GENDERED CRIMES

A gendered crime is when one sex is most likely to be the target of a particular crime and the other is most likely to be the offender. FDV can be described as a gendered crime. The American Psychological Society (1996) identified the greatest risk factor in being a victim of FDV as being female.

Women are most often the targets of Family and Domestic Violence

The 1996 Western Australian Crime Research Centre prevalence study found that 91.4 per cent of reported spousal violence cases were women.

In relation to the Northern Territory 93.5 per cent of all reported FDV survivors are female and 91 per cent of all offenders are males (Data Collection Project, 1996, NT Government Domestic Violence Strategy).

A four-year epidemiological project at the Royal Brisbane Hospital Emergency Department conducted by the Department of Psychiatry, University of Queensland, found that one in five women had a history of FDV (Roberts, G. 1994).

In the United States of America, studies indicate that FDV survivors comprise 22-35 per cent of women seeking care for any reason in emergency departments, 14-28 per cent of women seen in ambulatory medical clinics and 23 per cent of women seeking routine prenatal care (Warshaw, C. 1993).

Violence against women has been part of the social fabric of patriarchal societies in known times (Scott, Walker & Gilmore, 1995). It is a crucial instrument in the social control of women and the maintenance of unequal power relations between men and

women (Breckenridge & Carmody, 1992). For example, if you are woman, will you walk alone at night? Are you ever frightened when you are in a house alone? Women’s fear of violence contributes to their decision-making and actions, hence it is a social control tool.

The United Nations summarises the power difference between men and women as:

"Women constitute 51 per cent of the world’s population, do 90 per cent of the work, and yet own only 10 per cent of the land and less than one per cent of the world's wealth" ( Scott et al, 1995).

Polk (cited in Scott et al, 1995) identifies six sources of power which combine to create and protect the unequal power relationship between populations of men and women:

1.Normative power

Men control traditional sex definitions eg men are strong, dominant, and intelligent, women are soft, sensitive, and nurturing.

2.Institutional power

Men control the basic institutions of socialisation and social control; eg education - how many women are in the positions of principal and professor compared with men. In the media - think about how women are portrayed.

3.The power to reward

Through their normative and institutional power men reward women who conform to traditional sex roles and withhold rewards from those who don't.

4.The power of expertise

Men are the experts in most fields and thus they act as the "gate keepers" of knowledge.

5.Psychological power

The social conditioning of men moulds them to fit the value structure of institutions better than does women's social conditioning.

6.Brute Force

Many men have more strength and more confidence in their physical strength than do women.

These sources of power may be exercised institutionally or individually.

---

© Health Department of Western Australia. All rights reserved.
Last Updated: Friday, 20 March 1998 10:28