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What Causes Men's Violence Against Women?

NCJ Number
180821
Editor(s)
Michele Harway, James M. O'Neil
Date Published
1999
Length
312 pages
Annotation
This book first presents the editors' (O'Neil and Harway) preliminary multivariate model that explains men's violence against women, followed by chapters that critique and expand upon the factors the model identifies as explaining why men are violent toward women.
Abstract
The preliminary multivariate model defines four factor areas: macrosocietal, biological, gender-role socialization, and relational. Thirteen hypotheses regarding the causes of men's violence against women are presented. This multivariate model provides a common set of ideas for critique by the chapter authors as well as a structure for them to develop their own hypotheses about the causes of men's violence against women. Following two chapters that profile the model, two chapters provide general critiques of the model based on feminist perspectives and empirical data. Two chapters examine the biological, neuroanatomical, hormonal, and evolutionary factors that some research has identified as being risk factors in male violence toward women. Two chapters focus on factors in men's and women's gender-role socialization and gender-role conflict that foster men's violence against women. The next two chapters address the relational and interactional factors that help explain men's violence against women, followed by a chapter on the macrosocietal, racial, and cultural explanations of such violence. Based on the critiques of the editors' preliminary multivariate model, the concluding chapter presents the editors' revised multivariate model, followed by proactive recommendations for addressing male violence against women. For individual chapters, see NCJ-180822-31. 684 references and a subject index