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Abstract
This dissertation addressed the following research questions: Given that intimate partner violence is an expression of masculine power and control, how is this expression mitigated and/or aggravated by race and class differences? Are the cultural contexts used to justify the abuse different? Specifically, do the structural factors identified by the abusive men as contributing to intimate partner violence differ by race and class? Recent scholarship has challenged the primacy of gender as the pre-eminent explanatory factor in explaining intimate partner violence. This dissertation addresses this omission by examining how the construction of gender is impacted by race and class as demonstrated through men's accounts of intimate partner violence.
The findings of this study are based on semi-structured interviews with fifty men currently receiving treatment for intimate partner violence. In order to qualify for the study, the men had to be enrolled in treatment for less than a month at the time of the interview. Of the fifty men who were interviewed for this research project, twenty-seven of the men were Black, twenty-two of the men were White and one man was Hispanic. I purposefully attempted to have comparable numbers of White and Black men in my sample due to the lack of Black men's participation in previous intimate partner violence research. Analysis of these interviews employed an Ecological Nested Model as the guiding theoretical framework.
Currently there is a call for culturally sensitive treatment programs to increase the successful completion of treatment by men of color. Those suggestions rarely move beyond suggesting having a minority program director. The challenges to develop culturally sensitive treatments are real and much more complex than simply placing a different program director at the helm. Further, these differences in how and why men engage in intimate partner violence are not just reflective of race, but also of class and age. This research has suggested a number of policy recommendations that would allow program directors to tailor their treatment plans to account for such diversity, and to use the Ecological Nested Model as a way to better recognize those differences. While acknowledging race and class differences, these recommendations move beyond calling for a change in program director by race and allow for treatment that is culturally sensitive and thus hopefully more effective in understanding intimate partner violence and preventing future occurrences.
