THERE IS a close connection between economic inequality and domestic violence, according to an American expert on domestic violence.
Prof Donna Coker of the Miami Law School told a conference in UCD at the weekend on Feminism, the University and Societythat domestic violence was twice as prevalent in disadvantaged neighbourhoods as middle-class neighbourhoods in the US.
Domestic violence increased during times of economic hardship, she said. She added that domestic violence was also a major cause of women’s poverty, as it resulted in homelessness and loss of employment.
“Historically, US advocates for battered women have been reluctant to face up to the class dimension,” she said. “There has been a reluctance to admit that some women are more at risk than others.”
This has resulted from a neo-liberal focus on the individual and from a reluctance to consider the implications of linking domestic violence with poverty.
“Some advocated fear that a focus on class takes away from a focus on gender. There is also a myth that poverty is an intractable problem. So it is seen as politically better to adopt a universalist language.”
She said there was a need for a full-throated demand for job programmes as part of the struggle against domestic violence.
Prof Joan Meier of the George Washington University said there was a need to educate the public about the reality of domestic violence, as the courts were increasingly reluctant to take into account the reasons why abused women may not give evidence against their abuser.
She said there had been a number of cases where the custody of children was switched to the father because the mother was accused of “parental alienation” when she fled from an abusive relationship with her children.
“Most of these cases concern white middle-class couples,” Prof Meier added. “When the courts see a white middle-class professional man, they do not think he is capable of abuse.”
There was a need to train lawyers, psychologists and others in the reality of abuse and its impact on women’s ability to testify in court, she said. Their situation was not the same as that of a man complaining of assault by another man where there was no history between them.
Prof Kris Miccio of the University of Denver told the conference there was a need for a co-ordinated community response, including hospitals, schools and the courts, to the problem of domestic violence.
“The family courts are the most violent in the city of New York,” she said. “The family courts, not the criminal courts, were the first to erect protective screens.”