‘Because they're a couple she should do what he says’: Young People's justifications of violence: heterosexuality, gender and adulthood

Abstract

This article is based upon research that explored how 89 eleven- and twelve-year-olds understood and explained men's violence against women. The research found that young people examined the motivations of individual male perpetrators though the context of heterosexuality. For the young people, adulthood appeared to generate a more rigid framework of heterosexuality, where the gender differences begin to exemplify inequality upon which justifications can be based. Young people's justifications can be collated into the themes of: heteronormativity, the endorsement of marriage, restrictive gender roles and blaming women for the violence. Violence is justified because inequality is not questioned – it is endorsed and taken for granted as being part of an adult heterosexual relationship. This has implications for young people's own existing and anticipated relationships.

Keywords::

• violence
• heterosexuality
• gender
• young people
• adulthood

Notes

^1. Whilst this view of marriage was most widely shared in the Catholic school, many of the young people (girls and boys) in the non-denomination schools also held the institution of marriage in esteem.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nancy Lombard

Nancy Lombard is a Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at Glasgow Caledonian University. She is an Associate Director at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, and also one of the co-ordinators of the Gender Based Violence Research Network. She is a Core Expert for European Network of Experts on Gender Equality and the only European editor of Violence Against Women journal. Before returning to academia in 2003, she worked in the third sector. She have been a volunteer, researcher and activist within the violence against women movement for 18 years. Her research interests include men's violence against women, particularly domestic abuse; violence prevention; methods of working with children and young people, gender; feminism and knowledge exchange activities.