Women and Dating Violence, Article Critique Example

Rosen, Karen H. & Stith, Sandra M. (Oct. 1993). Intervention Strategies for Treating Women in Violent Dating Relationships. Family Relations, Vol. 42, No. 4, 427-33.

Using abuse statistics is a weak starting point, simply because many cases are not reported. Even the statistics concerning women who stayed in a relationship with their abusive partners is suspect- whether anonymous or not.

The feminist perspective comes across very strong at first due to the use of phrases such as “entrapped… in relationships” and “forces that led them to leave their dating partners”; the explanation of the feminist perspective taken and its disempowerment view toward the abuse fit right in with the wider, societal scope that the study also took into account. However, the strong, condemnatory vocabulary does not support the recommendation to be non-judgmental toward the woman’s choice to stay with her partner.

It is also not a very representative sample of the wide variety of abused women. Of those preselected, all of the women were relatively young and middle-class and ten of the eleven preselected participants were white. The study should reflect American diversity in its study, especially since the author asserts that abuse of these women is a “societal illness”. The phrasing makes it sound like a trifling, fated event- not like a deliberate action depicting the patriarchal views of society at large. Were the women in the study predisposed to seek out stability even at the price of patriarchy? Regardless, the author put the power back in the abused woman’s hand when she said that “she will leave when she is ready”.

Other than that, the interview process was flawlessly executed. Brief telephone interviews helped them preselect applicants, and thorough cross-checking and reflection were done before the participants were analyzed. They also did not lead the participants- by letting them draw their own conclusions- and did not discount other therapeutic methods.

Some aspects come full-circle and support the case very well. The testimony of several women that they did not realize the seriousness of the abuse while they were in the relationship and the subsequent step of making a safety plan makes them face their abuse and their lack of responsibility for the act itself in a passive way. The description of their fantasies as Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast was simple and accessible, (which is hard to do on such a sensitive topic) and better explains the need for the first suggestion to help the client develop perspective. A therapist might go further and ask the client how what he says to her does or does not reflect his respect and love for her.

The suggested future-oriented questions are unnecessarily harsh. Take this example: “How will your life be different when you realize that he is not your ‘prince’?” The use of the timeline suggested in Strategy 3 and the “seeds of doubt” of Strategy 4 of the Perspective Techniques are effective and impartial if executed well. If not executed well, the subject is likely to pull away in denial. There is a fine line between being abrasive and honest, which does not seem to be addressed, but clients would be more likely to accept such bluntness when they notify a close family member or friend. This intimacy with anyone else besides their abusive partner is underplayed, but an excellent point included in the analysis is that families often pretend to look the other way, which contributes to the feeling of emotional isolation and uncertainty about their support of her decision to leave.

I agree with the majority of the strategies used even if I do not always see eye-to-eye on the feminist reasoning used to support them. (I have seen them successfully applied in my familial experiences with physical abuse.) The word usage was often distracting; the paragraph talking about therapeutic influences on the development of the method uses the very subjective terms rigid, narrow, and vicious within the same sentence! The aspects that would bear on their therapy that were not addressed were the discussion of- if applicable- the history of abuse within their families, whether the emotional abuse escalates prior to the beginning of the physical abuse, and- if applicable- whether the emotional abuse before the physical abuse establishes a pattern of aggression which fits in with the timeline. All in all, the worth of the strategies was sometimes overshadowed by the tone of the word choice, which is a shame since the strategies for coping with abuse are top-notch.