(You must first post your own assignment before replying to a classmates posting.) Responses need to articulate why you do or do not agree with the posting. Articulate and substantiate your rationale by providing relevant examples from the macro-social institutions (religion, economy, gov’t, education, health care, etc.) but remain focused upon the content. (Answers should be a minimum of 200 words)
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Domestic Violence: A Conflict Perspective
Sociology 5: Introduction to Criminology
Jade Lugo
The Conflict Perspective of Sociology is when the various groups that make up society, each having their own interests, are in a continuous state of conflict. Each of the groups of society are essentially in it to win it; willing to do what they have to do to be on top regardless of what that may do to the other groups of society. Using the contemporary social issue of domestic violence as an example of Conflict Perspective we can first look at the group of society that is religious institutions and their power and control over the sacrament of marriage. Religious institutes often enforce the ideology that wives, whom are a part of the women’s group of society, should be submissive to their husband. Often using religious doctrines to prove this ideology to be truth sent from God through the word of bible, “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” (Ephesians 5:22-24) When a husband also happens to be an abuser his wife is shamed and controlled by her religious beliefs as well as the religious institution into accepting her role as submissive and taking the abuse. Not just enduring the abuse but not being able to escape it because divorce is not an option, unless it has to do with adultery because domestic abuse is not reason enough biblically. “Whoever divorces his wife, except on the grounds of sexual immorality, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” (Matthew 5:31-32). So, the religious institution remains in control and power over the wives life under the control and power of the husband (who is part of another group of society: the men) and so she is stuck in conflict between her religious persecutions and beliefs, her loyalty to an abusive marriage and her desire to protect self and free self from abuse. In this same circumstance, we can look at the group of society that is the men. The man in this domestic violence situation in much like the religious institution trying to maintain power and control over his wife. He uses abuse to manipulate and intimidate her into doing what he wants. He uses abuse as the consequence for not doing as he asks. He uses abuse to maintain power over her to satisfy his own needs. The woman in this domestic violence situation can also be looked at from a different angle; in this case not the victim but another component of a group in society who is trying to maintain power and control. Perhaps the woman is using her abuser to maintain the idea that she is wanted so badly he gets jealous to the point of abuse, the abuse proves the intensity of his “love” for her. The woman uses the man’s toxic traits as symbols of his obsession over her which give her power and control over his mind in some ways. We have now seen how the religious institutions want to maintain their role in society as omniscient and powerful and so they push their ideologies and beliefs onto the society, these beliefs keep religion going and churches open which means money coming in and essentially the ability to grow and spread the word and gain more power and control. For the men, they get to remain the leader of the marriage, the head of their household, the disciplinarian and in overall power and control of the union. While the women, they get to remain a good wife, the desired, the wanted, the lusted and loved over, the possession which feels powerful.
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Conflict perspective is basically society today where there are multiple groups all with their own interests and goals that most likely conflicts with other groups’ views or perspectives. We see this all the time in relationships, politics, religion, etc. These groups try their best to gain as much power as possible over the group that disagrees with them and hopes to spread their ideas and values on the rest of the population for their benefit. We can this conflict perspective in the issue of domestic violence. Domestic violence by definition is a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another.
We see domestic violence happen heavily between men and women and most of the time in abusive relationships. The victim really can be from either side and there can be both mentally and physical abuse involved. This can be seen from the conflict perspective because basically one of the people is abusing the victim so they can show their “power” over them. There are always cases where men are calling their significant others disrespectful names or just come off controlling and threatening. We also hear a lot of physical abuse happening where for an example, a man hits his wife for whatever reason that the man feels that it was “appropriate”. We really see the “gain for one means a loss for another” idea where the man feels “power” over his wife and the wife is actually hurt physically and mentally.
We also can see this conflict perspective in domestic violence with a lot of cases between political groups. We constantly are in conflict in the US because we are allowed to think and express freely. We see protests happen a lot and honestly lead to domestic violence almost all the time, at least from what we can see on social media and the media period. These cases of domestic violence are the result from one group trying to impose their beliefs on the other group. An example of this could be a preacher on the street maybe giving a message and somebody who disagrees with his message confronts the preacher. Most of the time an argument will happen. Arguments lead sometimes to somebody being pushed and being assaulted. This again falls into a “zero sum game” where nobody really wins here but one may feel the upper hand over the other. This conflict will always be a part of society and especially in American society since we are Free country with many freedoms. We see this between all areas of social groups like politics, religion, relationships, school, etc and in my opinion, we see this perspective in majority of domestic violence cases where people are just wanting to force people to believe what they believe in for their benefits and not the rest of the population. We are used to seeing this as Americans and we will always see this happen sadly within homes, businesses, anywhere.
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Oct 28th, 2022
