NCJ Number
196218
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 8 Issue: 8 Dated: August 2002 Pages: 968-996
Date Published
August 2002
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This study examined the social construction of women as legitimate victims of rape and wife battering in Chinese societies.
Abstract
Violence against women is explained in terms of gender inequalities, the personality attributes and developmental history of perpetrators, and the victims’ subconscious and unconscious masochistic desires. The shared responsibility perspective argues that victims are not passive objects but sometimes play active roles that may contribute to their own victimizations. Studies have shown that people with traditional attitudes toward women and their appropriate gender roles support and condone violence against women. In Chinese culture, aggression is disapproved because Chinese culture emphasizes harmony, discipline, and self-restraint in interpersonal relationships. However, the inferior status traditionally ascribed to Chinese women often places them in vulnerable positions both in the family and in society. Focus group discussions were conducted in three Chinese societies: six groups in Hong Kong, nine groups in Beijing, the People's Republic of China (PRC), and eight groups in Taipei (Taiwan). Findings show that forms of the myth “Men who abuse women are sick” existed in all three Chinese societies and that psychiatric explanations were commonly used in Chinese accounts of violence against women. Their impressions of perpetrators of rape and wife abuse were that men suffered from some kind of psychopathology because of traumatic childhood experiences. A majority believed that women caused this trauma. Participants depicted perpetrators as victims who suffered childhood trauma, were betrayed by people they trusted (mothers, girlfriends), or were bullied by women (sisters, wives). Victim masochism did not seem to be a widely held belief by the participants. Victim precipitation was a belief widely held by Chinese in all three regions. Wife battering was seen as relating to men’s uncontrollable desires and emotions, which were precipitated by victims’ behaviors. Belief in victim precipitation was related to sex role stereotyping in Chinese societies. Although sex role stereotypes, myths, and victim-blaming explanations are prevalent in Chinese societies, they are not fixed and resistant to change. 65 references