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A Cross-cultural Comparison of Social Reform: The Growing Pains of the Battered Women's Movements in Washington, D.C. and Madrid, Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Susan L. Miller  and
Rosemary Barberet
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Abstract

In this exploratory cross-cultural study, we use interview data from representatives of social service, criminal justice, and policy-making agencies in two capital cities (Washington, D.C.) and Madrid, Spain) to compare responses to domestic violence within each country's sociolegal and cultural context. While both countries have patriarchal structures, there is great difference in the history, funding, development, and participants of the battered women's movement. For instance, in Spain the government determined the appropriate response to domestic violence from the onset, whereas in the United States the power to frame, find, and respond to the issue operated through a more insidious process of state cooptation. In both countries, wider social changes did not result; rather, services were provided as the movements became tied to finding requirements and to satisfying bureaucratic exigencies. Within this context, we analyze respondents' perceptions and interpretations of domestic violence as well as the institutional practices and future strategies proposed for continued social action.

Type
Symposium: Women, Law, and Violence
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , Fall 1994 , pp. 923 - 966
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 1994 

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References

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39 These women did not occupy political posts at that time (otherwise they would not have had to lobby for government recognition as they did), but they were benefiting from a historical moment when both the transition to democracy and the victory of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party in 1982 translated into greater possibilities for women's voices and opinions to be heard.Google Scholar

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41 They worked with other groups: the private, nonprofit groups include the Federacion de Asociaciones de Mujeres Separadas y Divorciadas (Federation of Associations of Divorced & Separated Women), which runs the only long-term residential training and employment program; the Fundacion de Solidaridad Democratica (Democratic Solidarity Foundation, an organization related to the Socialist Party), which runs a shelter; the Asociacion de Mujeres Progresistas (Association of Progressive Women), which runs an emergency service; the Comision Anti-Agresiones del Movimiento Feminista de Madrid (Anti-Violence Commission of the Madrid Feminist Movement), a pressure group that deals more with rape than with battering. The services nm directly by the government include a shelter operated by the Autonomous Community of Madrid (Madrid regional government) and several women's issues hotlines and information centers run by the Women's Institute that deal with battering as well.Google Scholar

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46 The respondents were: Maryland: Montgomery County: a police officer (white male) and a prosecutor (black male); Prince Georges County: a prosecutor's assistant in charge of the Domestic Violence Program in the State's Attorney CMce (white woman), the clinical director of services at the battered women's shelter (white female), and a police officer (white male); Alexandria, Virginia: a police officer in charge of coordinating the Domestic Violence Program (white male) and the head of the Office on Women and coordinator of domestic violence services (white female); and District of Columbia: a representative from each of the two battered women's shelters (white female, white male), a police officer (white male), and a legal representative of the AYUDA Legal Clinic, which provides legal services for Hispanic, immigrant, and refugee women (white female).Google Scholar

47 The interviews included 2 at the Women's Institute (the national governmental body under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Affairs); 1 with a representative from the Autonomous Community of Madrid's Office on Social Integration (in charge of battered women's issues); 3 with workers at two of the three shelters for battered women in Madrid; 1 each with a prosecutor and a judge; 3 with police officers; and 2 with social workers who work with the police at the special station for battering/rape victims that serves the Autonomous Community of Madrid.Google Scholar

48 As this article went to press, after much debate and difficulty, the U.S. Congress passed a comprehensive crime bill including appropriations to finance the Violence against Women Act. Some of the provisions for battered women included in the act are: the creation of new federal penalties for abusers who cross state lines to continue abuse, interstate enforcement of “stay away” orders, setting limits to information abusers can receive on the whereabouts of fleeing victims, increased funding for special spouse abuse units for prosecutors and courts and for shelters, the creation of school-based programs to teach children about domestic violence to help stop the cycle of family violence, and the authorization of a national media campaign against domestic violence to educate women about their rights.Google Scholar

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60 For instance, a recent evaluation of the District of Columbia's mandatory arrest policy indicates that even when probable causes exists, police arrest only 18% of the time, and the cases most likely to meet arrest standards are those in which the offender is disrespectful to the officer or property damage (particularly motor vehicle) is involved. This pattern holds true even when visible injuries exist; see Susan L. Miller, “Arrest Policies for Domestic Violence and Their Implications for Battered Women,”in Roslyn Muraskin & Ted AUeman, eds., It's a Crime: Women and Justice (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1993) (“Miller, Arrest Policies”); Nicole M. Montalto, “Mandatory Arrest: The District of Columbia's Prevention of Domestic Violence Amendment Act of 1990,” 8 /. Conump. Health L. & Pol'y 337 (1992). Furthermore, police failure to arrest is similar in other jurisdictions with policies favoring arrest; see Buzawa & Buzawa, Domestic Violence. Google Scholar

61 The AYUDA Legal Clinic offers services for battered immigrant and refugee women, not solely for Hispanic women. It uses public service announcements on Spanish-speaking television, sponsors a group called “Sisters United” (a speakers' bureau made up of formerly battered women). It trains police and social workers on the needs of immigrant and refugee women and translates the laws and provides legal representation for non-English-speaking women. It also serves a large population of Ethiopian women.Google Scholar

62 From a practical perspective, a coordinated, multiagency response encourages victims to follow through with charges because explicit and varied sentencing alternatives are available (especially if a victim doesn't want the abuser to go to jail for the family's economic well-being). Also, the Alexandria respondents consistently mentioned that mandatory arrest puts the onus (and blame from the batterer's perspective) on the police, relieving the woman of possible retaliation for “what she did to him.”Google Scholar

63 Presumptive arrest is designed to strongly guide police discretion in the direction of arrest; mandatory arrest limits police discretion while dictating arrest action.Google Scholar

64 Although homogeneity in a culture certainly does not preclude lesbianism, the inclusion of lesbian battering victims has not been a part of Spanish community organizational efforts as it has in the United States. As in the United States, disclosure by Spanish lesbian victims of battering may be seen as too risky, particularly if their relationships are not socially protected or institutionally sanctioned. In both countries, traditional sources of help, such as shelters and laws, have been designed primarily to benefit women in heterosexual relationships.Google Scholar

65 Although the “minority groups” listed here are small, Spain is also marked by strong regional political and cultural movements which at times, particularly in the Basque country, have taken on racial and ethnic undertones. For the sake of comparison, we chose to limit our Spanish “minorities” to those groups that permeate the entire geographic area of Spain: gypsies and North African and Latin American emigres.Google Scholar

66 Dobash & Dobash, Women, Violence (cited in note 4).Google Scholar

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68 This stance against homophobia was part of a larger action plan that included analysis of cooptation in all facets of work; ongoing discussions about issues of gender, race, and class in daily work; plans to share community organizing skills throughout the membership for building and mobilizing at the grassroots level; and building alliances with other women's groups and progressive organizations to work collectively for housing, day care, civil rights, welfare rights, and labor organizing. Id. Google Scholar

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73 A popular prime-time television show portraying teenagers.Google Scholar

74 Although these words reflect a feminist-oriented analysis of issues related to battering, the respondent addressed these issues superficially and did not offer a feminist critique or analysis of gender relations or power dynamics within relationships. It may be, however, that the shelter worker applies a feminist analysis to daily life and used this language as a short hand for the feminist critique of gender relations we expected. On the other hand, research has identified a rift between feminist ideology and practice at both local and national organizational levels of the battered women's movement. See Susan B. Murray, “The Unhappy Marriage of Theory and Practice: An Analysis of a Battered Women's Shelter,” 1 Nat'l Women's Stud. Ass'n J. 75 (1988); Lois Ahrens, “Battered Women's Refuges: Feminist Cooperatives vs. Social Service Institutions,” 14 Radical Am. 41 (1980).Google Scholar

75 For a discussion of the differential impact of battering on women mediated by social class, see Susan L. Miller, “Unintended Side Effects of Pro-Arrest Policies and Their Race and Class Implications for Battered Women: A Cautionary Note,” 3 Crim. Just. Pol'y Rev. 299 (1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

76 Dobash & Dobash, 1 Contemp. Crises (cited in note 22).Google Scholar

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80 These feelings are especially difficult for women who have been socialized to be the caretakers (nurturers) in relationships. See Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982).Google Scholar

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90 An alternative explanation might be that social service workers may feel less attachment or loyalty to the criminal justice or legal systems than do police or attorneys because their professional status does not depend on their personal investment in the system. (We thank a Law & Social Inquiry reviewer for this observation.)Google Scholar

91 The service providers were the only group to raise the issue of education, treatment, and prevention of domestic violence in rural areas where no services are nearby and where families are even more isolated from community services and institutions. Some belief was expressed that metropolitan areas are more sophisticated and exposed to more ideas and innovative services with better funding, a belief echoed in the Spanish data.Google Scholar

92 Some of this skepticism could be attributed to the much lower incarceration rates in Spain for all offenses, not just for domestic violence. The United States leads the Western industrialized countries with the highest incarceration rate of 426 inmates per 100,000, while Spain is the 11th country with 76 inmates per 100,000. Marc Mauer, Americans behind Bars: A Comparison of International Rates of Incarceration (Washington, D.C.: Sentencing Project, 1991).Google Scholar

93 It is curious that respondents did not mention the role of the extended family—as a source of support for the victim or for the batterer (by discouraging the dissolution of the abusive relationship or by reinforcing his more powerful position). There is some evidence in the United States that extended or kin networks provide material and emotional support for family members in need (see Carol B. Stack, AU Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community (New York: Harper & Row, 1974)), and we had expected more extensive commentary in the same vein to be present in Spanish culture.Google Scholar

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95 While police noncompliance on arrest policies is typical across many U.S. locales, the character of social and institutional responses is more diverse than our findings from the D.C. metropolitan area suggest, since they are shaped by local community concerns and activists.Google Scholar

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97 Cris M. Sullivan, Joanna Basra, Cheribeth Tan, & William S. Davidson, “After the Crisis: A Needs Assessment of Women Leaving a Domestic Violence Shelter,” 7 Violence & Victims 267 (1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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107 See Lawrence Sherman & Richard A. Berk, “The Specific Deterrent Effects of Arrest for Domestic Assault,” 49 Am. Soc. Rev. 261 (1984); Lawrence Sherman & Ellen G. Cohn, “The Impact of Research on Legal Policy: The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment,” 23 Law & Soc'y Rev. 117 (1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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109 Lydia Falcon, Violencia Contra la Mujer 126–27 (Madrid: Vindication Feminista Publicationes, 1979).Google Scholar

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116 In Phoenix, Ariz., women represented 18% of domestic violence arrests in 1993; see Kathleen J. Ferraro, “Battered Women: Strategies for Survival,” in Albert Cardarelli, ed., Violence among Intimate Partners: Patterns, Causes and Effects (New York: Macmillan, forthcoming 1995). After mandatory arrest laws were instituted in Kenosha, Wis., women's arrests for domestic violence increased twelvefold, while men's arrests showed only a twofold increase. Kevin L. Hamberger, “Effects of the Mandatory Arrest Law on Domestic Violence Perpetrator Counseling” (invited testimony before the Wisconsin Equal Justice Task Force, 1990); only 3 of 67 women arrested resembled the perpetrator traits of their abusive male partners. Kevin L. Hamberger & Theresa Potente, “Counseling Women Arrested for Domestic Violence: Implications for Theory and Practice,” Violence & Victims (forthcoming 1995). Similarly, Lynne Norris interviewed 10 women arrested for domestic violence in Phoenix and found they were all battered women. “Dangerously Equal or Equally Dangerous? An Analysis of Women's Violence against Male Intimate Partners” (Master's thesis, Arizona State University, 1994).Google Scholar

117 Catharine A. MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989).Google Scholar