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Abstract
Recent data demonstrate that, although gender has an impact upon the
experience of being a victim of an intimate s violence, there is no particular
personality pattern that leads one to become a victim Rather, women—
who are socialized to adapt and submit, and who are likelv to become victims
of men's sexual violence or physical abuse—mav riot develop adequate self-
protection skills as children, especially if they come from childhood homes
in which females are victimized, leading to a later vulnerability to physical
and sexual abuse Men, however, socialized to express anger and aggression
in an outward manner, learn to model the abuse witnessed or experienced
in childhood and often learn that women are the appropriate' recipients of
this violence
Social learning theories of modeling and aggression are used to explain
how such personality patterns develop, and the theory of learned helpless-
ness IS used to explain battered women s coping responses to their partners'
abusive behavior The extreme situation, in which a battered woman kills
her partner in self-defense, is analyzed in order to understand women
victims sense of desperation and entrapment m severelv abusive relation-
ships and the extent to which their behaviors are in reaction to the abuse
perpetrated by the mate
Conclusions
Early studies of battered women often focused on the personality
characteristics of the women, in a search for factors that might lead
them to seek abusiye treatment, or to stay in an abusive relationship
because of a personality disturbance that caused them to prefer
punishing interactions to more positive styles of relating These
theories suggested that the pathology resided in the woman victim,
and largely ignored the initiation and effect of violence bv the man
However, more recent research findings indicate that women's be-
havior in battering relationships is primarily in reaction to the level
of violence and threat perpetrated by the abuser Women choose
those responses that seem most likely to minimize the danger and to
facilitate at least their short-term survival While reactions geared to
the possibdity of becoming a victim of men's violence affect a great
deal of women's behavior in this society, and the experience of
victimization certainly has a major impact on the expression of
women's personalities, behaviors specifically related to victimization
often disappear when the threat of violence is no longer present
Victims reactions to abuse—and the severitv ofthe abuse they
are confronted with—are at least partly determined by the sex role
attitudes and interactional styles that were modeled in their families
of origin Children who were raised in abusive environments are
particularly at risk for later problems with violence Much more
research is needed on situations or factors that mediate this risk
Early experiences in an abusive environment mav cause a man to
develop aggressive behavior patterns, especiallv if he watched his
mother assaulted by his father or another male partner Similar
experiences in a woman's childhood may teach her to become a
victim and leaye her less effectiye m protecting herself from violence
she encounters as an adult In a violent situation, she mav concentrate
on her immediate survival, rather than escaping earlv, before the
violence escalates to life-threatening proportions
This susceptibility to remaining a victim has been descnbed in the
theory of learned helplessness, and is exacerbated bv traditional sex
role stereotyping, which encourages women to respond with passiv-
192 Walker and Browne
lty and acquiescence to aggression and dominance by males If
women are to escape violent relationships, they must overcome their
tendency to helplessness by, for instance, becoming angry rather
than depressed, active rather than passive, and more reahstic about
the likelihood of the relationship continuing on its aversive course
rather than improving In so doing, they must also overcome the sex
role sociahzation they have been taught from early childhood
Descriptions of violent men indicate that there are sufficient
similarities in their behaviors to suggest a violence-prone personality
pattern, originating in childhood and becoming more severe as a
man practices aggression More research focused on violent men is
needed to confirm this hypothesis, but their resistance to treatment
and high recidiyism rates suggests that there may well be such a
long-standing personality disorder Clinicians note that at least half
of the small percentage of abusive men who receive treatment
continue their violent behavior with new partners (Sonkin, Martin,
& Walker, in preparation) More effective intervention with abuswe
men is needed, as well as lntenswe research on the etiology of yiolent
behavior in men Positive parenting techniques, which value women
as highly as men, can also help to prevent the deyelopment of the
coercwe relational styles so often found in abuswe families
Tacit social support exists for abuse of family members m our
society's traditions of a man's "rights" in dealing with his family and
the gender stereotyping that favors a male's expression of dominance
and control Lack of effectwe system response to assaults m which
the yictim is a wife, and the lack of adequate and established
alternatwes to assure the yictim's protection from further aggression,
allows this yiolence to escalate, leaving the woman m a potentially
deadly situation from which there seems no practical ayenue of
escape Gwen what we know of battering relationships—the tend-
ency for the abuse to escalate in frequency and seyenty, the women's
sense of helplessness, and the desperation this produces—it is clear
that informed, effectwe responses to early contact with these cases
cannot be oyeremphasized
Homicides that result from abuswe relationships remind us ot the
senousness of "domestic" violence, and highlight how a lack of
adequate intervention strategies and responsiveness by all facets of
society can greatly exacerbate the dangers already present in these
situations A society that condones violence against women by forc-
ing the individual woman, rather than its institutions, to stop an
abuswe man's behayior, encourages continued victimization Psy-
chologists who study human behavior and offer theones for change
haye a particular moral obligation to use their research and mteryen-
Gender and victimization by intimates 193
tion skills to preyent another generation of perpetrators and victims
of violence
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Manuscript received February 25, 1985