Violence in the home has finally emerged from the closet. Although it has been present for centuries, it has become a serious topic for social scientists, whether theorists or researchers, only in the last two decades.

Battered Spouse Syndrome

"Battered Spouse Syndrome" describes the recurring pattern of physical abuse by a husband against his wife. Research indicates that, with few exceptions, the wife is the victim in incidents of domestic violence. It is estimated that only one-half of spouse abuse incidents arc reported to law enforcement officials. Spouse abuse exists in all classes and levels of society. While the reasons for a specific incident of violence may be unique, certain general characteristics are common to batterers, to battered women, and to their interaction in a violent marriage.

Dr. Lenore E. Walker, a leading expert in domestic violence, discovered that over 80 percent of batterers were exposed to domestic violence during their childhood. As a result, these men come to accept violence as a legitimate method of asserting control over their spouses. See Walker, "Victimology and the Psychological Perspectives of Battered Women," Victimology: An International Journal 8(82-104).

Childhood experiences with violence contribute to a batterer's deeply rooted feelings of insecurity and inferiority, which he attempts to avoid by seeking to control his family. Control is exerted by attempting to isolate the wife from friends, family, outside employment, and interaction with others, and by demonstrating unreasonable jealousy of any of the wife's outside activities. Sexual jealousy and the use of sex as a means of rewarding and punishing his wife's behavior are common methods of control used by the batterer. Batterers tend to be extremely critical of their wives and defensive about their own shortcomings. They blame their wives for all of the problems existing in the relationship--including the acts of violence. The reasons battered women remain in abusive relationships has been the subject of much discussion, research, and debate among experts in the field. Two theories have emerged. The "minority" view contends that battered women suffer from some sort of psychological dependency, which attracts them to abusive relationships with men and renders them incapable of leaving the relationship. (Frank and Golden, 5-6).

The "majority" view contends that the abused spouse learns to be helpless, and therefore accept the abuse against her, as a result of violence exhibited during her childhood, the batterer's manipulation of her emotions through psychological and physical coercion, her isolation from others, and economic and emotional dependence on the abuser. Abused women have extremely low self-esteem and fear both their husbands and life itself.

Cycle of Violence

The actual incidents of physical abuse occur in predictable cycles. Dr. Walker has described this as a "Cycle of Violence" containing three distinct phases. The first phase, or "tension building" phase, is characterized by the husband's increased criticism of his wife, coupled with obsessive, jealous, and irritable behavior. The wife usually attempts to control the situation by compliant behavior. In some instances, the wife will provide an incident in order to have the tension decrease or end, and in order to exert some control of the situation.

The second phase is the battering phase, and is the shortest of the three. Battering may begin for no apparent reason. In some cases, the victim will also strike out at her husband during this phase, thereby releasing her frustration.

The third, and final phase, is termed the "loving contrition" phase. This phase is characterized by the abuser professing his deep sorrow for the incident and promising to stop violent behavior in the future. The batterer attempts to "win back" his wife's love by buying gifts, professing his love and devotion, and even agreeing to seek counseling. The abused spouse naively accepts her husbands assertions and part of the blame for the problem.

Dr. Walker has discovered that as a violent relationship continues to progress, the first phase becomes longer, the third shorter or nonexistent, and the battering more acute. (Walker, 21-35).

Spousal Violence and Religion

Inter-spousal violence and its relationship to religion, has received very limited attention in the United States, and almost none in Canada (Steinmetz 725-765). A cursory exploration was reported in a U.S. national study by Straus et al. (412-445). A few other studies have focused on selected religious denominations. For example, Brutz and Allen (491-502) have argued that the high rates of violence found among the Quaker wives and husbands in their sample must be explained by a careful examination of their religious value system as it relates to passivism on the international level.

Brutz and Ingoldeby (16-21) also compared Quaker rates of family violence with national data from the Straus et al. study and reported that on some items, the Quakers tended to be above the national average, but that overall there were no statistically significant differences between the national sample and the Quakers. Laner (145-168) has compared reported violence during courtship for Mormon and non-Mormon college students, finding that Mormons tended to be less aggressive or abusive than non-Mormons, especially among women. In the aforementioned study, Straus et al. (111-125) argued that the relationships they found between religious affiliation and family violence were probably a function of differences in social and demographic factors, such as education.

A recent 1990 survey of Utah households, however, found rates of severe spousal violence that were higher than the national rates reported by Straus and Gelles (465-479), although the rates for orthodox Mormons were significantly lower (Rollins and Oheneba-Sakyi 301-309). Neither religiosity, income, education, nor gender role orientation were found to be related to spousal violence.

Modernization Theory

The modernization perspective starts with the "inegalitarian portrait" of marital power and asks how development undermines patriarchal authority structures. An important feature of development is the transition from local subsistence economies to nationally integrated urban-industrial economies with consumer and labor markets. Markets for women's labor enhance the decision-making power of wives and lower their risks of violence by providing access to resources. Monetary resources from employment enhance the position of wives by reducing financial dependence on husbands. Employment also promotes the development of psychological resources to challenge inegalitarian situations in the home, including self-esteem and worldviews that embrace opportunities for change. Thus, women employed in domestic workshops in Santiago, Michoacan, capitalize on "the opportunities presented by industrial growth to struggle for a more valued and dignified position in the household . . . to search for greater relative autonomy after marriage" (Wilson190; see also Chant 1991; Foster 1979; Lomnitz 1977; Murphy & Stepick 1991).

This reasoning suggests that economic opportunities foster egalitarian relationships through transitions in women's employment status. Economic opportunities for women in the local economy also may strengthen the position of wives within families, irrespective of their actual employment status, via information flows within communities. Through informal communication in social networks, new standards of acceptable behavior are learned as the individual experiences of husbands and wives broaden vicariously through others who are participating directly in the wage economy. Social contagion and social comparisons in the routines of everyday life expose families to new, egalitarian models of organization. Thus, economic opportunities engender change directly and indirectly through the community context within which families live.

Changes in the opportunity structure also have implications for demographic behaviors that, in turn, may influence power relations. According to modernization theory, the demographic legacies of agrarian societies are early marriage, high fertility, extended families, and rural residence. Early marriage, high fertility, and extended family relationships are advantageous in agrarian settings because children contribute to production and extended families offer protection against risk. However, this demographic configuration has negative implications for the position of wives within the family. Early marriages thrust young women from a dependent relationship in the family of origin into a dependent relationship (usually with an older husband) in the family of procreation.

This dependence is frequently exacerbated by the extended family, a complicated institution with gradations in status by age and gender. Extended families include multiple members who can compete with the wife for the loyalty of the husband and offer "moral" insights into proper spousal relations (Kemper 211-232). Last, the high fertility that accompanies early marriage detracts from the ability of wives to challenge patriarchal authority structures because expenditures of time and energy on domestic activities increase with the number of children.

Marginalization Theory

The marginalization perspective describes how the power of wives diminishes as they shift from the core of production to the periphery of production with development. Women enjoy egalitarian relationships under subsistence agriculture because spouses are mutually dependent upon one another and have central roles in production: "productive, reproductive (childbearing and child rearing), and consumptive activities are continuous and compatible. Not surprisingly, given their interdependence, relations between the sexes are relatively egalitarian" (Rothstein 51). However, these relationships unravel with development. Farm mechanization undermines women's contributions from production because men monopolize control over machinery (Boserup 84-93). The rural penetration of industry undermines women's access to resources to the extent that male labor is disproportionately in demand. As a result, women specialize increasingly in domestic activities and their economic dependence on husbands increases, thereby fostering power inequality in early stages of development.

The structure of labor market opportunities provides additional grounds for skepticism about the "liberating" effects of economic development. While their income is important for survival, employed women are typically relegated to marginal, low-paying sectors of developing economies. Moreover, employment cannot facilitate egalitarian relationships if access to economic opportunities is determined within an overall cultural context that vests the wife's employment decisions in the husband -- wives need their husband's consent to seek employment (Cook 55-77). Husbands whose role as breadwinners is threatened may resist attempts by their wives both to get a job and to gain bargaining leverage from employment, in order to maintain vestiges of self-respect and self-worth (Safilios-Rothschild 117-32).

Conclusion

On the basis of past research and broad theoretical speculation, it was hypothesized that religious denomination and religious commitment might influence spousal violence. Spouse abuse cases are unpredictable because the victimized spouse's cooperation with law enforcement authorities is unpredictable. Understanding the fear, isolation, and dependency of the abused spouse will assist the prosecutor not only in case preparation, but in overcoming the frustration which commonly occurs after a spouse has recanted and begins to view military. authorities as the "enemy." Prompt intervention is essential, and will ensure that the abuser properly faces the consequences of a cowardly act.

Works Cited

Brutz, J. and C. M. Allen 1986 Religious commitment peace activism, and marital violence m Quaker families. Journal of Marriage and the Family 48131:491-502.
Brutz, J and B. B. Ingoldsby 1984 Conflict resolution m Quaker families. Journal of Marriage and the Family 46(1):21-16.

Laner, Mary Riege 1985 Unpleasant, aggressive, and abusive activities in courtship: A comparison of Mormon and NonMormon college students. Deviant Behavior 6(21:145-168.
Rollins, Boyd C. and Yaw Oheneba-Sakyi 1990 Physical violence m Utah households Journal of Family Violence 5(4):301-309.

Steinmetz, S. K. 1987 Family violence. Pp. 725-765 in M. B. Sussman and Susan K. Steinmetz, eds., Handbook of marriage and the family. New York: Plenum Press.

Straus, Murray and R J. Gelles 1986 Societal change and change in family violence from 1975 to 1985 as revealed by two national surveys. Journal of Marriage and the Family 48(3):465-479 (August).
Straus, Murray, R. J. Gelles and Susan K. Steinmetz 1980 Behind closed doors - violence in the American family. New York: Anchor Books.

Boserup, Ester. 1990. Economic and Demographic Relationships in Development. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Chant, Sylvia. 1991. Women and Survival in Mexican Cities: Perspectives on Gender, Labour Markets and Low-Income Households. Manchester University Press.

Cook, Scott. 1988. "Inflation and Rural Livelihood in a Mexican Province: An Exploratory Analysis." Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 4:55-77.

Foster, George M. 1979. Tzintzuntzan: Mexican Peasants in a Changing World. Rev. ed. Elsevier.

Kemper, Robert V. 1977. Migration and Adaptation: Tzintzuntzan Peasants in Mexico City. Sage.

Lomnitz, Larissa Adler. 1977. Networks and Marginality: Life in a Mexican Shantytown. Academic Press.

Murphy, Arthur D., and Alex Stepick. 1991. Social Inequality in Oaxaca: A History of Resistance and Change. Temple University Press.

Rothstein, Frances A. 1982. Three Different Worlds: Women, Men, and Children in an Industrializing Community. Greenwood Press.

Safilios-Rothschild, Constantina. 1982. "Female Power, Autonomy and Demographic Change in the Third World." Pp. 117-32 in Women's Roles and Population Trends in the Third World, edited by Richard Anker, Mayra Buvinic, and Nadia H. Youssef. Croom Helm.

Wilson, Fiona. 1991. Sweaters: Gender, Class and Workshop-Based Industry in Mexico. St. Martin's Press.

Walker, L.E., "Victimology and the Psychological Perspectives of Battered Women, Victimology: An International Journal, 8(82-104) 1983.

Walker, "A Cycle Theory of Battering," reprinted in Loving, Responding to Spouse Abuse and Wife Beating: A Guide for Police, Police Executive Research Forum (1980).

Frank and Golden, "Blaming by Naming: Battered Women and the Epidemic of Codependence," 37 Social Work 5-6 (January 1992).