Advancing Feminist Understandings of Woman Abuse: the Value of Old Wine in New Bottles

Overview

Journal Front Sociol

Specialty Social Sciences

Date 2025 Feb 26

PMID 40007910

Authors

Walter S DeKeesredy

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Despite making some of the most important advances in the social scientific study of woman abuse, feminist sociological research and theorizing that prioritize the concept of patriarchy have leveled off or declined in the last 15 years due, in large part, to the current hegemony of mainstream criminologists fundamentally opposed to a rich gendered understanding of one of the world's most compelling social problems. Drawing on nearly 50 years of research done by an international cadre of highly experienced scholars, this article demonstrates the importance of revisiting some major feminist conceptual, empirical, and theoretical contributions from the past. Recommended here are gender-specific conceptualizations of abuse, in-depth reviews of the extant literature, self-report surveys of potential male offenders, quantitative indicators of men's patriarchal attitudes and beliefs, and supplementary open-ended survey questions.

References

Smith M . The incidence and prevalence of woman abuse in Toronto. Violence Vict. 1987; 2(3):173-87. View

Muehlenhard C, Peterson Z, Humphreys T, Jozkowski K . Evaluating the One-in-Five Statistic: Women's Risk of Sexual Assault While in College. J Sex Res. 2017; 54(4-5):549-576. DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2017.1295014. View

Stanko E . Theorizing about violence: observations from the Economic and Social Research Council's Violence Research Program. Violence Against Women. 2006; 12(6):543-55. DOI: 10.1177/1077801206289137. View

DeKeseredy W . Bringing Feminist Sociological Analyses of Patriarchy Back to the Forefront of the Study of Woman Abuse. Violence Against Women. 2020; 27(5):621-638. DOI: 10.1177/1077801220958485. View

DeKeseredy W, Dragiewicz M . Understanding the complexities of feminist perspectives on woman abuse: a commentary on Donald G. Dutton's Rethinking Domestic Violence. Violence Against Women. 2007; 13(8):874-84. DOI: 10.1177/1077801207304806. View

Dragiewicz M, DeKeseredy W . Claims about women's use of non-fatal force in intimate relationships: a contextual review of Canadian research. Violence Against Women. 2012; 18(9):1008-26. DOI: 10.1177/1077801212460754. View

Koss M, Gidycz C, Wisniewski N . The scope of rape: incidence and prevalence of sexual aggression and victimization in a national sample of higher education students. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1987; 55(2):162-70. DOI: 10.1037//0022-006x.55.2.162. View

DeKeseredy W, Stoneberg D, Nolan J, Lory G . Improving the Quality of Survey Data on College Campus Woman Abuse: The Contribution of a Supplementary Open-Ended Question. Violence Against Women. 2020; 27(12-13):2477-2490. DOI: 10.1177/1077801220975496. View

Smith M . Patriarchal ideology and wife beating: a test of a feminist hypothesis. Violence Vict. 1990; 5(4):257-73. View

10.

Jordan C . Advancing the study of violence against women: evolving research agendas into science. Violence Against Women. 2009; 15(4):393-419. DOI: 10.1177/1077801208330692. View

11.

Khalil H, Peters M, Tricco A, Pollock D, Alexander L, McInerney P . Conducting high quality scoping reviews-challenges and solutions. J Clin Epidemiol. 2020; 130:156-160. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.10.009. View

12.

Dekeseredy W . Enhancing the quality of survey data on woman abuse. Examples from a national Canadian study. Violence Against Women. 1995; 1(2):158-73. DOI: 10.1177/1077801295001002004. View

13.

Tricco A, Zarin W, Ghassemi M, Nincic V, Lillie E, Page M . Same family, different species: methodological conduct and quality varies according to purpose for five types of knowledge synthesis. J Clin Epidemiol. 2017; 96():133-142. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2017.10.014. View