'n Ekologiese perspektief op geweld teenoor vroue in saamwoon-en huweliksverhoudings

[摘要] English: A literature study, complemented by an empirical investigation during which both quantitativequestionnaires and qualitative interviews with female victims of violence are utilised, isconducted to explore and describe violence against women in cohabiting and maritalrelationships from an ecological perspective, in order to tune in scientifically founded socialwork service rendering to the phenomenon. During the investigation, there is moved away froma linear approach to violence to a more comprehensive, holistic perspective, which brings aboutan assessment of social problems and needs in interactional terms, namely that violence is aresult of maladjustment in the person and environmental relationship. The phenomenon isapproached as a symptom of disfunctioning in the ecological system and as a result of themutually influencing interactional processes that take place between the individual system andthe ecological context. A variety of multifactoral, circular causal factors are identified byanalysing four levels of the ecological system, namely the individual level, the family level, socialstructural level and the sociocultural level, but also of the levels' mutual influence upon oneanother. At the individual level, an analysis takes place of psychopathologies and characteristicsassociated with female victims and violent males. The ways in which their families of origininfluence the concerned persons' current behaviour and purport regarding their situations areanalysed, whilst the role of power in violent behaviour, the relation between the use of alcoholand chemical substances and violence and factors influencing female victims' decision makingabout the violent relationships, are also explored and described.Two circular theoretical frameworks, namely the structural approach of Salvador Minuchin andthe multigenerational approach of Murray Bowen, are utilised for an analysis of family systemsdisfunctioning where violence against women in cohabiting and marital relationships occur.Due to the structural approach's emphasis on the disfunctioning of the family system wheresymptomatic behaviour occurs and its focus on the function of the symptomatic behaviour forthe maintenance of a rigid, non-progressive family systems equilibrium, a meaningful structuralexploration of violence prone family systems is made possible. The application of concepts from Bowen's theory on violence prone family systems, is especially useful for the explorationof the involved persons' emotional reactivity, triangulation both inside and outside of the familysystem and for the multigenerational recurrence of violent behaviour through variousgenerations.During the analysis of social structural aspects that allegedly contribute to the establishment andmaintenance of violence against women in cohabiting and marital relationships, the focus is onthe influence of economic realities (illiteracy, unemployment and poverty) in the unique SouthAfrican context. An analysis of service rendering initiatives, structures and professions involvedin the prevention and treatment of the phenomenon and how female victims of violenceexperience these services and structures, is also done.Sexism, sex role stereotyping, norms regarding marriage and the family, the general acceptanceof violence and myths related to violence against women in cohabiting and marital relationships,are contributing and maintaining factors focused on during an analysis of the sociocultural levelof the ecological system. These factors possibly contribute to a elirnate/socio culture in whichfemales are regarded as inferior to and as the property of men and where men are allowed torule them, while the general acceptance of violence, gives rise to community desensitisationregarding the phenomenon.Due to the comprehensive nature of the ecological perspective, it not only serves as a directionindicatorto the social work profession, but also to other professions and service renderingstructures for continued research and for the pro- and reactive development and implementationof preventative and treatment programmes regarding the phenomenon.

[发布机构] University of the Free State