Battering Women and Battering Central Americans: A Peacemaking Synthesis (From Criminology as Peacemaking, 1991, P 114-153, Harold E. Pepinsky, Richard Quinney, eds. -- See NCJ- 138513)

• NCJ Number: 138516
• Author(s): L L Tifft; L Markham
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 40 pages
• Sale Source: Indiana University Press
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This essay explores the critical similarities and connections between two pervasive violent crimes which until recently have been conceptualized and analyzed as entirely separate phenomena: the nature of battering women and the battering of Central Americans.

Abstract

The nature of battering women and the nature of battering Central Americans is essentially similar as are the social and cultural structural sources of these forms of battering, the social processes and vocabularies for accepting and defending these behaviors, and the issues that need to be addressed in ending violence and initiating peacemaking processes. This exploratory synthesis attempts to initiate the personal and structural (peacemaking) change processes, which call for an understanding of the nature of the behaviors that result in harm and suffering; an examination of the essential structural sources of these behaviors; and an understanding of the social processes and vocabularies for accepting and defending these processes and sources. The analysis reveals that the processes and consequences of militarization in both the global/hemispheric and interpersonal spheres are poorly understood. To replace these processes with the processes of peacemaking necessitates simultaneously a considerably greater understanding of these processes and an initiation of processes that will empower and enhance the quality of lives. 14 notes and 235 references