Male Perceptions of Domestic Violence and Its Relationships with Cultural Background - Term Paper Example

Summary of Analysis of Comparison of Responses of Anglo-Australian, Middle-Eastern and Long-Term Middle-Eastern Migrants to Part Three Definition of Domestic Violence The three groups of participants were all in agreement in their definition of domestic violence as a form of violent behaviour occurring within a household commonly between husbands and wives. The participants did not limit the definition of domestic violence to occur between husbands and wives. They have also expounded its definition occurring towards extended family members which implies that violence occurring between spouses can affect other members of the nuclear and extended family such as children, parents and siblings that might meddle or settle between the conflict of husbands and wives. This might be also the reason why all respondents from the three groups defined domestic violence involving spouses as the principal participants and extended families as secondary participants. The common denominator in the definition of all the respondents from the three groups is the presence of an implied dominance in the occurrence of violence. Such dominance is exerted by the perpetrator of domestic violence against his or her victim that results to physical and mental anguish on the latter. Among the three groups, only participants from Recent Middle-Eastern Migrants related the definition of domestic violence with religious connotation. Specifically, thirty percent of the participants defined it as a behaviour that is against the teachings of Islam. Thus, they believed that perpetrators of domestic violence are not religious and lack faith in Allah and his teachings. As a result, they do not have the discipline inculcated by the teachings of Allah to respect the family and recognise its importance in manifesting His teachings. Thus, in summary the three groups were in agreement in identifying three components in the definition of domestic violence. These three components of domestic violence are (1) occurring within or among nuclear or extended family, (2) commonly occurring between husbands and wives that affect other members of the family, and (3) the presence of dominance from the perpetrator of domestic violence towards his or her victim to carry out the aggressive behaviour. Understanding of Domestic Violence Occurrence Across Perth All three groups understand that domestic violence occurs across Perth. However, they do not know the exact figure of its occurrences. Media particularly television played a crucial role in creating awareness among the participants on the prevalence of the issue of domestic violence in Perth. Anglo-Australian participants believed that majority of the cases of domestic violence happening in Perth are unreported due to the fact that it becomes a family affair and most of the time it is an accepted norm to settle disputes within the family. Also, it is an accepted norm in a society that is highly biased towards the expression of masculinity. Recent Middle-Eastern Migrants, however, cannot expound on their level of awareness of domestic violence in Perth aside from the fact that they know that it is happening. Their limited knowledge is mainly due to their being new to Perth; hence they are not that much deeply aware of what is happening in the community. However, on the outset they believed that it is quiet high based from what the media is reporting. On the other hand, Long Term Middle-Eastern Migrants affirmed the common occurrence of domestic violence in Perth based on what is being reported by the media. Still, there are not sure of the statistics. Among the three groups, a few of the respondents from the two groups of Middle-Easterners expounded their awareness of the occurrence of domestic violence in term of socio-cultural factors such as ethnicity, locale and educational access. Ten percent of the Recent Middle-Eastern Migrants believed that domestic violence is prevalent in rural areas and among indigenous communities. Twenty percent of Long Term Middle-Eastern Migrants affirmed this observation. Lack of access to educational sources about domestic violence is the main reason they cited why domestic violence is prevalent in rural or lower socio-economic areas and among indigenous communities. Such lack of access included lack of communication to person with authority to inform about the issue of domestic violence which is not the case in urban areas. In summary, media proved to be an effective tool in creating awareness about the presence of domestic violence among Perth residents as represented by the three groups of respondents. Even if they do not know the exact statistics of its prevalence, participants’ consciousness on the issue was clearly roused by the information brigade provided by the media particularly through television. Types of Behaviour of Domestic Violence Majority of the respondents from each three groups identified the types of behaviour of domestic violence based on their personal experience and from the information provided by the media. Anglo-Australians identified physical, verbal and emotional abuse as the types of behaviour of perpetrators of domestic violence based on what they learned from the media. Punching, slapping, kicking, biting, and strangling are some of the physical behaviours they identified that perpetrators of domestic violence display. Shouting, downplaying the victim’s self esteem, humiliation, and black mailing tactics are some of the verbal and emotional behaviours adapted by perpetrators of domestic violence. Recent Middle-Eastern Migrants focused on identifying emotional means of abuse as the most common type of behaviour displayed by perpetrators of domestic violence. They culled it from their personal experience. Long Term Middle-Eastern Migrants, on the other hand, identified behaviours that displayed verbal and financial abuse as the most common types of behaviours displayed by perpetrators of domestic violence per their personal experience. Financial abuse such as controlling the victims financial access negates their independence; hence leaving them at the mercy of their perpetrators. In summary, the above analysis implied that Middle-Eastern Migrant respondents identified the types of behaviours on domestic violence based on their personal experience. Their responses implied that they themselves either became a victim or witness to verbal and emotional abuse of domestic violence. Anglo-Australians, on the other hand, used the information provided by the media in identifying the types of domestic violence behaviour. Responsible for the Occurrence of Domestic Violence Both partners All the three groups agreed that both husband and wife or both partners in an intimate relationship are to blame in the occurrence of domestic violence. However, the percentage of the participants in concurrence with this position varies across the groups. Majority of the participants from the groups of Anglo-Australians and Recent Middle Eastern Migrants responded outright with this observation. However, only less than half of the participants from Long Term Middle-Eastern Migrants concur with it. They did not limit the perpetrator of domestic violence to one gender only but gave both spouses the potential to initiate domestic violence. Anglo-Australians blame it on the lack of understanding, self-esteem and respect for either of the spouses which bridge towards the occurrence of domestic violence. They believed that these factors has its root cause on the lack of maturity of either one or both of the spouses to act as adults whenever conflict arises within the marriage to avoid the occurrence of domestic violence. Recent Middle-Eastern Migrants, on the other hand, shared why both partners are potentially responsible for the occurrence of domestic violence. Both have the capability (1) to cause physical harm to each other, (2) to curtail each other’s freedom, and (3) to act irrationally thereby blocking effective communication with each other. These tendencies from either of the partners can bridge domestic violence. A few of the Long Term Middle-Eastern Migrants concurred with the stand of the first two groups that both partners are to be blamed for the occurrence of domestic violence by the simple rationale that problems occurring within a relationship can be brought about by either of the partners. This rationale leaned towards the stand of the Recent Middle-Eastern Migrant participants discussed above. However, this group’s rationale for their answer is much simpler than that of the second group. Society as a whole Few respondents from each of the three groups concurred in putting the responsibility on the occurrence of domestic violence to society as a whole. Anglo-Australian respondents pinpointed the responsibility to both government and private agencies for failing to do their shares in preventing the occurrence of domestic violence, punishing its perpetrators and protecting its victims through passage of appropriate legislations, budget allocation and programmes. Both Recent and Long Term Middle-Eastern Migrants, on the other hand, refer to society as the community at large which is not that receptive towards the issue of domestic violence. Lack of awareness, cooperation and insistence to create structural changes in order to address the issue of domestic violence are the reasons brought up by Recent Middle-Eastern Migrants why they believed society is to blame for the occurrence of domestic violence. In a way, they implied that the state of indifference of society towards domestic violence as its biggest perpetrator. Long Term Middle-Eastern Migrants specifically implied on the failure of the community to educate local citizens on the gravity of domestic violence in order to discourage them from doing or tolerating it. Male partner Among the three groups of respondents, only the Long Term Middle-Eastern Migrants directly pinpointed a gender biased response by blaming male partners as responsible for domestic violence occurrence. Half of the respondents from this group concurred with this observation. They rationalised that male partners have the physical advantage in perpetrating domestic violence victimising their partners. This ability is implied to be enough ground to show that he is primarily to blame for domestic violence occurrence. Causal Explanations of Domestic Violence The two groups of Middle-Eastern Migrants were in agreement that poor or lack of communication skills and substance abuse are significant factors in the occurrence of domestic violence. The inability to communicate properly and put in perspective verbal nuances has a grave impact towards domestic violence. This could be attributed to lack of training in the proper verbal delivery or communication which is very important to help a person create lasting relationships. In terms of substance abuse, Recent Middle-Eastern Migrants focused on alcohol abuse as the main of violence towards intimate partners since it can cause irrational thinking and actions for those who cannot control their alcohol intake. Long Term Middle-Eastern Migrant respondents, on the other hand, blame both alcohol and drug abuse as the culprit for domestic violent behaviours. On the other hand, Anglo-Australian and Long Term Middle-Eastern Migrant respondents cited cultural reasons as the causal explanations of domestic violence. A few Anglo-Australian respondents emphasized that domestic violence is particularly common among the families of migrants, indigents or Aboriginal, and lower socio economic sectors. Domestic violence among families of Australian Aborigines can even cause ripple effects towards the next generation eventually making it a major cause of criminal acts. A few of the Long Term Middle Eastern Migrants, on the other hand, cited cultural environment as the reinforcer of acts of domestic violence. For example, a migrant was comfortable committing an act of violence towards his partner while they were still living in the Middle East but change such behaviour when they migrated to Australia. Apparently, seeing the equality of the roles of men and women in Australian community changed his perception of how to treat his wife. Such inequality between genders in the Middle East was further highlighted by inequality of access to financial resources since women typically rely on their husbands for their financial support. Thus, they cannot move out of their domicile even if they are already being abused by their husbands. This dilemma is further enhanced by the lack of institutions that they can go to seek help unlike in Australia. Aside from the above commonality, the three groups vary in their observation on the possible causes of domestic violence. Anglo-Australian respondents focused on socio-economic and social factors as mainly responsible for domestic violence. Economic hardships, particularly with the onset of global financial crisis, are seen to contribute in the increase of incidence of domestic violence. Financial stress brought about by for instance by credit delinquencies can lead to conflicts between spouses or partners that can become the forbearer of domestic violence. Further, Anglo-Australian respondents were in the position that domestic violence is a learned behaviour wherein a child who witnessed such behaviour from either of his parents while growing up can end up exemplifying such behaviour in his relationships during adulthood. Thus, domestic violence becomes a generation problem and not just an incidental problem in society. Recent Middle-Eastern Migrants blame the violent images perpetrated by the Australian media as one of the perpetrators influencing domestic violent behaviours. Over representation and misrepresentation of violence in news and entertainment coverage as well as video games affects the psyche of people to romance with violent behaviours towards their partners. In summary, the three groups do not agree on one common causes of domestic violence but each group identified factors that they think can lead to domestic violence such as lack of communication, substance abuse and cultural characteristics. It is apparent that Middle Eastern respondents agree on that lack of communication and substance abuse as perpetrators of domestic violence. Gender Based Explanation of Domestic Violence The three groups were in concurrence that females are more at risk of becoming victims of domestic violence than males mainly on the ground that the former is physically weaker than the latter. Men are physically dominant when it comes to confrontation leading to domestic violence. Anglo-Australian respondents rationalise that men sometimes used such dominance without rational thinking thereby leading to aggression during conflicts with their partners. Also, males are more associated in the use of drugs and alcohol which are strong factors that influence domestic violence. Recent Middle-Eastern Migrants generally believed that males used their physical strength to initiate aggression towards females. The latter are more vulnerable in times of physical confrontation. Also, one participant shared that female brains are designed to control aggression as proven by recent research thereby they are most likely able to control their anger unlike men. Such scientific explanation was shared by Long Term Middle-Eastern Migrants when they shared that males have difficulty controlling their emotions; hence they are more aggressive physical and verbally. Although, all three groups believed that women are more at risk to be victims of domestic violence, a number of them differ in their position that both genders are capable of being perpetrators of domestic violence. Majority of Anglo-Australians, for instance, believed that both males and females are equally capable of committing acts of domestic violence towards their partners. Less than half of the respondents from the other two groups of Middle Eastern Migrants shared this opinion. Recent Middle-Eastern Migrants pointed out that women are highly capable of imposing mental abuse towards their partners while Long Term Middle-Eastern Migrants pointed out that women are highly capable of verbal and emotional violence towards their partners. In summary, it seems that the three groups of respondents were in agreement that while women are more at risk of being victims of domestic violence, they recognise the fact that both genders are potentially capable of committing acts of domestic violence. Men potentially do this by using their physical strength while women carry it out by means of verbal and emotional abuse. Domestic Violence Services According to Participant Responses This section asked the participants about the availability of domestic violence services based on their culture of origin i.e. Australia for Anglo-Australians and Middle East for Middle-Eastern Migrants. Cultural backgrounds play an important role on how the three groups consider accessing or identifying the types of services available to the issue of domestic violence Anglo-Australian respondents refer to formal institutions to respond and mediate on cases of domestic violence. Help lines, legal aide, housing assistance, police assistance, and shelter programs are few of the programs that Australians can refer to whenever they face domestic violence issues. Middle-Eastern Migrants, on the other hand, utilise the role of family, community elders and religious leaders as primary group to access mediation and response in cases of domestic violence. Family intervention is ranked higher among the three as the most effectively used intervention in the Middle East. Judiciary solution through the Shari’a Law is secondary option that is accessed when all efforts by these primary groups failed. The above information implies that Australia is able to put in place independent programs to assist victims of domestic violence that can look at the issue objectively and put in place certain actions for the benefit of the victim. Availability of such programs in the Middle East is not that common since family, elders and religious leaders were commonly accessed to intervene during domestic violence occurrence. Accessing the help of family, however, may not be that effective to resolve the issue of domestic violence all together since the intervening family member might be biased against either the parties involved on the issue. In summary, it appears that domestic violence is primarily a family issue in the Middle East; hence immediate and extended family members are sought first to intervene on the issue. In Australia, on the other hand, domestic violence is immediately considered a social or community issue; hence wide availability of domestic violence services offered by both the government and non-government agencies. Conclusions The above analysis showed that there is no difference in the manner in which Anglo-Australians, Recent and Long Term Middle-Eastern Migrants define domestic violence, its behaviours and the more at risk gender. They are all in agreement that domestic violence takes in the form of aggression towards a weaker victim commonly the women. However, they have varying reasons why domestic violence occur which can be caused by cultural backgrounds, social and economic factors, among others. Read More