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Gender and Types of Intimate Partner Violence: A Response to an Anti-Feminist Literature Review

NCJ Number
235470
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 16 Issue: 4 Dated: July/August 2011 Pages: 289-296
Author(s)
Michael P. Johnson
Date Published
August 2011
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article presents a feminist perspective on domestic violence.
Abstract
This article was written as a response to recent criticism claiming the existence of a feminist bias in research on intimate partner violence. The author presents her rebuttal of the criticism in two parts in this paper. The first section of the paper presents a feminist perspective on domestics violence that stems from the differences among three major types of intimate partner violence: intimate terrorism, violent resistance, and situational couple violence. A discussion of these three types of intimate partner violence is followed by a look at sampling biases from a feminist perspective. The author then discusses the theory and research on intimate partner violence from the feminist perspective in order to rebut the criticisms from the other researchers. These allegations include: feminists say that only men do it; feminists say violent men are evil, violent women are good; feminists say that the only cause of intimate partner violence is the patriarchy; and the feminist mindset has a lock on a variety of institutions, especially the law. The author also rebuts the criticisms aimed specifically at her work. References