Week 6: Intimate Partner Violence I

This week in class we are covering Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). A HUGE topic that’s going to take over my next few posts. But anyways, onto the info:

IPV used to be known as battering which was “the instilment of fear, oppression, control of a partner, and assault.  Today IPV includes all of the above plus stalking and economic exploitation, which is oftentimes not seen as violent.

IPV is also a more correct, umbrella term since it uses the terms “Intimate Partner”. It includes people that are sexually intimate, married or unmarried, cohabitating (living together), or formally cohabitating, dating or formally dating. The legal definition excludes those partners that are under 18 years of age where it delves into child abuse.

As a term IPV is gender neutral. This means that this term covers same-sex partners, transgender partners, etc. However, it can be problematic because these couples are not acknowledged as intimate partners in most states. That means they are often not protected by IPV laws that they need. This just one reason it is super important to have equal rights when it comes to marriage and domestic partnerships.

Also, to get protection under some IPV laws, one must have evidence. Usually this means physical evidence…so something bad must happen. This is, for very obvious and frustrating reasons, e x t r e m e l y  p r o b l e m a t I c.

However, one thing I am very interested in that this chapter really didn’t cover well (and that I could not find even on EBSCO) was interracial couples and DV. The book labels some statistics that black women are victims of IPV about 35% more than white females. The book also lists a study that shows that Native Americans and Alaskan Natives reported the most IPV and that Pacific Islanders reported the least. While I understand it is extremely hard to capture the true extent of IPV, we can assume it is much more in all of these populations. However, one question really keeps echoing in my mind. Are these IPV victims’ perpetrators the same race or of a different race.

My theory is that since racism can still exist in interracial relationships, that rates of IPV in interracial relationships would be higher than those of monoracial relationships. Of course there are other factors involved in IPV than racism, however I think this added factor could play a part in IPV in interracial couples. This, again, is an extremely understudied area and one that we don’t even really have small look. Maybe I’ll come across more information on this soon. If I do, I’ll post it. If any of you have links or books I can take a look at shoot me a comment or e-mail!

All in all this chapter was stocked full of information, however this was what was pressing on my mind at the time. Again, if you any of you have comments or questions I more than welcome them.

-Alex