POLITICAL AGENDA SETTING
AND THE BATTERED WOMEN'S ISSUE:
THE EFFECTS OF GOVERNMENT FUNDING
ON BATTERED WOMEN'S PROGRAMS
by
Camille Ascuaga
B.S. Political Science, Santa Clara University
(1981)
SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF
URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER IN CITY PLANNING
at the
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
June, 1985
Camille Ascuaga, 1985
The author hereby grants to M.I.T. permission to reproduce and to
distribute copies of this thesis document in whole or in part.
A
Signature of Author: .. ..
Certified by-.'.......-
,...
.... .-..
Department of rban Stu
. .. .
.. .. .. .... ..
s and Pl
May, 1985
................. ............
Professor Frank S. Jones
Thesis Supervisor
.W...
Accepted by: ......... ...
Chairm,
MAS
partmental Grad ate Committee
S i
RTUcTE
JUL 111985 Roteff
POLITICAL AGENDA SETTING AND THE BATTERED WOMEN'S ISSUE:
THE EFFECTS OF GOVERNMENT FUNDING ON BATTERED WOMEN'S PROGRAMS
by
Camille Ascuaga
Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning
on May 28, 1985 in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Degree of Master in City Planning in
Urban Studies and Planning
A confluence of social movements occurred in the 1960s
which set the stage for public recognition of the battered women
problem. Heightened awarenesss at the community level, combined
with the growing interest of informed segments of the
professional community, gave the issue its initial hearing and
response. Emergency shelters and other alternative institutions
run by local women's groups emerged as concrete, grass roots
expressions of the demands generated within these two
communities.
The success of these early shelters in demonstrating a
clear demand for their services, as well as a feasible
alternative to existing institutional arrangements, played a
role in attracting government recognition and support in the
mid-seventies. These early grass roots responses to the problem
of family violence drew official attention for several reasons.
First, they allowed agencies to expand and diversify existing
clientele. Secondly, they promoted "social control," "program,"
and "professional enterprise" by official, lay, and professional
groups seeking to expand their realm of social power and
influence. And last, they afforded them the opportunity to
structure responses to the problem which effectively ensured
that agency practice and goals would go undisrupted by outside
demands for specific reforms.
The media played a central role in focusing the attention
and in
on the problem of family violence
of public officials
and
sponsors
agency
exchanges between potential
facilitating
which
boundary
the
at
exist
Because they
shelter leaders.
separates the public and private spheres, the media function as
both a barometer of, and an impetus to, social change. Their
task is to discover, unveil, create, and recreate what is
considered "public." As a result, their role in transforming
the battered women issue from a source of private shame to one
of public concern merits attention.
The elevation of the battered women issue to the
government's agenda brought with it significant changes in the
nature and scope of earlier grass roots shelter efforts. The
purpose of this paper is to examine the substance of these
changes, how they occurred, and who the principal actors were.
Thesis Supervisor:
Title:
Prof. Frank S. Jones
Ford Professor of Urban Studies and Planning
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
I.
Introduction
II.
The "Discovery" of Battered Women
10
III.
Official
23
IV.
The Role of the Media
35
V.
The Effects of Government Funding
50
VI.
Conclusion
61
Bibliography
66
Responses to Domestic Violence
5
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many friends and colleagues have contributed to the success
of this effort. Of special importance has been my family, and
especially my parents, John and Rose Ascuaga, whose example has
challenges with the
taught me the value of approaching life's
To my
very best possible effort and a fair measure of humility.
for
grateful
especially
am
I
grandmother, Marie Louise Ardans,
me a
in
instilled
which
Country,
Basque
in the
her tales of life
as
well
as
heritage,
cultural
my
for
respect
sense of pride and
and
Michonne
John,
to
thankful
am
I
lastly,
And
that of others.
and
singular
their
for
pride
such
have
I
whom
in
Stephen Ascuaga
achievements.
joint
Professor Frank
My academic advisors also deserve mention.
Jones has aided me greatly in this effort through his
unremitting show of support and encouragement in pursuing this
In addition, my thesis has been greatly
line of inquiry.
influenced by Professor Michael Lipsky, whose insights and
In the two years I
criticisms proved especially invaluable.
have challenged
courses
have studied at MIT, his lectures and
the opportunity
had
having
for
and excited me; I feel fortunate
him.
know
to work with and
Finally, I would like to acknowledge Mark Bressler, not
only for his constant show of support in this endeavor, but for
the enormous courage and strength he has demonstrated in the
face of personal injustice and disappointment, as well.
5
I.
Introduction
Back in
began to seek
the early 1970s when women first
refuge together from their violent partners,
shelters were
places where women learned to regain control of their lives.
women cooked,
There,
was a home.
shopped and lived communally;
the shelter
Over the years, however, the situation has changed
quite drastically
was a decade ago:
from what it
For the battered woman who manages to escape
her batterer and get in to a shelter, she may
find herself in a "mini-institution," at the
mercy of a bureaucrat and punitive big daddy
with big rules and restrictions. 1
the shelter may leave her with
Like the home she just left,
over anything.
control
little
to a former director of one of New York City's
According
battered women's shelters,
the primary reason for this
the nature of shelter programs can be found in
arrangements
which exist between individual
agencies which leave the former in
For example,
tration
(HRA)
administering
in
New York City,
it
the financial
shelters and funding
a highly dependent position.
municipal agency
service programs.
Family and Adult Services,
in
the Human Resources Adminis-
acts as the principal
social
shift
for
Through its office of
funds the majority of New York
City's battered women's shelters.
3
Despite the fact that these
shelter programs are all private, non-profit, and presumably
autonomous oragnizations,
"their hopeless financial
dependence
on city contracts renders them utterly vulnerable to HRA
meddling."4
2
Haviland,
Mary
coordinator of the Park Slope Safe Homes
Project, the only non-HRA funded shelter for battered women,
claims that the HRA has gradually asserted greater control over
5
the internal decision-making processes of individual shelters.
It
through several
has achieved this
In
different mechanisms.
the first place, the agency dictates both the type and number of
shelter
positions,
staff
qualifications.
records,
despite the confidential
it
and job
Secondly, it demands free access to case
contained within them.
budget;
benefits,
salaries,
information which may be
The HRA also determines each shelter's
stipulates not only the allowable categories of
expense but the amounts to be contained in each as well.
Modifying the budget is such a bureaucratic
bog that if a shelter runs out of money in
one category but has a surplus of funds in
another, then it may be forced to return
funds to the city at the end of the 6fiscal
year due to HRA's bungled budgeting.
Lastly,
the agency
sets the salaries for shelter staff,
most standards are startlingly low.
Survival Space,
for example,
which by
Counselors at Women's
receive an annual
salary of $11,000
to $12,000.7
Thus,
reliance on HRA funding
has significantly altered the
nature and scope of battered women's shelter programs
York City.
in
New
Shelters, once created and run on the principal that
battered women need an environment of healing and empowerment,
now find such goals in
frequent conflict with bureaucratic
funding requirements.
Nor is
over the past decade,
New York City's experience unique:
battered women's programs have undergone
constant transformation,
resulting
in
the continuing redefini-
tion of the battered women problem.
In
the early seventies,
media and public attention.
wife beating generated considerable
This spawned the development of a
multi-faceted social movement which sought to define the
parameters of the problem and to promote specific intervention
strategies for its remedy.
An early product of these efforts
was the establishment of shelters,
or safe places within local
communities where battered women could seek refuge.
Government
recognition and funding of battered women's programs
in
the
mid-seventies signalled an important shift in the nature of
these shelter programs.
Funding sources formally specified the
nature of the clientele to be served,
shelter,
the composition of the
the membership of the board of directors,
the nature of
the record-keeping required, and the nature of the services
rendered.
Receiving
monies from official
sources came with
significant strings attached and effectively changed existing
programs.
In this paper, I will attempt to trace the substance and
direction of these changes,
as well as their effect on the
continuing redefinition of the battered women problem.
In
Chapter 2, I examine the emergence of the wife abuse issue in
the 1960s.
I will demonstrate how heightened awareness at the
community level,
combined with the growing
segments of the professional
initial hearing and response.
community,
interest of informed
gave the issue its
Emergency shelters were created
in response to the demands generated within these two
communities.
recognition:
In Chapter 3, I take up the issue of official
when and by what avenues
who the principal
it
occurred,
This section
actors were.
is
as well
as
devoted to
surveying the range of government responses to the problem of
battered women.
in
attracting
In Chapter 4, I examine the role of the media
official
between agency officials
recognition and in
and movement members.
address the incentives to the media in
covering
Specifically, I
the wife abuse
the problem,
the role of the media
in
defining
effects of media involvement
in
shaping the outcome.
issue,
in
Chapter 5,
exchanges
facilitating
having surveyed the range of official
and the
Finally,
responses to
the problem, I will attempt to analyze their structure.
section,
I will
In
explore the patterns of interaction and
negotiation which developed as a consequence of official
recognition,
as well as the incentives which influenced the
actions of both agency sponsors and shelter leaders.
this
ENDNOTES
1.
D. Berg and P. McAllister, "Any Port in
City Limits (April, 1985) p. 17.
2.
Ibid.
3.
Personal interview with Robert Trobe,
for Family and Adult Services,
trator
4.
D. Berg and P.
5.
Additionally, this was confirmed
Ibid.
interview with Mary Haviland.
6.
Ibid.
7.
Ibid.
McAllister,
op.
cit.,
a Domestic Storm,"
The Deputy AdminisHRA.
p.
17.
in
a telephone
II.
The "Discovery" of Battered Women
A confluence of social movements occurred in
which gave the battered women's issue its
particular expression.
these movements
Beginning with the civil rights activists,
challenged
the 1960s
the validity of commonly held notions and beliefs.
The anti-war and student movements crystallized debate over the
nature and quality of American political life
questions regarding
by raising new
the assumptions and practices of public and
In particular, the women's movementl
private institutions.
sought to open up new issues to public debate such as de jure
and de facto sex discrimination,
"The personal
is
sex roles,
political," a slogan
and the family.
2
indicative of the
ideology of a large sector of the women's movement, rejected the
notion that certain subjects were isolated, individual problems
or taboo topics.
Increasingly, the events of women's lives came
under public scrutiny as they became
discussion and analysis.
A sense of experimentation, discovery,
and commonality took hold among
women across the country.
Even
women's magazines such as "Family Circle" began
traditional
publishing
important subjects for
articles
health issues.
on day care,
working women,
and women's
3
An outgrowth of this activity was the anti-rape movement.
Again,
women sought to draw upon and politicize their personal
experiences.
major cities
"Speak outs" were devised and employed in several
to galvanize public recognition of the problem and
to counteract prevailing
defenseless victims.
stereotypes of women as weak,
In many areas,
feminist organizations
responded by establishing local rape crisis lines and advocacy
services for victims of sexual assault.
Not surprisingly,
women took advantage of these services as well,
other
among them many
As abused women began identifying themselves as
battered women.
in need of emergency shelter and assistance, the magnitude of
the phenomenon became evident.
Research
in
the area of child abuse and neglect
parallelled this general
the incidence,
1960s witnessed a spate of research documenting
prevalence,
and severity of child abuse and neglect
United States.
Out of this growing
term "battered child syndrome"
social
connection
in
the
though
to suggest the dramatic,
By the late
and researchers began to establish a
scientists
between child abuse and wife abuse,
documented by the National
4
when findings
Center for Child Abuse and Neglect
revealed that approximately
(NCCAN)
in
body of work was coined the
not necessarily systemic, nature of the problem.
1970s,
The late
interest in women's issues.
39 percent of all
children
the child abuse programs under study came from families
in
5
which the mother, too, was abused.
Activities in
both these areas -- rape and child abuse--
lent ballast to feminist groups in their efforts to force
discussion of violence and power within the family.
dynamics of familial
interaction,
The
particularly the use of force
within the family, increasingly came under public scrutiny.
With the help of research conducted by Gelles,
Strauss,
6
among others,
Steinmetz and
the issue of wife abuse slowly emerged
from behind the matrimonial
door into the domain of sociologists
12
scientists.
and social
This research played a crucial role in documenting and
the battered woman problem as a "real"
validating
time,
the first
statistics
problem.
on the incidence and prevalence
For
of
It was
wife beating became available and proliferated.
estimated that between 1.8 and 3.3 million women experienced
intra-spousal
violence of some form every year;
7
approximately
four was estimated to be pregnant at the time the
one in
9
Indeed, it appeared that spousal abuse
violence occurred. 8
constituted the one truly democratic institution of our time,
cutting
across racial,
lines. 1 0
religious, age,
and socioeconomic
In sum, this range of activities served to create a
climate in
which the issue could be identified and subsequently
legitimated as a matter of public concern.
Providing a backdrop for these statistics was the
emergence of small, grass roots shelter projects in the United
States and abroad.
Local women's groups created alternative
institutions for battered women "outside the system" in response
to the demands generated within their communities.
11
The first
shelter to gain widespread publicity and recognition was the
Chiswick Women's Aid,
established in
London,
England,
in
1971.
Its charismatic leader and co-founder, Erin Pizzey, later wrote
a book entitled "Scream Quietly or the Neighbors Will Hear,"
dramatizing
the plight of abused wives and drawing attention to
the lack of official
response to the problem.
12
Based on a
series of television programs bearing the same name, and
garnered a great deal of publicity for Chiswick Women's Aid and
made her the shelter movement's first
media star.
This earned her the disdain of many coworkers and
who broke away from Chiswick Women's Aid to form the
followers,
National
(NWAF).
Women's Aid Federation
of shelters sponsored by NWAF in
13
the number
By 1980,
England grew to 150; these
served primarily poor and working class women and their
children.
14
Due to the persistence of both the NWAF and Pizzey,
the British Parliament established two committees in
examine the issue of wife abuse,
granting
and in
1976 it
1974 to
passed a law
broader protection to battered wives.15
The concept of providing
supportive refuge for abused
women and their children crossed the Atlantic and took hold in
the United States.
Al-Anon groups,
The earliest shelters,
evolved from
however,
the families
self-help groups designed to assist
rather than feminist consciousness-raising
of alcoholics,
Rainbow Retreat and Haven House, 1 7 widely cited as
efforts. 1 6
the first shelters catering to battered womenin the U.S., opened
their doors in
1973 and 1974 respectively.
Both shelters were
established to provide refuge and assistance to the families of
alcoholics and refused women access in
cases where alcoholism
did not constitute an important ingredient of the domestic
problem.
In
their
cause of battery,
identification of alcoholism as the root
as opposed to an excuse for it,1
8
these early
shelters differed significantly from their feminist successors.
The media image of shelters for battered women ties
them to the
feminist movement,
shelters.
U.S.
earliest
the
but such connections did not exist in
Women's House in
St.
Paul,
Minnesota,
offers the first
example of a shelter established with the specific purpose of
providing refuge and assistance to battered women and their
children. 1 9
roots lay in
Its
of a local women's group calling
1971,
In
Women's Advocates.
itself
the county
phone line in
Women's Advocates set up a crisis
legal assistance office to provide generic crisis
the women of St.
efforts
the consciousness-raising
to
counselling
Before long, they were confronted with
Paul.
the inadequacy and inefficiency of existing legal provisions
for
ensuring the safety and protection of victims of wife abuse.
Women lodging complaints through formal channels often possessed
no other alternative but to remain at home while going through
the procedures
for filing a complaint or petitioning
marriage dissolution.
for
As in many other states, the fact that
their lives may have been in
danger evoked no official
response.20
The lack of official
combined with a growing
prompted Women's Advocates to
of unmet need,
perception
response,
incorporate as a nonprofit corporation
local
1972.
Initially,
volunteers housed the victims and their children in
Then
own homes.
House to open its
the first
in
in
in
1974,
doors.
21
local funding
sources enabled Women's
The significance of Women's House as
feminist shelter rests on the fact that its
creating
their
experience
an alternative solution to the problem of wife abuse
was not unique.
Its success presaged the emergence of similar
15
grass roots feminist responses to what was
increasingly
perceived as an unmet need.
feminist
Following the lead of local women's groups,
organizations began focusing on the issue of wife abuse in the
mid-1970s.
Tribunal
1976.
At the international
level,
the International
Brussels in
on Crimes Against Women was convened in
Attended by over 2,000 women from 33 countries, the
Tribunal
successfully passed a resolution calling on the
governments of nations worldwide to "combat the crime of woman
battering" and to "recognize the existence and extent of this
problem and accept
effective legal
international
the need for refuges,
financial
and
aid,
The resolution's
protection for these women."22
scope of demand constituted an important "claim of
power."23
Setting the stage on the national
scene,
the National
Organization for Women (NOW) established the National Task
Force on Battered Women/Household Violence at
conference
in
October of 1975.
Its
objectives
its
eighth annual
(1)
included:
launching an education program to increase public awareness of
the prevalence
of marital
violence;
other women's organizations;
legislation. 2 4
and (3)
(2)
forming coalitions with
lobbying for remedial
By 1977, one of the NOW Task Force's
coordinators, Del Martin, came out with the influential
"Battered Wives."
Year Conference
2 5
in
book
Later that same year the National Women's
Houston,
Texas,
action on the issue at the federal,
Because NOW views itself
passed a resolution
state,
urging
and local levels.
essentially as a political change
it
organization,
directed
its
efforts towards the macrolevel.
rather than the micro-individual,
societal,
This meant
that it was concerned less with the direct provision of services
and more with the transformation of deep-seated attitudes and
expectations regarding
society.
in
women's position
efforts at the national level,
Paralleling
were statewide
activities.
In 1975, a New York conference on battered women
took place.
Maria Roy,
(AWAIC),
went on to found Abused Women's Aid
later
conference,
service organization
'a social
immediate crisis
in
Crisis
established to provide
services to the victims of domestic violence.
These included telephone counselling
general
of the
a social worker and organizer
intervention,
and crisis
information and referrals to shelters,
and community
outreach. 2 6 Since its inception, AWAIC has proven successful
gaining
media attention,
in
creating and operating a shelter for
battered women, and aiding the passage of state legislation
affecting
the provision of services to battered women.
This coalescing of events at the international, national,
and state levels gained momentum from local
Beginning
in
1976,
as well.
initiatives
New York City NOW chapters began
forming
their own domestic violence task forces, as did other local
chapters. 2 7
Moreover, the number of community organizations
established to provide crisis
shelter and services to the
victims of wife abuse continued to grow.
community-based groups of concerned
Most began as
individuals whose members
were almost exclusively women and frequently
problem through their professions.
familiar with the
Estimates of the number of organizations providing
services to battered women vary,
accounts the figure
but by all
has risen dramatically over 'the years.
In
1975,
perhaps a dozen
shelters or other programs provided assistance to these
28
victims.
By the end of 1977,
a survey conducted by the
Colorado Association for Aid to Battered Women located 79
shelters and 116 other programs serving women victims.
U.S.
29
The
Commission on Civil Rights identified 300 shelters,
hotlines, and advocacy groups for battered women nationwide in
1978.
And in
1979,
U.S.
News and World Report reported that
over 170 shelters opened in the U.S. between 1975 and 1978.30
Funding sources for shelter and direct service provision
comprise a patchwork of public and private
as federal, state, and local agencies.
and traditional
They range from churches
women's organizations such as the YWCA to the
federal government,
Administration
institutions as well
especially the Law Enforcement
and the Department of Labor,
(LEAA)
Comprehensive Employment Training Act
(CETA).
Assistance
through the
Mapping the
terrain between these two points are such diverse funding
sources as state and city government,
voluntary organizations,
Way,
and individual
private
foundations,
local
fund-raising campaigns like the United
fund-raising campaigns.
Staff salaries and
housing expenses make the operation of shelters a costly
venture;
as a result,
there is
a constant focus on fund-raising
efforts.
Independent operations established to serve the needs of
battered women and their children have gradually supplanted
earlier multi-institutional
in
approaches
to the problem.
including rape
the past a wide array of related services
crisis
mental
centers,
Whereas
and support groups for
health hotlines,
the families of alcoholics were employed to treat victims of
domestic violence,
today independently operated battered women's
The reasons for this,
organizations are the norm.
the increased recognition of wife beating
in
can be found
I believe,
social problem and the involvement
of professionals
as a
the
in
provision of services.
What I have attempted to demonstrate in this chapter is
that the issue of wife beating was taken up in
communities before reaching
professional
government. 3 1
the lay and
the attention of
Heightened awareness at the level of the mass
public, combined with the growing
interest of informed segments
of the public which were able to promote a particular expert
view of the problem,
Moreover,
gave the issue its
hearing.
initial
3 2
the creation of emergency shelters and other
alternative
institutions by local women's groups emerged as
concrete expressions of the demands being generated within these
two communities.
Thus,
initial
consideration
well as the remedies generated for its
legitimacy before reaching
following chapter,
solution,
the governmental
actors were.
occurred,
as
gained popular
agenda.
I take up the issue of official
when and by what avenues it
principal
of the problem,
In the
recognition:
as well as who the
ENDNOTES
1.
A social history of the development of the women's movement
relationship to the civil rights and new left
and its
movements of the sixties can be found in Sara Evans,
A
Personal Politics (New York: Vintage Books, 1980).
as
emerged
movements
and
problems
discussion of how social
provided
is
movement
women's
"by-products" of the sixties'
A By-product of the
in V. Rose, "Rape as a Social Problem:
pp. 75-897 and
(1977)
25
Problems
Social
Movement,"
Feminist
A Review of the
Richard Gelles, "Violence in the Family:
Research in the Seventies," Journal of Marriage and the
Family 42 (1980) pp. 873-95.
2.
For a discussion of why the women's movement focussed on the
issue of the family, see Barbara Easton, "Feminism and the
Contemporary Family," Socialist Review (June, 1978) pp.
For an account of the impact of the women's movement
11-36.
on national policy formation, see Jo Freeman,
McKay
The Politics of Women's Liberation (New York:
Publisher, 1975).
3.
The function of traditional women's magazines as social
barometers of women's position in society is discussed in
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: Norton,
1964) Chapter 2.
4.
For a discussion of the importance of child abuse research
and legislation as an "agenda leader" for issues related to
domestic violence, see Barbara Nelson, Making an Issue of
Child Abuse: Political Agenda Setting for Social Problems
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984) Chapter 6.
5.
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Science and
Technology, Subcommittee on Domestic and International
Scientific Planning, Analysis, and Cooperation, Research
into Violent Behavior: Domestic Violence Hearings
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978)
(Washington, D.C.:
pp. 51-71.
6.
S.K. Steinmetz and M.A. Straus, eds.,
See, for example:
Dodd, Mead, 1975); and R.
(New York:
Family
the
in
Violence
Physical Aggression
of
Study
A
Home:
Violent
The
Gelles,
Sage
Hills:
(Beverly
Wives
and
Husbands
between
Publications, 1974).
7.
were taken from the National Violence
These statistics
See U.S. House of
Survey, conducted in 1976.
Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology
pp. 72-77.
Hearings, op. cit.,
8.
Ibid.
9.
I use the term "spouse abuse" because it is widely accepted
and used in the literature. However, its use should not
imply that battering has become an equally "male" problem.
The evidence suggests that battering remains overwhelmingly
On this subject, see R. Gelles, "The
a woman's problem.
Ms. (October, 1979) pp. 65-72.
Hustbands,
Myth of Battered
10.
At one level, emphasizing the "classlessness" of wife
the movement's growing awareness of how
beating reflects
At another level,
heterogeneous the problem really is.
increasing acknowledgement of violence in middle-class
homes is, at least in part, due to movement work. And at
another level, arguing that social class is not a
still
major factor in wife beating is part of a larger effort to
create a new image of the battered woman as the "typical"
woman, and thus deserving of support.
11.
M.H. Field and H.F. Field, "Marital Violence and the
Criminal Process: Neither Justice nor Peace," Social
Science Review 47 (1973) pp. 221-240.
12.
Erin Pizzey, Scream Quietly or the Neighbors Will
(London: If Books, 1974).
13.
One source of conflict among Pizzey, Sutton (the leader of
the NWAF), and their respective followers concerned the
relationship between the shelter movement and the women's
liberation movement. For an account of these early
developments, see J.M. Johnson, "Program Enterprise and
Official Cooptation in The Battered Women's Shelter
Movement," American Behavioral Scientist 24 (1981) pp.
827-8417 and J. Sutton, "The Growth of the British Movement
For
for Battered Women," Victimology 2 (1978) pp. 576-584.
a general discusison of the role of media in establishing
group identity and legitimacy, see Edie Goldenberg,
Lexington Books, 1975)
Making the Papers (Lexington:
1.
Chapter
14.
"Report from the Select Committee on Violence in
cited in Johnson, op. cit.,
H.C. 553-i (1974-75),
15.
pp. 829-8307 Kathleen J. Tierney, "The
Johnson, op. cit.,
Battered Women Movement and Creation of the Wife Beating
Problem," Social Problems 29 (February, 1982) p. 207; and
Marlena Studer, "Wife Beating as a Social Problem,"
International Journal of Women's Studies 7 (1984) p. 417.
16.
Rainbow Retreat was opened in Phoenix,
House in Pasadena, California.
17.
This distinction between "alcohol as an excuse for violence
and "alcohol as the sole reason for abuse" was made by the
See, for example,
research community in the early 1970's.
of
Physical
Study
A
Home:
Violent
The
R.J. Gelles,
Aggression between Husbands and Wives, op. cit.
Hear
Marriage,"
p. 829.
Arizona and Haven
21
19.
Johnson, op. cit., p. 830; Tierney, op. cit., pp. 207-2087
and Studer, op. cit., p. 418.
20.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,
Public Policy (Washington, D.C.:
Rights, 1978).
21.
A discussion of the importance of national media attention
to Women's House is provided in Del Martin, Battered Wives
(San Francisco: Glide Publications, 1977) pp. 197-208.
22.
D.E.H. Russell,
23.
M. Spector and J. Kitsuse, "Social Problems: A
Reformulation," Social Problems 21 (1973) pp. 145-158.
24.
Martin, op. cit.
25.
Ibid.
26.
M. Roy, Battered Women: A Psychosociological Study of
Domestic Violence (New York: Von Nostrand Reinhold, 1977).
27.
Tierney, op. cit., p. 208.
28.
Additionally,
p. 830.
Johnson, op. cit.,
assistance.
of
cited 20 sources
29.
65 shelters in 26 states
Johnson, ibid. Davidson listed
and the District of Columbia in Conjugal Crime: Understanding and Changing the Wife Beating Pattern (New York:
Hawthorn Books, 1978).
30.
U.S. News and World Report, "Battered Families:
Nightmare" (January 15, 1979) pp. 60-61.
31.
In her discussion of theoretical approaches to agenda
setting, Barbara Nelson preserves Roger Cobb and Charles
Elder's distinction between systemic and formal agendas,
the former consisting of "all issues that are commonly
perceived by members of the political community as meriting
public attention and as involving matters within the
legitimate jurisdiction of existing governmental
focussing on "that set of items
authority," and the latter
and serious consideration of
active
the
for
up
explicitly
authoritative decision makers" [R. Cobb and C. Elder,
Participation in American Politics: The Dynamics of
American Agenda-Building (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc.,
1972) pp. 85-86]. However, she substitutes two expressions
for the somewhat undifferentiated concept of "systemic
agenda," which I found useful for purposes of this
They are "popular agenda" and "professional
analysis.
agenda," denoting awareness on the part of the mass public
Battered Women: Issues of
U.S. Commission on Civil
"Introduction," Battered Wives, op. cit.
in
1976,
Ms.
A Growing
22
and awareness among those members of the publ ic informed
about a given issue who may promote a particular expert
view of the problem, respectively (Nelson, op. cit.,
Chapter 2).
32.
Cobb and Elder, op. cit., Chapter 6. The authors argue
persuasively that there is never a single, undifferentiated
public: rather, a public is always specific to a given
issue or situation. Thus, the public is defined by the
subject matter at hand and is subject to change in its
composition.
III.
Official
Responses to Domestic Violence
The success of early shelters
demand as well
in
procedures
as feasible alternative to existing
has played a role in
attracting
and support
official recognition
Since 1975 both state and
for battered women's programs.
federal governments have become involved in
addition to funding emergency
a clear
demonstrating
issue.
the
In
services,
shelters and crisis
they
have sought to address the problem through three major
public
information,
these include:
Broadly,
categories of activities.
research and
and
government policies and programs,
legislative change.
Research and Public Information
funded research and public
Government
information relating
At that
to issues of wife beating began in the early 1970s.
time, the federal
government disbursed monies to the National
of Mental Health
Institute
for the initiation of several
(NIMH)
family violence research projects.
Assistance Administration
Women's Policy Studies,
(LEAA)
1
The Law Enforcement
began funding
in Washington,
D.C.,
the Center for
in
allowed the Center to begin publishing Response,
1976,
a monthly
newsletter on domestic violence programs and policy.
year,
the Washington-based
publishing
Aegis,
Feminist Alliance
which
2
That same
Against Rape began
a magazine dealing with issues of violence
against women.
In
1978,
the U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights held a
national conference to examine the policy issues surrounding
wife beating. 3
Out of this effort came the establishment of a
Coalition Against Domestic Violence that same year.
National
4
The purpose of the Coalition was to collect and disseminate
Domestic Violence,
established in
the Office of
Finally,
to wife abuse.
information relating
1979 and abolished two years
later, funded a number of projects specifically for battered
women.
5
Of special importance, it published a monograph series
on how to set up programs and lobby for battered women. 6
Similar
at the state and local
initiatives
these national
level complemented
activities.
Government Policies and Programs
U.S. government agencies responded to the problem of wife
abuse in
one of two ways:
either they expanded the range of
services available under existing programs,
or they established
entirely new ones consistent with agency mandate and
orientation.
An example of both is
for domestic violence.
initiative
began channelling
several
contained in
In the late 1970's,
and dispute resolution projects such
as the Neighborhood Justice Programs,
7
however,
was to "assist
the LEAA
million dollars through the Victim
Witness Assistance Program,
violence.
the LEAA policy
to combat family
The major objective of these early programs,
in
the development,
implementation and
replication of projects designed to improve the treatment of
victims and witnesses and to increase citizen confidence
cooperation with the Criminal Justice System."
mention was made of battered women.
8
in
No specific
and
By 1979, however, the LEAA had tripled its allocation to
$1 million. 9
Agency officials publicly decried the mounting
incidence of wife abuse in
the country and announced that funds
would be targeted specifically
violence projects.
for domestic
the expanded
Formalized as the LEAA Family Violence Program,
The majority of them dealt specifically
and seventeen in 1979.
with the problem of battered women.
Other federal
involved in
or
the issue at about the same time.
their efforts rarely
services targeted specifically
violence,
11
agencies became actively
generally associated with,
However,
1978
funded fourteen family violence projects in
demonstration
10
of new
involved the initiation
for the victims of domestic
In 1978, the
as did the LEAA policy initiative.
Department of Labor instructed its
Administrators to
Regional
direct local governments to begin funding programs for battered
women under Titles I, II, and VI of the Comprehensive
Employment Training Act
shelters,
half the U.S.
(CETA).
12
By providing
CETA played a central role in
shelter expansion of the late 1970s.13
providing
staff
shelters in
support through its
1977.14
it
the
ACTION also began
VISTA program to emergency
In addition to making
through a mini-grants program,
centers in
jobs to over
some monies available
funded technical
assistance
each of the Department of Health and Human Services'
which disseminated information
(DHHS)
ten regions,
assist
battered women.
Federal
on how to
15
Title XX funds,
established in
Public Law 93-647,
provide states with funds for a wide range of discretionary
26
social services.
Among them, "protective services"1 6 are most
often used to prevent the abuse and neglect of children and
Although shelters and services for battered women
women.
frequently
service
receive Title XX funds because social
administrators at the local level view them as prime candidates
for protective services,
exists in
funding
their use.
wide inter- and intra-state variation
Other federal
agencies and programs
services for battered women included the Office on
both
Domestic Violence and Community Services administration,
abolished in 1981.
Legislative Change
and movement advocates sought legislative
Policy officials
change at both the state and federal levels.
However,
these policy debates differed from one another,
substance and scope,
policy outcomes.
both in
because
terms of
they produced significantly different
Whereas efforts at the state level aimed
mainly to broaden the scope of protection afforded battered
women under existing civil and criminal remedies,
initiatives
result,
federal
sought to establish new services and programs.
As a
different definitions of the problem engendered very
different policy responses.
The primary form of action at the state level was
legislative reform.
As of 1978, 33 states had passed or had
pending some form of domestic violence legislation.
exception of one statute passed in
1973,
17
With the
a total of 32 bills
dealing with the issue were introduced and passed by state
legislatures
1978.18
legal
from 1977 through
the two-year period extending
in
By 1980,
special
the total number of states enacting
provisions for battered women rose to 45.19
Thus,
legislative action on the issue occurred very quickly.
20
The array of amendments introduced most often focussed on
the development
and recording
practices of local agencies,
and on creating
enforcement agencies,
may continue to display reluctance
violence situations,
in
more difficult
domestic
for them
victim rights under
initiatives.
states have allocated monies for the
direct provision of services,
of the bills
for appropriating
intervening
these legislative modifications
Although several
any,
in
By clarifying
constituted important governmental
if
avenues of
and imposing penalties on assailants when
successfully charged,
Few,
or enhancing
these laws made it
to ignore the issue entirely.
statutes,
especially local law
Thus, while courts, police, and prosecutors
civil law recourse.
existing
the documentation
of mechanisms for improving
funds,
the amount remains negligible.
21
just mentioned contained mechanisms
whether it
be to battered women's
shelters and organizations or to city and county governments.
Rather,
states have attempted to modify policy,
extent local
the financial
procedure,
while making little
and to some
or no provision for
resources needed to implement state directives.
A brief synopsis of the major provisions of California's
bills serves to illuminate those policy areas most amenable to
state legislative revision during the two-year
question:
period under
*
Chapter 720 eased requirements on obtaining a temporary
restraining order by eliminating the necessity that a
before
woman have marriage dissolution papers on file
to
right
the
expanding
obtaining an order, and by
protection to cohabitants.
*
Chapter 908 provided for the separate reporting of
spousal and child abuse.
o
Chapter 912 made spousal assault a felony subject to
imprisonment for a period of time not to exceed one
year. Cohabitants were again included under this
22
definition of eligibility.
sessions have witnessed the introduction
Subsequent legislative
of additional
revisions to existing
statutes.
concern themselves primarily with specifying civil
These bills
expanding
remedies,
include:
"fine tuning"
the range of available restraining
orders to
temporary restraining orders to prevent domestic
violence,
civil
harassment restraining
orders,
and restraining
orders to accompany a divorce. 2 3
Efforts to pass legislation at the federal level have not
success.
met with equal
first
In
the 1978 congressional
major piece of domestic
introduced,
Congress.
the
violence legislation was
but failed to obtain the support of both houses of
Subsequently,
two bills
reached the floor of the
House and Senate during the 1980 congressional
were very significant,
provided.
session,
H.R.
Services Act,
Treatment Act,
2977,
and S.
both in
session which
terms of allocation and services
the Domestic Violence Prevention and
1843,
the Domestic Violence Prevention and
would have provided for a thcee-year
appropriation
of seed money for domestic violence services.
Specifically,
activities
eligible
for funding under these bills
ranged from training programs for personnel and demonstration
The two
projects to battered women's shelters and services.
for
pieces differed only with regard to the formula
allocation.
24
Subsequent to passage in both houses of Congress, the two
were sent to conference
bills
Passed by the House,
to reconcile their differences.
the conference report made it
The report did not
shortly before the November 1980 elections.
come up in
to the Senate
the Senate until after the elections,
at which time
conservative Republicans threatened to fillibuster the bill
it
reached the floor for a vote.
if
That the bill did not come up
until after the election severely hurt its
chance of passage.
Liberal defeats in the Senate combined with a seeming shift in
national
mood
25
made it
difficult to marshall
passage.
necessary to secure the bill's
of the bill's
sponsors,
So on November 17, one
Senator Alan Cranston
the proposed legislation.
the forces
(D-CA),
withdrew
26
Earlier Senate hearings on the legislation foreshadowed
its demise.
At that time,
a vocal
"pro-family" position emerged
whose views found expression in the remarks of Senator Humphrey
(R-NH),
ranking minority member of the Senate Subcommittee on
Child and Human Development.
1843,
Senator Humphrey stated:
During the Senate hearings on S.
30
Mr. President, I oppose S. 1843, the Domestic
Violence Prevention and Services Act, for a variety of
It addresses a broad and disquieting problem,
reasons.
The bill's
but that is not sufficient to recommend it.
We are not
approach is both improper and disingenuous.
or the
activites,
police
speaking here of legitimate
from
citizens
protect
to
government
of
responsibility
with
entailment
federal
considering
are
We
harm.
bodily
psychosocial techniques, and the promotion of ideas on
These are the proper concerns
conjugality and the family.
of families, churches, universities, and private groups.
The federal government has no business intruding here...
I fear that the would-be grantees under S. 1843
...
are opposed to traditional families. Sixty-four percent
of the funding under this proposal would go to sustain
What kind of
so-called "homes for battered women."
The federal
advance?
"homes"
values and ideas would these
war on
would
who
missionaries
fund
not
government should
27
values.
local
on
or
family
traditional
the
The sentiments expressed
in
this statement are quite telling.
that violence within the family exists,
While acknowledging
If
nonetheless reinforce the privatization of the phenomenon.
one were to extend the logic implicit
in
they
the view that
government support and services constitute threats to the
then the preservation of the family unit
family's existence,
would supersede the welfare and safety of its
as a major goal
of government.
Having being
sessions, it
defeated in
three prior congressional
appears unlikely that federal
legislation will
be forthcoming.
28
domestic violence
Indeed, given the demise of
the 1980 legislation and the remarks which presaged it,
might argue that wife abuse has been stricken
agenda entirely.
members
individual
one
from the public
However, as I have attempted to demonstrate in
this chapter, official recognition of the problem assumed
diverse and changing
forms.
Domestic
violence legislation
31
faltered at the federal level,
yet made considerable
state legislatures across the country.
agencies,
Moreover,
level,
principally at the federal
headway in
government
expanded the scope
of their involvement and influence in the provision of services
to battered women and their children.
government
importantly,
Lastly,
and no less
funded research served not only to
document the extent of the problem,
but to justify future
in
government policy and programs for battered women.
Having
surveyed the range of government responses to the
expansion
problem of domestic
violence,
I would now like to examine the
role the media played in constructing these responses.
precisely,
I propose to analyze the ways in
responsible for attracting
official
More
which the media were
recognition of the problem,
and how they facilitated exchanges between potential agency
sponsors and shelter leaders.
ENDNOTES
op.
cit.,
p.
419; Tierney,
op.
cit.,
pp.
209-210.
1.
Studer,
2.
Response began publication
3.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,
Public Policy, op. cit.
4.
It has been effectively argued that such "public relations"
conferences serve to dissipate movement enthusiasm and
are
energy by making it appear as though policy elites
responding to the problem when, in fact, they're not
Murray Edelman has further
(Spector et al., op. cit.).
suggested that tangible resources and benefits are
frequently not dispensed to unorganized political interests
[M. Edelman, The Symbolic Uses of Politics (Urbana:
Similarly, in his analysis
1964)].
University of Illinois,
of the relationship between protest leadership and target
groups, Michael Lipsky argues that symbolic dispensations
are granted, not only to reassure unorganized political
group interests, but to reduce the -anxiety of wider
"reference" publics as well (M. Lipsky, "Protest as a
Political Resource," American Political Science Review
Studer discusses these issues
(December 1968) p. 1155).
the shelter movement and its
of
context
the
in
others
and
p. 419).
(Studer, op. cit.,
relationship to policy elites
On the role of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
"Despite the 'niceness' of the
Conference, she concludes:
gesture,
...
in
1976.
Battered Women:
Issues of
these conferences lacked the official
authority needed to implement the demands they generated."
5.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, The Federal Response to
Domestic Violence (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights, 1982).
6.
National Clearinghouse on Domestic Violence, Domestic
Violence Monogram Series (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Office on
Domestic Violence, 1980) Numbers 1-4.
7.
D. McGillis and J. Mullen, Neighborhood Justice Centers:
An Analysis of Potential Models (Washington, D.C.: Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration,
1977).
8.
U.S. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance
Administration, Guidelines Manual M4500.IC (Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1978.
9.
New York Times, "LEAA is Tripling Funds to Battered Wives"
(September 5, 1977) p. 6.
33
10.
Ibid.
11.
Ibid.
12.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,
Public Policy, op. cit.
13.
A fascinating discussion of the role of CETA in
contributing to the moral and program enterprise of the
pp.
shelter movement can be found in Johnson, op. cit.,
833-835.
14.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,
Public Policy, op. cit.
15.
Ibid.
16.
Ibid. Barbara Nelson's discussion of how protective
custody provisions and services transformed the child abuse
legislation, changing it from a public health focus to a
child welfare focus, suggests why several states have
prohibited utilization of Title XX funds for this purpose.
Strong intervention laws, combined with a strengthened
response system, could result in increased demands on the
system as well as reconstruction of the problem (Nelson,
In the 1980 congressional session,
pp. 132-135).
op. cit.,
state discretion in
were introduced to restrict
two bills
bills--S. 1153
companion
These
the use of Title XX funds.
to
guidelines
XX
Title
amended
have
and H.R. 3434--would
shelter
for
funds
prohibit
to
right
the
deny states
Both were defeated.
activities.
17.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Battered Women:
Appendix B.
Public Policy, op. cit.,
18.
Ibid.
19.
Ibid.
20.
As with the issue of child abuse, state legislators rapidly
Two factors, in
adopted wife abuse reporting laws.
(1) reporting
particular, account for this phenomenon:
public
no-cost
display
to
laws allowed state legislators
problem
the
of
definition
rectitude, and (2) a narrow
required a simple solution, one that could easily be
adopted by state legislatures (Nelson, op. cit., pp.
132-133).
Battered Women:
Battered Women:
Issues of
Issues of
Issues of
21.
An excellent summary of state legislative activity can be
found in Response, the Center for Women's Policy Studies
See also I. Solan, Protection of
(August/September, 1980).
Abused Victims: State Laws and Decisions (London, NY:
Oceania Publications, 1982); and L. Lerman, "Protection of
Battered Women: A Survey of State Legislation," Women's
Rights Law Reporter 6 (Summer, 1980) pp. 271-283.
22.
Ibid.
23.
Enacted as California Code of Civil Procedure Sections
540-549, 527.6 and 4359.
24.
A good overview of the major provisions of these companion
bills, as well as an account of the events leading to their
eventual demise, is provided in Sandra Wexler, "Battered
Women and Public Policy," in Women, Power and Policy, Ellen
Pergamon Press, 1982).
Boneparth, ed. (New York:
25.
In his analysis of how issues are elevated to the
governmental agenda, John Kingdom discusses the role of a
"national mood" in promoting higher agenda status for some
items and pushing other items into relative obscurity
[Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies
Little, Brown and Company, 1984) pp. 153-157].
(Boston:
26.
Wexler, op. cit.
27.
Congressional Record--Senate (Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office, August 25, 1980).
28.
Kingdon argues convincingly that policy windows open
Moreover, although
infrequently and do not stay open long.
certain objective features define a policy window, such as
a change of administration, a renewal, or the imminent
collapse of a major sector of the economy, it exists in the
They perceive its
perceptions of the participants as well.
presence, they estimate the likelihood of its future
occurrence, and they sometimes misestimate or misperceive.
When the latter occurs, the opportunity may not emerge
Chapter 8).
again for a very long time (Kingdon, op. cit.,
This, I believe, is the case with domestic violence
chance
policy window has closed and its
legislation: its
for passage has faded, at least in the near future.
35
IV.
The Role of the Media
One would expect the media to play an important agenda-
setting
function because they exist at the boundary which
separates the public and private spheres.
They function as both
a barometer of and an impetus to social changej
discover,
result,
unveil,
create,
their role in
and recreate what is
transforming
their task is
As a
"public".
the battered women's
to
issue
from a source of private shame to one of public concern merits
In this chapter, I propose to address three broad
attention.
sets of questions.
in
covering
First, what were the incentives to the media
the wife abuse issue,
those incentives?
and how did coverage reflect
Secondly, what role did the media play in
issue creation, and subsequently, in issue maintenance?l
And
lastly, how did media involvement affect the outcome- in what
way did it contribute to the problem's current definition and
treatment?
Incentives to the Media
In his analysis of the nature and limitations of protest
activity,
Michael
Lipsky 2 argues that the organizational
behavior of newspapers can partly be understood and interpreted
in terms of their maintenance and enhancement needs.
These
direct them toward projects of civic betterment and impressions
of accompl ishment:
Reporters... are frequently motivated by the desire
to contribute to civic affairs by their "objective"
reporting of significant events- by the premium they
place on accuracy; and by the credit they receive
3
for sensationalism and "scoops."
It
mixed elements of violence and social
it
was controversial;
important, it provided a focal point for
Most
relevance.
family relations,
serious discussion of such issues as feminism,
and sexual
for the media.
wife beating was a good subject
By all accounts,
inequality,
without sacrificing
value on which media typically depend.
the entertainment
4
The media, in turn, was an important resource to the
battered women's movement.
By granting
and legitimacy,
wider visibility
primary functions.
First,
5
media coverage served two
heightened public awareness and
it
evoked an
it
Secondly,
for the problem of wife abuse.
concern
movement activities
array of official responses as established organizations began
to perceive new needs and potential constituencies.
activity,
combined with media attention,
which organizations already
6
Movement
created a climate
in
inclined to offer programs and
services could do so and anticipate benefits
in
return.
7
Role of the Media
Downs
8
Anthony
his formulation of the "issue-attention cycle,"
In
predicts that problems will begin to fade from public or
media attention
when their solutions imply the necessity of
economic redistribution,
or when their coverage begins to bore
an easily-bored public.
Thus,
problems reflect
a given
society.
issue,
domestic crises or social
a cycle of waxing and waning public interest
rather than change
in
the objective conditions of
He proceeded to identify three attributes or
likely to pass through an issue-attention
include:
in
cycle.
9
issues
These
(1)
The problem must be one that affects only a
minority of individuals in society;
(2)
The social arrangements responsible for
harm on this minority must also
inflicting
confer substantial benefits on powerful
in that society- and
interests
(3)
The public might ignore the issue entirely
were it not for the media's dramatic
treatment of it. 1 0
The battered women's issue clearly met these three requirements.
Moreover,
a review of New York Times coverage of the issue
revealed that media attention
formulation,
Although Downs'
time will
last
be taken up in
five-stage natural
fully sketches the overall
sustained,
an issue is
it
pattern
fails
this chapter.
history cycle success-
of how and when coverage of
to specify
its
1
task drew the attention of Barbara Nelson
agenda-setting
study of political
sought to amend Down's formulation
attention
phenomenon:
link between
of human
processes.
2
who,
in
This
her
and the case of child abuse,
in
order to explain why media
to a host of issues could be more long-lived than
previously assumed.
this
What happened before and
1978.11
at least until
point in
after this
to the issue conformed to Downs'
She advanced four factors contributing to
issue aggregation,
topic differentiation,
professional
and mass media,
interest stories.1 3
The first
the
and the growing appeal
three,
in
particular,
provide constructive analytic categories for exploring
why media
coverage of wife abuse may continue to gradually rise rather
than decline.
Topic differentation
and issue aggregation
served to reduce
and widen the scope of the problem simultaneously.
14
In
the
first
case,
media coverage of wife abuse increased as the
As the
specific types of abuse covered themselves increased.
general
1
defined "sub-problems," such as marital rape
women's syndrome, 1 6 coverage increased.
occurred,
aggregation
the problem.
5
and the battered
At the same time issue
which effectively narrowed the scope of
Like child abuse, the issue of wife abuse was
linked to issues of overarching concern,
racial,
into more narrowly
problem of wife abuse was broken down
and international
Thus, both processes acted
violence.
to sustain media interst in
battered women.
The link between professional
and mass media further
in part,
and,
facilitated
this process,
development
of topic differentiation
To a large extent,
such as familial,
accounted for the
and issue aggregation.
the mass media consistently and carefully
journals for new and interesting
monitored professional
stories.1 8
Similarly, the professional media pumped new
information
to the mass media,
cycle with a life
of its
19
so as to create a research
own.
For the battered women's
early-seventies.
this cycle began
issue,
At that time,
model
for explaining
20
According
to this view,
both batterers
and their victims suffer from personality disordersreasons for abuse remain unexamined.
the mid-seventies that social
tracing
the
endorsed by major sectors of the social
service establishment.
structural
in
research on the subject largely
conformed to the "psychopathological"
domestic violence,
17
and articulating
It
social and
wasn't until
scientists and researchers
the cultural
and legal
began
history of
patriarchy. 2 1
was argued that violence by
time it
For the first
husbands against wives should not be interpreted as a breakdown
in
that order.
functional,
but rather as a contribution to maintaining
order,
the social
Looked at in
this way,
domestic violence appeared
rather than dysfunctional,
existence of American
society.
22
to the continuing
Representative of this new
research focus was work undertaken by M.D.A.
effectively
that law and litigation
Freeman,
who argued
divert public attention away
from society's deep-seated problems to focus instead on
"individual
rights:"
The power of law is such that by framing the issue
in terms of individual rights the real problem is
obscured. With domestic violence, as we shall see,
the tendency has been to individualize the problem,
so that social and psychological analysis has been
Both have
very much in time with legal thinking.
batterers,
known
of
concentrated on a small sample
disciplines
these
of
None
deviants."
on "official
has done much to improve the overall position of
women. 23
Social and cultural
variables
in
the perpetuation of wife abuse
drew further attention when Stark and Evoy reported that one out
of every five Americans approves of slapping
"appropriate occasions,"
one's spouse on
and that the figure rises with income
24
and education.
Newspaper coverage reflected a similar cycle of mounting
and changing
interest in
the issue of wife abuse.
A review of
the New York Times Index revealed that this form of media
displayed relatively little
mid-seventies.
I checked the following
references between
divorce,
interest in
wife abuse prior to the
subject headings for
1970 and 1978: assaults,
domestic relations,
battered wives,
families and family life,
marriage,
40
violence, and women.
Between 1970 and 1972, not a single
as a social or community problem
reference to wife beating
appeared.
News reports of assaults -and murders in
which the
victim was incidentally identified as married to or cohabiting
with her assailant offered the only testimony to the existence
of domestic violence for that period.
Times reported a new statistic
domestic
1974,
In 1973, the New York
linking police intervention
in
then
in
"disputes" with increased police fatalities;
appeared which noted that New York City police
an article
discouraged battered women from pressing charges.
appeared in
number of five articles
by members of the criminal
of cooperation
in
processing
1975:
wife abuse cases;
A record
three dealt with lack
justice establishment
one reported a conference
on
battered women; and another described a NOW march in protest of
violence against women.
More intensive coverage began
appeared.
in
1976,
when seven articles
For the first time, media coverage extended to
battered women's shelters and other innovative approaches
addressing the problem.
class-action
suit,
to
Moreover, extensive coverage of the
filed by the Litigation Coalition for
Battered Women against the New York City Police Department and
Family Court
in
1976,
brought to public light the charge that
government agencies were remiss in extending
to battered women
and their children the same range of protections and rights
constitutionally guaranteed other citizens. 2 5
references appeared in
Forty-four
1977 to such topics as crisis
new and proposed legislation,
newly opened shelters,
hotlines,
public
41
of battered women who
hearings and conferences,
and trials
killed their assailants.
In 1978, nineteen references appeared,
and for the first
separate topic.
time,
as a
"battered wives" was listed
This evidence suggests that the New York Times
had ceased viewing events involving wife abuse as disparate
occurrences and had begun viewing and construing
elements
in
them as
a common theme.
A similar pattern can be traced for the same period of time
in
popular magazine coverage.
domestic
violence meant riots
Prior to the mid-seventies,
and terrorism as far as mass
circulation periodicals were concerned.
26
sketchy piece on Chiswick Women's Aid in
Newsweek ran a
and in
1973,
followed up with one devoted to the same topic.
the Ms articled appeared,
issue of wife beating.
covering
important shift
wife abuse.
Mademoiselle,
Good
and Science Digest to name a few.
The demise of federal
an
A month after
By 1978, the range of popular journals
the issue expanded to include Vogue,
Housekeeping,
Ms
ran one on the
Home Journal
Ladies'
1974,
in
violence legislation seemed to signal
research content and focus in
the area of
In both the professional and mass media, topic
differentiation greatly increased.
This had the dual effect of
sustaining media and public interest in the issue, while at the
same time substantially changing
been more evident than
in
it.
Nowhere has this trend
the recent expansion of media coverage
of the battered women's syndrome.
An examination of the
importance of this issue in giving
the wife beating
problem its
contemporary expression highlights the role of the media
in
its future.
determining
Effects of Media
In
the landmark case,
United States,
Ibn-Tamas v.
27
the
District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled that under certain
circumstances,
a battered woman defendant charged with killing
her husband may introduce expert testimony on the battered
women's syndrome which is
defense.
28
relevant to her claim of self
as explained by Dr.
Battered women's syndrome,
Lenore Walker,
29
in
a pioneer psychologist
two sets of related phenomena:
the field, refers to
involving
the first
relationship,
the
and the second
different
stages of a battering
involving
the effects of these stages on the battered woman.
the stages include:
Briefly,
Dr.
(1)
a tension building stage in which minor incidents
of verbal and physical abuse occur;
(2)
a violent battering stage in which the woman
frequently seriously hurt; and
(3)
a compassionate stage in which the man begs
forgiveness, swears his love and gromises
never to strike the woman again.
is
Walker has found that the repetition of this pattern causes
the woman
to develop certain learned reactions to abuse,
culminating
in
"learned helplessness."
3
1
At this stage,
the
woman believes that nothing remains to alter her situation;
fate is
An
women's
her
inevitable.
important question regarding
the acceptance of battered
syndrome as a legal defense concerns the admissibility
of expert testimony.
Courts have traditionally
limited the use
of such testimony on the grounds that such evidence would usurp
the jury's role in
evidence. 3 2
forming an opinion based upon
the facts in
social scientists and writers have argued
However,
that popular myths and prejudices may bias the average layperson
so that he or she is
ending
likely to fault the defendant
the relationship earlier.
33
for not
they have
Additionally,
suggested that expert testimony can help jurors understand why
4
the battered woman defendant acted as she did. 3
the issue,
To settle
general,
three-pronged
United States:
most courts have referred to the
test developed by the court
Dyas v.
in
35
(1)
The subject matter must be so distinctively
related to some science, profession,
business or occupation as to be beyond the
ken of the layman;
(2)
The witness must have sufficient skill or
experience in the field to make it appear
that his opinion or inference will probably
aid the trier in the search for truth-
(3)
The state of the pertinent art or scientific
knowledge must permit a reasonable opinion
to be asserted by an expert. 3 6
hotly debated in
Although still
courts throughout the country,
these guidelines continue to provide the framework for
discussion
of the issue.
media interest in
Clearly,
has played a role in
women problem.
both an
sustaining
the battered women's
public
interest
in
syndrome
the battered
In significant ways, media coverage acted as
impetus to,
has been its
overall
wife abuse?
Can it
and product of,
effect
in
government action.
But what
setting the public agenda for
be characterized
as good or bad?
And what,
if any, were its contributions to the battered women's movement
of the 1970's?
First,
it seems apparent that sustained media interest in
the issue has come at the price of change in its substance and
of its
The mass "appeal"
focus.
earlier construction has given
one that
way to a new definition of wife abuse,
consequences of this shift in
fall
beneficial
The precedent-setting
and possibly unintended
definition as well.
under two broad categories:
at once
However, it is
"professionalized" and "individualized".
possible to note potentially
is
These
short- and long-range outcomes.
effect of allowing
the introduction
of expert testimony on battered women's syndrome could have farreaching and long-term implications.
that emergency
Whereas
it
has been argued
shelters have been used by funding agencies to
divert wife abuse cases from the criminal
justice system,
the
acceptance of battered women's syndrome testimony as relevant
to
a plea of self defense effectively channels them into it.
the numbers are small and the distribution skewed,
Admittedly,
but the effect may be quite large.
In his analysis of the processes by which society ascribes
to others,
"victim status" to some individuals and denies it
David Meirs
3 7
discusses the factors which affect the way in
which individual
sufferers or those acting on their behalf
manage and present their suffering
response from society.
process
a favorable
so as to elicit
A very important dimension of this
involves the "negotiation of suffering"
in
formal
settings such as courtrooms with relevant professional
observers.38
45
the significance of these conventions and
...
their negotiation is that we base decisions to
allocate resources upon their outcome. When we
respond sympathetically to suffering, we make
available to the individual those resources -financial, emotional, organizational, material -which we have allocated or are prepared to
allocate to the alleviation of that particular
instance of suffering or to the removal or
In other words, a
minimization of its cause.
sympathetic response gives the individual a
legitimate claim upon our resources, whereas
rejection denies access to them and may even
prompt the invocation of sanctions against
him.39
The success of the battered women's syndrome
to the court room could cesult
in
in gaining entree
future gains for battered
women in general.
In addition,
short-run benefits seem likely as a result of
the introduction of battered women's syndrome testimony.
Media
coverage of cases where battered women "take the law into their
own hands"
their assailants could have a "chilling
and kill
effect" on other men who batter.
In her study of the changing
patterns of regulations of wife abuse in
twentieth centuries,
perogative
Elizabeth Pleck 4
0
the nineteenth and
noted that the male
to discipline other men was successfully ensured
despite changes in
the manner of regulation:
... the abusive husband in both the past and the
present has been largely deterred, punished, and
judged by males acting in the name of the community,
who have set the standards for proper behavior and
Our
determined the kinds of sanctions to be used.
modern-day regulators, like those of the nineteenth
century, are mostly men, whose standards of justice
are embedded in notions about proper definitions of
manhood and womanhood and concepts of moral purity.
Men, acting for the community, whether they be
judges, churchmen, or vigilantes, have reserved the
41
right to regulate the behavior of other men.
46
The legal admission
of battered women's syndrome testimony may
actually serve the very different purpose of empowering
the
victims of wife abuse.
Having
surveyed the range of government responses to the
problem of domestic violence in
of the media in
Chapter
3,
and analyzed the role
facilitating and shaping these responses
Chapter 4, I turn now to examining their structure.
cally,
I hope to address two major questions.
in
Specifi-
What were the
patterns of interaction and negotiation which developed as a
consequence of official recognition?
And what incentives
influenced the actions of agency sponsors and shelter leaders?
ENDNOTES
1.
"Issue creation" refers to the process by which an issue
reaches a substantive decision point, whereas "issue
maintenance" describes the process by which an established
issue is periodically re-examined.
2.
Lipsky, op. cit., pp. 1151-1153.
3.
Lipsky, op. cit., p. 1152.
4.
Anthony Downs, "Up and Down with Ecology: The IssueAttention Cycle," Public Interest 23 (1972) pp. 38-50.
Downs argues that news must be dramatic and exciting to
maintain public interest because news is consumed by much
of the American public largely as a form of entertainment
(p. 42).
5.
Edie Goldenberg argues that news coverage is used by
and status, in expanding the
groups in gaining visibility
scope of conflict, in activating third parties on their
behalf, and in gaining a hearing in the political process
Similarly, Michael
Chapter 1).
(E. Goldenberg, op. cit.,
Lipsky emphasizes the importance of receiving publicity
outside the immediate arena of activity to protest groups
p 1151).
(M. Lipsky, op. cit.,
6.
Levine and White,
7.
An interesting discussion of movement-media symbiosis can
The
be found in Todd Gitlin, The Whole World is Watching:
Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980).
8.
A. Downs, op. cit.
9.
(1) a pre-problem stage where the
The cycle includes:
objective conditions are severe and pervasive, but
unnoticed by the wider public- (2) a problem stage,
characterized by "alarmed discovery and euphoric
enthusiasm," when the public and media take notice of the
condition; (3) a stage of more sober realization that
significant progress will be costly; (4) a state of
gradually declining public interest in the issue; and (5)
a post-problem stage in which whatever response has been
by government becomes institutionalized (A.
initiated
cit.).
op.
Downs,
10.
A.
Downs,
op.
cit.,
op.
cit.
pp.
41-43.
48
11.
I checked the following subject headings in the New York
Times Index for reference to the subject of battered
women: assaults, battered wives, divorce, domestic
marriage, violence,
relations, families and family life,
and women.
12.
B.
13.
Ibid, p. 56.
14.
Ibid.
15.
See, for example, T. Bearrows, "Abolishing the Marital
A Statutory Proposal," University of
Exemption for Rape:
Illinois Law Review (Winter, 1983) pp. 201-228; and "The
Question of Marital Rape," Women's Studies International
Forum 6 (1983) pp. 383-393.
16.
See, for example, B. Girdner, "Justices Balk at Battered
Wife Syndrome," Los Angeles Daily Journal 97 (November 23,
1984) p. 3- "New Jersey High Court Allows Expert to
Testify on Battered Women," New York Law Journal 12 (July
25, 1984) p. 1 and D. Margolick, "Use of Experts in
Battering is Upheld in Women's Trials," New York Times 133
(July 25, 1984) p. 1.
17.
B.
18.
Ibid.
19.
Ibid.
20.
R. Gelles, "Violence in the Familyin the Seventies," op. cit.
21.
A Recurring
See, for example, T. Davidson, "Wife Beating:
and
cit.;
op.
Roy,
M.
in
Phenomenon Throughout History,"
Nostrand
Van
York:
(New
Violence
M.F. Hirsch, Women and
Reinhold, 1981).
22.
M.D.A. Freeman, "Legal Systems, Patriarchal Ideologies,
A Case Study of the English Legal
and Domestic Violence:
Deviance, and Social Control 4
Law,
in
Research
System,"
(1982) p. 131-161.
23.
Ibid,
24.
R. Stark and J. McEvoy, "Middle Class Violence,"
Psychology Today (November, 1980) pp. 52-65.
25.
Bruno v.
Nelson,
Nelson,
p.
op.
op.
cit.,
cit.,
Chapter 4.
pp.
57-65.
A Review of Research
140.
Codd,
396 N.Y.S.
2d.
974,
1977.
49
Davidson,
op.
cit.
26.
T.
27.
40 A. 2d, p. 626 (D.C. 1979).
28.
407 A. 2d, pp. 634-635.
29.
Lenore Walker, The Battered Woman Syndrome
Springer Publishing Company, 1984).
30.
Ibid.
31.
Ibid.
32.
C. McCormick, McCormick's Handbook of the Law of Evidence
11 (E. McCleary, 2d ed., 1972).
33.
Lewin, "Battered Women and the Doctrine of Self-Defense: A
Re-evaluation of the Meaning of Deadly Force," Student Law
8 (1980) pp. 10-11.
34.
Rebecca A. Kultgen, "Battered Women's Syndrome:
Admissibility of Expert Testimony for the Defense,"
Missouri Law Review (Fall, 1982) pp. 835-848.
35.
Dyas v.
36.
Ibid. Different states' rulings on the qualifications
governing the admissibility of expert testimony are
discussed in A. Thar, "The Admissibility of Expert
An Evidentiary
Testimony on Battered Wife Syndrome:
Review 77 (October,
Law
Analysis," Northwestern University
1982) pp. 348-373.
37.
D. Meirs, "Victim Compensation
Victimology 5 (1980) pp. 3-16.
38.
Ibid, p. 7.
39.
Ibid.
40.
E. Pleck, "Wife Beating in Nineteenth Century America,"
pp. 60-74.
Victimology 4 (1979),
41.
Ibid,
United States,
p.
74.
376 A.
2d (D.C.
App.
(New York:
1977).
as a Labelling
Process,"
50
V.
The Effects of Government
Funding
Shelters spread rapidly in the United States in the latter
As I have argued, the success of these
half of the 1970s.
shelters
earlier
services as well
institutional
official
demonstrating a clear demand for their
in
as a feasible alternative to existing
arrangements played a major role
However,
the reaction to official
shelter leaders and activists
underlying
support by
philosophies and political goals.
movements,
the shelter movement
social
displayed a remarkable degree of diversity in
Some authors have argued that this diversity
composition.
in greater adaptability to local and environmental
conditions.
1
As has been demonstrated,
from the activities
later
programs
on their
varied depending
Unlike many other social
resulted
attracting
and support for battered womens'
recognition
and services.
in
early shelters emerged
of Al-Anon and similar self-help groups,
ones were sponsored by local churches,
women's associations,
Similarly,
but
professional
and Junior Chambers of Commerce.
national and local
feminist groups began emphasizing
shelter sponsorship after 19757
further
these activities
spurred
shelter expansion by consciousness-raising groups, rape crisis
centers,
result,
and women's health collectives,
different
the organization
and frequently conflicting
ideologies
As a
informed
and operation of battered women's shelters.
These organizational,
significant
to name a few.
program and policy differences had a
impact on how they viewed official
support.
Not unlike the feminist movement,
along traditional
shelters split
Reformists,
the goals of feminist
"reform" and "radical" lines.
2
sought equality of access
best characterized by NOW,
and opportunity within the existing structure of American
society.
As a rule, they demanded neither a fundamental
institutions nor a redistribution
of existing
restructuring
This meant that they were better
the awards they had to offer.
able to accomodate bureaucratic
formal rules and hierarchical
"radical" counterparts.
in
societal change
viewed emergency
the problem,
funding
requirements,
structures,
Yet because they also sought deeper
the patriarchal
social order,
shelters as temporary,
by contrast,
all-encompassing
change,
reformists
short-term solutions to
sought fundamental
both in
goals.
3
and
terms of woman's status in
the very structure of that society.
society and in
such as
than were their
rather than long-range organizational
Radicals,
of
Shelters
created by these women differed significantly with respect to
organization
and living environment,
collective decision-making
stressing
such practices as
and household task-sharing.
Rather
than viewing battered women as "clients" to be taken care of by
"staff,"
radical
feminist shelters informally welcomed battered
women to join them as full
group,
More than any other
"members."
these shelters demonstrated antagonism towards government
interference
in
their daily operations and program development
because of the potential
destruction
such institutions could
deliver upon their own anti-institution
organizations.
4
Traditional
group.
social
service providers constituted a third
contrast to feminist shelters which located the cause
In
political- structure,
for abuse within the patriarchal
6
They emphasized
in
"counselling"
these
woman and her immediate
shelters focussed on the individual
situation.
5
such techniques as "therapy" and
order to locate possible causes for abuse
7
within the marital relationship.
Whereas feminist shelters
rejected these techniques as part of a complicated legitimating
in remedying
shelters viewed them as useful
Moreover,
relationships.
the existing
incentive
societal
in
poor personal
their cooperative
structure,
these
domination,
symbology designed to shore up patriarchal
vis-a-vis
spirit
they represented both an
to and an outgrowth of official
recognition and
support.
Ideals and philosophies about the proper methods and
reasons for running
among different
financial
emergency shelters thus varied a great deal
sectors of the shelter movement.
However,
exigencies and expectations played a major role in
shaping the nature and direction of their programs.
mentioned
in
Chapter 1, diverse funding
mid-1970s to sponsor shelters.
public and private agencies,
exercised the most dramatic
expansion.
8
As
sources emerged in
the
Although these included both
federal
and state agencies
influence on shelter development
and
For shelters, the two most important programs were
CETA and the LEAA family violence projects.
monies were also made available.
But other federal
Given public agency concern
with proper financial accountability, these monies usually came
with numerous strings attached;
funding sources often specified
the nature of the clientele to served, the composition of the
the extent of
the membership of the board of directors,
shelter,
data collection or record-keeping required, and the nature of
and services to be rendered.
counselling
official
By all accounts,
significantly altered or modified the nature of
funding
9
shelter programs.
While the operation of crisis hotlines and volunteer
and operation of emergency
the establishment
necessitated major
human resources.
the way of capital
in
networks required very little
investments,
both in
investment,
shelters
terms of material
Most operate on a shoestring
budget:
and
even
those shelters capable of serving only a small number of women
and their children require thousands of dollars to maintain
their residence.
sales,
Bake sales,
donations,
and other community fund-raising
able resource commitment,
way of payoff.
turnover result.
"jog-a-thons," garage
efforts demand considerin
and frequently provide little
the
Staff "burnout" and high rates of employee
Given these conditions, the incentives to
shelter leaders to seek and accept government aid become
the continuous demand for crisis services and
apparent:
security,
combined with the costliness of the shelter venture,
make government
financial
support an absolute necessity
for the
continued operation of many shelters.
The incentives to sponsoring
agencies to support battered
women's programs were at once subtle and diverse.
three explanations could account for increased
interest
in
10
At least
involvement
the issue of wife abuse by government officials.
and
clients by supporting
service agencies stood to gain
social
traditional
First of all,
of the shelter movement.
the activities
1
'
To agencies accustomed to working with society's more
stigmatized populations such as the mentally
battered
ill,
women and their children probably constituted a very attractive
of a mental
As one agency official
clientele.
organization expressed,
health
the decision to fund a battered women's
shelter as opposed to other programs or services rested on the
sponsorship's benefit to the funding agency:
It is the kind
The shelter gives us publicity...
of the
imagination
the
captures
that
of program
need.
real
honest-to-God,
on
based
community,
harder when the client you're
a little
It's
dealing with has been in the state hospital for
twenty years, is bizarre in dress and appearance,
trying to find a place to live in the community.
and
Because of the kind of visibility
acceptability the shelter gives us, we can in turn
pay off for those clients who are not as
acceptable.
a mutual
is
So there
payoff.
.
.
it
helps if mental health clients are seen as people
who look all right, who might have the same
problem. 1 2
Thus,
many agencies stood to gain from supporting battered
women's programs because of the positive,
investment
in
the shelter movement offered them.
A second explanation
interest and involvement
shelters
is
considerable
enterprise"
image
progressive
advanced for increased agency
the sponsoring
in
of battered women's
that the area of family violence witnessed
"social control,"
during
"program,"
the mid-1970s.
13
and "professional
In other words,
it
offered
established bureaucracies and interests the opportunity for
program and organizational
professional
groups,
expansion.
seeking
Official, lay, and
to expand the realm of their social
power and
influence,
existing or new entrepreneurial
This greatly
hierarchies.
the co-optation of the shelter movement,1
facilitated
accepted offers of funding
fully comprehending
"a major reason
into
created programs designed to fit
for co-optation,
which
sources without always
from official
the consequences
4
of such actions.
Indeed,
and one seldom observed or
appreciated, is that financial support from official agencies
often carries various kinds of benefits to the officials
15
underwrite and/or support program enterprise."
in 1978, the Community Services Administration
of battered women's groups in
a coalition
the coalition applied for,
recieved,
However,
the full grant.
For example,
(CSA) approached
Massachsuetts,
and
Assured of
asked them to submit a proposal for $100,000.
funding,
who
and shortly thereafter
it
soon discovered that
it
objected to some of CSA's policies and attempted to return the
The agency made policy exceptions for the group rather
funds.
than take back the funds.
funding,
16
Similarly,
a group applied for CETA
only to be told by a CETA official
grant request.
following year.
to increase its
Upon doing so, it received even more funding the
17
That sponsors often volunteered support to
battered women's programs suggests that they anticipated future
gains in
supplying
resources to the movement.
I would like to advance a third explanation
course of events,
not addressed in
necessarily conflicting
incentive
two,
the first
with them either.
In
program enterprise offered potential
involvement
in
battered womens'
for this
though not
addition to the
agency sponsors,
programs allowed them to
actively encourage some responses to the problem and to
discourage others.
Not only did the area of domestic violence
represent an uncharted territory for government
agencies seeking
to expand their range of influence and control,
but it
offered the possibility
for successfully
also
structuring an official
response to the problem which conformed to agency
interests and
ensured that agency work would go undisrupted.
The LEAA family violence projects and their forerunner,
the Neighborhood Justice Program,
offer a case in
point.
the criminal
Designed to reduce the number of cases reaching
justice system, as well as case-processing costs, these programs
reflect the underlying LEAA conviction that law enforcement
agencies or the courts should not be responsible
remedies for battering.
for providing
As one LEAA official stated, that's a
job for the entire community:
the approach recommended is called 'comprehensive'
...
because it foresees the need for interaction with local
service agencies and community based organizations.
By concentrating on the role of the criminal justice
system, LEAA does not imply that the part which
criminal justice systems play in the resolution of
family violence should be enlarged. 1 8
Another LEAA official
stated that the criminal
justice system
could not respond to the wife battering problem:
Advocates for battered women will have to understand
that the criminal justice system has nothing inherent
structure or function that would lead it to make
in its
battered women cases a priority... Advocates will have
to understand the dynamics of social action and
political pressure that lead the criminal justice
system to allocate resources to certain areas not
because such allocation is good or wise but because,
19
somehow, it becomes expeditious or necessary.
In
the case of its
family violence program,
LEAA sought to
divert wife abuse cases from courts by "referring" them to
shelters and other programs.
An important incentive to LEAA and
other potential agency sponsors, then, was that official
recognition and involvement
in
the issue enabled them to
structure an organized response to the problem which conformed
interests and needs,
to agency
and ensured that agency work
would not be disrupted by outside demands for specific reform.
they might have been forced to do something more
Moreover,
drastic had they not responded in
this fashion.
In this chapter I have attempted to analyze the patterns
of interaction and bargaining which characterized the battered
women
issue's elevation
to the governmental
agenda.
As argued
wife beating rose to the popular and professional
earlier,
agendas before ceaching governmental agenda status.
There, the
demands of both communities -- lay and professional--
were given
in
concrete expression
the creation of battered women's
These early grass roots responses to the problem of
shelters.
wife abuse attracted official
interest for a number of reasons.
First, they allowed agencies to expand and diversify their
clientele.
professional
Secondly,
they promoted social control,
enterprise by official,
lay and professional
seeking to expand their realm of social
Lastly,
response
they afforded
program,
and
groups
power and influence.
them the opportunity to structure a
to the problem which effectively ensured that agency
practice and goals would not be disrupted by outside demands for
specific reforms.
For their part,
individual
shelters sought
58
and accepted government aid more often than not to ensure their
financial
solvency:
the continuous demand for emergency shelter
and services combined with the costliness of the venture made
official support not only attractive, but absolutely essential
in many cases.
These diverse incentives formed the parameters
within which ownership and redefinition of the problem occurred.
It
has been suggested,
further,
that rather than devising
and
implementing new responses to the problem of wife abuse,
official
agencies sought to lay claim to existing responses.
this chapter
I have described the processes and exchanges by
which this occurred.
outcomes.
In
the final chapter I will examine the
In
59
ENDNOTES
1.
In terms of
See, for example, Tierney, op. cit., p. 212.
structure, the shelter movement can be characterized as
"segmentary, polycephalous, and reticulate" (L. Gerlach and
V, Hine, People, Power, and Change (Indianapolis:
Movement organizations range from
1970).
Bobbs-Merrill,
those with a national scope to those that operate on the
Groups are linked to each other through
local level.
and lines of
overlapping memberships, professional ties,
membership. This decentralized, loosely articulated
structure enables effective resource mobilization and
greater adaptability to local conditions [B. Judkins, "The
Social Movements and Social
Black Lung Movement:
Structure," in Research in Social Movements, Conflicts, and
JAI
Change, Louis Kriesberg, ed. (Greenwich, Connecticut:
Press, 1979) volume 2, pp. 105-129].
2.
For a discussion of ideological differences within the
feminist movement, see M.L. Carden, The New Feminist
Russell Sage Foundation, 1974); and
Movement (New York:
Political, SocioB.S. Deckard, The Women's Movement:
economic, and Psychological Issues (New York: Harper
and Row, 1979).
3.
Studer, op., cit., p. 418.
4.
L. Ahrens, "Battered Women's Refuges: Feminist Cooperatives or Social Service Institutions?" Aegis (Summer, 1980)
pp. 9-15. One such example was the Austin Women's Center,
whose "radical" goals were disintegrated when the board of
directors disagreed with the Center's operating procedures.
5.
pp. xi-xii;
See, for example, Martin, op. cit.,
Dobash and R.E. Dobash, Violence Against Wives
Free Press, 1980).
6.
K.J. Ferraro, "Processing Battered women," Journal
Family Issues 2 (December, 1981) pp. 415-439.
7.
"From the traditional perspective, efforts
Johnson writes:
are made to locate the 'causes' of violence within the
thus it is seen as appropriate
marital relationship itselfto the woman, as if the
'counseling'
or
'therapy'
to render
problem could be solved through some form of tinkering with
832).
p.
the marital equation" (Johnson, op. cit.,
8.
Excellent accounts of how official funding altered or
modified the nature of shelter programs can be found in L.
L. Ahrens, "From Collective to Coopted,"
Ahrens, op. cit.;
Aegis (September/October, 1978) pp. 5-97 and J. Andler and
G. Sullivan, "The Price of Federal Funding," Aegis (Winter,
1980) pp. 10-15.
and R.P.
(New York:
of
9.
Ibid.
10.
In addition to the explanations offered in the following
analysis, other reasons for social welfare support of
an interest in
battered women's programs include:
capitalizing on feminist issues, moral entrepreneurship,
and the more general goal of maintaining the family unit
D. Klein, "Can this Marriage be Saved?:
(Martin, op. cit.;
Battery and Sheltering," Crime and Social Justice 12
(Winter, 1979) pp. 19-33).
11.
S. Levine and P. White, "Exchange as a Conceptual Framework
for the Study of Interorganizational Relationships,"
Administrative Science Quarterly 5 (1961) pp. 555-601.
12.
Personal
13.
C. Warren, "New Forms of Social Control:
Johnson, op. cit.,
The Myth of Deinstitutionalization," Social Problems 24
(July/August, 1981) p. 724.
14.
This phenomenon has been discussed and analyzed in Johnson,
and Andler
Ahrens, op. cit.;
Warren, op. cit.;
op. cit.;
Similarly, A. Mauss argues that coand Sullivan, op. cit.
optation by official organizations of social problem
movements is a likely consequence of movement growth
[Mauss, Social Problems as Social Movements (Philadelphia:
J.B. Lippincott, 1975)]. The same argument is advanced with
regard to professional movements which lack a broad
membership base, in J. McCarthy and M. Zald, The Trend of
Social Movements in America: Professional izat ion and
General Learning Press,
Resource Mobilization (Princeton:
Why They
Movements:
People's
Lastly, in Poor
1973).
1977), F.
House,
Random
York:
(New
Fail
Succeed, How They
attempt
will
elites
policy
that
argue
Cloward
R.
Piven and
them
guiding
and
reintegrating
by
groups
protest
to co-opt
and
behavior,
of
forms
disturbing
politically
less
towards
moving to isolate them from potential supporters so as to
dissipate movement morale.
15.
Johnson,
16.
Andler and Sullivan,
17.
Tierney, op. cit.,
18.
J. Niedermeyer, "Presentation to the U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights," in Battered Women: Issues of Public Policy,
op. cit., pp. 176-178.
19.
C. Schudson, "The Criminal Justice System as Family: Trying
the Impossible for Battered Women," in Battered Women:
pp. 369-370.
Issues of Public Policy, op. cit.,
interview cited in
op.
cit.,
p.
Tierney,
op.
cit.,
p.
214.
828.
op.
cit.
p. 214.
VI.
Conclusion
In
most states today,
battered women must qualify for
public assistance in order to gain access to emergency shelter
and services.
Those who are employed face the dubious choice of
either quitting
their jobs to go on welfare or remaining
violent homes.
Their options remain limited, indeed.
Some cities
have moved to remedy
this situation.
in
In New
York City, for example, government officials at the Human
Resources Administration (HRA) instituted a procedure in the
fall
women could receive sheltering
of 1984 whereby working
services for battered women.
1
Under this policy,
working women
may qualify for emergency sheltering providing they submit their
entire paycheck to shelter administrators.
In return, they
receive $37 every two weeks in expenses money for themselves
The severity of
plus $40 for each child they have with them.
these provisions has promoted critics of the HRA procedure to
note that its effect is to impoverish the victims of domestic
violence rather than to assist them.
As one observer remarked:
Clearly, they cannot save up the money that
would allow them to find decent housing, and
they are given for this purpose is the same
all
meager household allowance that others on
welfare receive.2
Nor can they build their sense of confidence and independence
the kind of environment that early
Only half of the city's
shelter leaders envisioned.
HRA-funded shelters for battered
women agreed to adopt this new procedure.
one-half,
in
3
Of the remaining
many chose to deny access to working women rather than
implement its seemingly punitive requirements.
Aegis Battered
62
Women's Shelter offers one such example.
Anne Paulle,
director,
working
According
this shelter decided not to accept
women because "we considered the terms of the agreement
so punitive that we didn't want to implement
services to working women,
for shelter
and different
children in
the HRA initiated a new
Dubbed the "Sanctuary for
program shelters battered women and their
this
Families,"
eligibility
sheltering program for the victims of family
October of 1984.
in
4
it."
this new procedure for extending
Complementing
violence
to its
a network of private homes and religious
facilities. 5
one critic
program had the following
of the HRA's Sanctuary
for Family
to say:
Rather than give the already existing shelters
the non-restrictive funding that would permit
them to take in working women without
impoverishing them, HRA chose to use these
tax-levied monies to create the Sanctuary
for Families. 6
The result was that two separate and distinct
in
place to deliver emergency
systems were set
shelter services to battered women
and their children.
Despite the fact that it
remains theoretically
open to all
Sanctuary
women regardless of income or employment status,
for
Families has evolved into a shelter that serves primarily
working women.
7
This has occurred,
at least in
part,
as a
consequence of the incentives built into the HRA policy
discussed earlier.
working
Because of the punitive terms under which
women can enter New York City's shelters,
many shelters
have sought to divert them to the Sanctuary for Families program
which places a high priority on working women.
shelter
contact with the city's
women making
likely be referred to the Sanctuary
Thus employed
system will
for Families.
very
8
These developments have evoked the criticism that the HRA's
policies and practices are creating a two-tiered shelter system
based on class which threatens to substantially
Because of excessively
services.
of its
funding requirements,
menting
the shelters.
Sanctuary
the nature
stringent bureaucratic
these shelters find themselves imple-
segregationist policies:
the Sanctuary
alter
for Families,
and women on public
Alisa Del Tufo,
for Families,
working women are referred to
assistance to
executive director for the
explains:
Because we're the only viable option for working
women, if we get two calls, one from a working
woman and one from a woman on public assistance,
we'll try to take the working woman. 9
Moreover,
she admits that "present conditions are creating
self-fulfilling
In this
class system."
a
10
paper I have argued that the extension of
government funds to battered women's shelters fundamentally
altered the nature of battered women's programs and policy.
Rather than aiding
in
the creation of an environment of healing
and empowerment as envisioned by early shelter leaders,
government
funding placed battered women's shelters under the
iron rule of bureaucratic
described illustrates
funding requirements.
this point:
by defining
The case just
and redefining
the
conditions under which battered women are entitled to receive
services,
funding agencies act as policy-makers.
Their actions
64
serve to continually construct and reconstruct the very
substance of our national
relates to
policy as it
social
battered women.
a normative sense,
In
government
I am prepared to defend the right of
which it disburses public monies.
society
action
if
of its
resources.
funding criteria,
is
public,
dictates such
to ensure the proper and best distribution
However, overly restrictive or punitive
such as those implemented
of domestic violence,
that of fiscal
The goal of accountability to
as well as the general
elected officials,
to
and direct the actions of programs
to restrict
in
the policy arena
may serve a purpose quite distinct
accountability.
from
They may actually serve to
subvert, if not radically transform, the substance of domestic
violence policy as it
has been discussed and defined by the
public and publicly-elected
bodies.
Such actions have profound
implications for future attempts to remedy the problem of wife
abuse in
this
country.
65
ENDNOTES
in
D.
Berg and P.
1.
These developments are discussed
McAllister, op. cit., p. 18.
2.
Ibid.
3.
Ibid.
4.
Ibid. This remark was reiterated in a phone conversation
I had with Anne Paulle, the Aegis Battered Women's
Shelter's Director.
5.
D.
6.
Ibid.
7.
Ibid.
8.
Ibid.
9.
Ibid.
10.
Berg and P.
McAllister,
Personal phone interview.
op.
cit.,
p.
18.
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