Mexico IPV Death Review Team point out that the percentage of IPV related cases was increasing since 1994, the statistics by the Colorado show that the rate of IPV related cases were reducing since 1978. The New Mexico report shows that 1994 experienced the lowest number of cases which accounted for 32% of all the murder cases while the rate increased to 48% in 1999 and 2000. In contrary, the Colorado report shows that the number of cases in 1998 was lower than the number of the cases in 1993. They also point out that the number of cases fell in 1993 and 1997 by an estimated 9.5 for every 1000 women. They further point out that the number of murders in 1998 was quite lower standing at 1,830 as compared to those exhibited in 1978 which accounted for 3,000 women. These statistics point out that there could be regional differences that would probably be attributed to the specific socio-demographic causes in the different regions (Project Safeguard, 2007).

Conclusion

From the research, it is clear that domestic violence is rampant within the United States of America. It is also notable that this crime is perpetrated by all people from all regions, social status, economic power, ethnicity etc. the only difference could be identified by the comparative rates. For example, the rate of perpetration and also most of the victims are from low income earning and less skilled women. It is also notable that women make the greatest percentage of the victims.

Although there are several theories of crime, the strain theory seems to be a good explanation of the causes of this crime. Most people are likely to engage in the crime based on the stresses of life that they are going through.

Finally, it is worth noting that there are several differences in the statistical data that could be attributed to the different socio demographic characteristics of the several regions. While other statistics might show an increase while others are showing a decrease, the fact remains that the average shows an increase in the crime. It is therefore important that the government intervenes so that women and children who happen to be the greatest victims of this crime are helped.

References

Bauer, M., Crandall, C. and Sklar, D. (2007). “Getting away with murder: Volume V”.

Hirschi, T. (1969) “On the compatibility of rational choice and social control theories of crime.” Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Hirschi, T. and M. Gottfredson “The distinction between crime and criminality.” In T. F. Hartnagel and R. A. Silverman (eds.), Critique and Explanation: Essays in Honor Of Gwynne Nettler. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Project Safeguard, (2007) Fatality Review Project Denver, Colorado.

Reppetto, T. (1974) Residential Crime. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.

Tjaden, P. and Thoennes, N. (2000). Extend, nature and consequences of intimate partner violence. National Violence Against Women Survey. Web.

Oatey, A. (1999). “Strengths and limitations of interviews as a research technique.”

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