Societal behaviors develop over time, as historical
influences change, new powers emerge, and societal attitudes gradually adapt
and become part of the dominant culture. In the case of domestic violence, getting
a historical overview of how far the world has come in recognizing domestic
abuse and violence as unacceptable behavior is important to the big picture. The
Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence ICSDV expands the historical view
of domestic violence back in time to 753 B.C. when Romulus of Rome was in power
and wife beating was considered acceptable behavior among the Romans. In order
for there to be a wrong behavior according to society, it must be labeled and
categorized as morally and legally wrong before society as a whole takes it
seriously. Societal beliefs and attitudes have to change during this process as
the level of awareness is brought to the forefront. Rules and Laws have to
change to reflect the seriousness of societal boundaries, and consequences have
to be enforced upon those who ‘break the rules’. The first step is always
labeling the ‘wrong’. In the case of domestic violence, a behavior that was
once trivialized, American society had a long way to go before arriving at a
healthy point in the continuum of change.
Slavery is an extreme example of how societal beliefs and attitudes
affect societal response. In the United States of America, the advent of
slavery began as a behavior that became the norm among those in power, to own
slaves and to abuse slaves, was also the ‘norm’: there was no societal wrong involved,
therefore no criminal behavior to punish, because those in power either
embraced slavery or swept it under the rug. In the case of child abuse within
the home, or violence against women, there was no established ‘wrong’ until the
behavior was first labeled as unacceptable by society at large. Wife abuse was
considered normal until the early 1900’s when statutes such as the 1945
California ruling that any man who willfully beats his wife or child severely enough to cause “traumatic
injury” will be guilty of committing a felony ICADV
Take notice of the legal wording that suggests a man may
beat his wife or child as long as there was no ‘traumatic injury’, which is a
clear indication of how important wording was in the legal advances of domestic
violence issues. The raising of social and societal awareness came before the implementation
of change, both in the United States and globally, as women and children graduated
in their societal status from that of being the property of a man to being
human beings deserving of holding the right to humane and just treatment both
in the home, and outside the home. In Italy, the law first decreed it a crime
to kill a wife, or female relative by a man who acted to ‘uphold his honor’, as
late as 1960. Society has universally
undervalued female life until the American Civil Rights movement created the
Women’s Rights movement during the 1960’s, gaining strength over time as the
causes of women were heralded over the next decades, resulting in the national
framework that today supports domestic violence legislation, and the Federal funding
of victims services that exist now.
The terms Domestic Violence, Domestic Abuse and Sexual
Assault, were also vestiges of the women’s movement, as new awareness bred the
creation of new tools used to evoke change. Society needed to know that ‘beating’
a spouse was a serious violation of human rights, therefore the term ‘battered
woman’ was first coined by Lenore Walker who was instrumental in awakening society to the ugliness and prevalence of domestic violence across all
economic and social spectrums. The domestic violence movement gained momentum with
the release of Lenore Walker’s 1979 book Battered Woman
received national
attention, as it brought to the fore the dirty secret of domestic violence that
was occurring behind closed doors all over the country. The domestic violence terminology
that followed for the next 20 years produced labels that defined a once
accepted behavior as now ‘taboo’: Domestic Violence, ‘Battered Woman’, Domestic
Abuse, Sexual Assault, sexual abuse and many others that were first labeled and
defined as wrong, and later supported by legislation that criminalized the behavior.
The inclusion of family members was suggested by the more generic term Family Violence,
as well as the fact family violence affected males as well as females.
In order for society to fully meet the challenge of providing
not only validation to victims of violence, but physical assistance via
shelters and counseling programs, funding was needed-a lot of funding in all 50
states. The Violence Against Women Act, or VAWA Act of 1994, was first
initiated and is now one of the largest
and broadest federally funded domestic violence grant initiatives in U.S.
history. VAWA is expanded annually to provide intervention and services that
address the needs of victims as well as the prosecutorial muscle to hold
perpetrators of domestic violence accountable.
The 2014 VAWA initiative is a landmark marking 20 years of
positive change in domestic violence legislation and societal awareness. Vice
President Joe Biden spoke of the significance of that change when he cited the fact
that 20 years ago, there was little legal consequence if a man “kicked his wife
in the stomach” or habitually raped her, because our culture did not recognize
abuse as abuse http://time.com/3319325/joe-biden-violence-against-women/
Twenty-seven years ago, I was a victim of severe domestic
violence that forced me to flee for my life. I am well aware of the change in
societal attitudes over the past few decades, and I was surprised to see the
effect of the Ray Rice scandal and how societal response has changed. Twenty
years ago, the Ray Rice scandal would not have been a ‘scandal’ any more than
O.J. Simpson’s abuse and murder of his wife, Nicole Simpson was at the time. I
remember one juror making a statement that minimized the role domestic violence
played in the O.J. Simpson murders, when she said ‘this is no domestic violence
trial-this is a murder trial”, when is fact, they were one and the same, the
murder of Nicole was a domestic homicide, with Ronald Goldman’s murder a secondary part of the collateral damage. The O.J. Simpson trial
was possibly the first big domestic violence slap in the face that helped to
promote a major change in societal attitudes toward domestic violence. Domestic
Violence was, and still is often fatal, a fact that victims are usually aware
of before becoming homicide statistics.
In the case of Nicole Brown Simpson, just as in the case of
many domestic homicide victims, the victim usually is aware of the perpetrator’s
level of dangerousness. The now world famous Chris Jenner, mother to the
Kardashians, was a close friend of
Nicole Brown Simpson before her murder and reported this fact to the world via
a Dateline NBC Special : “Things are really bad between OJ and I, and he’s
going to kill me, and he’s going to get away with it.” Nicole had told her just
weeks before her murder."O.J. is going to kill me"
Society has come a long way since then, the Ray Rice
domestic violence assault, caught on tape here:
The O.J. Simpson case was a wake-up call, whereas the Ray Rice event took stock of how far society has come:
There is still work to do on a large scale to keep change
moving forward in a positive direction. In-school education on the dynamics of
healthy versus unhealthy behaviors in families and by individuals needs to
become part of national policy in order to eradicate the roots of domestic violence from within dysfunctional families.Until you remove the root-the weeds always come back.
Historical Influences in Domestic Violence
The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Training
Program 310: Domestic Violence Issues:
