Men's Rights Agency - Domestic Violence
Aggression in British Heterosexual Relationships: A Descriptive Analysis
Michelle Carrado, M.J. George, Elizabeth Loxam, L. Jones and Dale Templar
3. MORE RESULTS
Context and Reason
Table V shows the numbers and percentages of men and women who identified each of the "contexts or reasons" for both victimization sustained or inflicted in all relationships. These figures are derived from only those individuals who identified having sustained or inflicted an act of physical victimization.
TABLE V. Attributions for "Reason and Context"*
| Victimization sustained | Victimization inflicted | ||||
Women (%) |
Men (%) |
Women(%) |
Men(%) |
||
130(13) |
155(18) |
106(11) |
85(10) |
Total experiencing/committing | |
| A | 37(32) |
66(43) |
57(53) |
54(64) |
"Get through to...." |
| B | 37(32) |
68(44) |
55(52) |
45(53) |
"Something said or threatened..." |
| C | 16(12) |
13(8) |
22(21) |
23(27) |
"Some physical action..." |
| D | 38(29) |
57(37) |
35(33) |
39(43) |
"Stop doing something..." |
| E | 66(51) |
66(43) |
28(26) |
22(26) |
"Make do something..." |
| F | 13(10) |
10(7) |
18(17) |
18(21) |
"About to use physical action..." |
| G | 58(45) |
48(31) |
14(13) |
30(35) |
"Influence of alcohol etc..." |
| H | 57(44) |
49(31) |
17(16) |
23(27) |
"In Character..." |
| Other | 15(11) |
9(6) |
13(12) |
6(7) |
|
| *Attributions for "reason and context" for partner's actions by those men and women who sustained any physical assault (victimization sustained) or inflicted any physical assault against a partner (victimization inflicted) in all relationships. A-H represent "context or reasons" asked and are detailed in Materials and Methods. "Other" represents abrogated total for "other", "no particular reason", and "don't know" responses. Numbers of men and women (and percentage of male/female subsample) are given, along with figures for total numbers expressed as a percentage of whole male or female populations. | |||||
Table V shows that male and female respondents choose somewhat different contexts most frequently for their partners' victimization of them as against for their victimization of their partners. Women victims choose "making me do something he wanted" most frequently, but also reason that it was either as a result of their partner being "under the influence of alcohol" or it is "in his character". Men also chose "being made to do something their partner wanted" frequently, but almost equally identify their partner responding to "something said or threatened" or their partner needing to "get through to them". For inflicted victimization, both men and women choose these latter two reasons most prevalently, although men also admit slightly more than women aggressing "to stop their partner doing something". They also choose more frequently to context their aggression to the influence of alcohol, mirroring what women victims say about aggressing males' use or abuse of alcohol.
Two specific item options (C,F) available to respondents under these "context and reasons" for victimization or perpetration were formulated to present "self-defense or retaliation" options to respondents without directly signaling this intent in the wording. Both sexes attributed more of these contexts and reasons that could include "self defense or retaliation" to their own actions rather than for partners' actions, although acts by partners in "self-defense or retaliation" were acknowledged by both sexes. Men attributed such reasons slightly less to their partners and slightly more to their own actions than women attributed likewise. For women respondents, of 106 who identified any item of inflicted victimization against a partner, 22(21%) and 18 (17%), respectively, identified these two "context and reasons" for their aggression. Thus a lower percentage of aggressing women reported these two reasons than any other reason, except for ascribing that their aggression was either the result of the influence of alcohol (G 13%) or inherent in their character (H, 16%) or giving other non-specified reasons. Variable percentages of respondents, when identifying the particular items of physical assault, identified these two reasons for their actions. Notably, however, even at the potentially most serious level of assault only one woman in three identified these reasons as the "context or reason" to their aggression.
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