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Do Violent Acts Equal Abuse? Resolving the Gender Parity/Asymmetry Dilemma

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Abstract

This commentary revisits a core dilemma in “Controversies involving Gender and Intimate Partner Violence in the United States” by Langhinrichsen-Rohling (2010), how to reconcile gender parity in the use of force by partners with the gender asymmetry in the dynamics and effects of partner abuse. This dilemma is a byproduct of a domestic violence paradigm that confounds the normative use of violence in families and relationships and the types of partner assault and coercive control targeted by the advocacy movement. I argue that the dimensions of abuse victims present at points of service contradict the basic assumptions of the paradigm and outline an alternative model of coercive control that sets violent acts in their historical, experiential and political context.

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  1. School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University, 111 Washington Street, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Evan Stark

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Correspondence to Evan Stark.

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Stark, E. Do Violent Acts Equal Abuse? Resolving the Gender Parity/Asymmetry Dilemma. Sex Roles 62, 201–211 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-009-9717-2

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