Although various definitions are offered to characterize intimate partner abuse, for the purposes of this book, I have used a broad definition that includes “physical assault, threats, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, harassment, and humiliation by current or former intimate partners.”22 This broad definition is used because women who have been victims of both physical and emotional abuse are often cited as stating that the emotional abuse is more damaging and lasting. Because battering is often accompanied by other forms of abuse, the physical abuse described by women in this book was not quantified. That is, a woman who had experienced a single, isolated physically abusive event was still eligible to share her story with me, as that single event may have been preceded or followed by other forms of maltreatment. As stated by the Black feminist scholar bell hooks, intimate partner abuse “is an important area for feminist research precisely because many cases of extreme physical abuse begin with an isolated incident of hitting.”23 Additionally, given that the women’s narrations of their life histories are the basis of this study and that obtaining these stories was necessary to observe how Black women respond to abuse on the basis of their lived experiences, my definition is not limited by time parameters.
Because of what we know about intimate partner abuse, gender, and the use of a feminist standpoint, throughout this book I mostly use gender-specific pronouns when referring to the victims and the perpetrators. Female pronouns are used in describing victims of intimate partner abuse, and male pronouns are used for the abusers. This is not to diminish the abuse that takes place against individuals in same-gender relationships or abuse against men by their female intimate partners. Indeed, many of the concepts delineated throughout this book are likely applicable to Black women in abusive lesbian relationships and to other victims of intimate partner abuse. However, as the study undertaken focused on Black women in abusive heterosexual relationships, the way in which victims and batterers are identified is gendered.
Even with increased attention to the issue, abuse among intimate partners as a social problem is still not receiving the level of attention it deserves from criminal justice agents24 and health professionals.25 For instance, there is fairly recent evidence showing that police officers still respond leniently to male batterers.26 That is, men who abuse their female intimate partners are arrested less often than other violent offenders. In addition, battered women’s shelters continue to suffer from poor financial support and the inability to house every woman and child who need and request sanctuary from their abusers.27 As indicated by a survey conducted by the Center for the Advancement of Women in 2001, a sizable number of women believe that intimate partner abuse warrants continued attention. In fact, the report shows that 92 percent of the women surveyed believed that intimate partner abuse and sexual assault should be the very top priority for the women’s movement. Reducing violence against women was trailed by the following priorities: receiving equal pay for equal work (90%), improving child care (85%), reducing drug and alcohol addiction among women (72%), and keeping abortion legal (41%).28 This finding underlines the belief that much more work is needed to improve the lives of battered women and to better address the unwarranted behavior of batterers.
It is unmistakable that with the identification of intimate partner abuse as a social problem more than three decades ago came an unprecedented amount of research and activism surrounding the plight of battered women. In both the research and the responses to intimate partner abuse, however, cultural, racial, and ethnic distinctions among women victims of intimate partner abuse have not been afforded equal levels of consideration.29 Much of the research and many of the policies see all battered women as victims with similar life experiences,30 neglecting the fact that Black women and other women of color typically have life experiences distinct from those of White women.
The research in the 1970s was conducted with predominately White samples and failed to take into account how the surveys and findings might be problematic in reference to victims and offenders of color. Criticism has been directed at the research instruments used to determine the intricacies of intimate partner abuse because the measurements were not tested on women of color, nor did they take into account cultural differences among women who endure intimate partner abuse.31 As such, research on intimate partner abuse is not complete without attention to the cultural arenas in which Black women participate. Regrettably, more recent investigations continue to follow this precedent. Research designed to study battered White women may not adequately explain how Black women experience and respond to intimate partner abuse. Basing investigations on theories that do not defer to the unique experiences of Black women does them a disservice because they must confront daily both racism and sexism within U.S. society.
Collective members of Incite! Women of Color Against Violence argue that organizations established to assist women victims of physical and sexual abuse are now beholden to government funding and bureaucracy because of their move toward professionalization. This results in a focus on institutionalized responses to violence against women that often prompts the punishment or restriction of the rights of women victims, particularly women of color.32 For instance, there has been an increase in arrests of women victims of intimate partner abuse, and, as demonstrated by the stories of the women in my study, stereotypical images (such as that of the “angry Black woman”) reinforce this practice. This is supported by bell hooks, who concludes, “Black male violence against black females is the most acceptable form of acting out. Since the racist sexist white world sees black women as angry bitches who must be kept in check, it turns away from relational violence in black life.”33 Feminist criminologists have regularly advocated that, in addressing women’s victimization and offending in studying crime and the workings of the criminal justice system, it is not feasible to simply “add women and stir.”34 Because multicultural interventions and programming that are based on middle-class White women do not typically meet the needs of women of color,35 a similar adage can be applied to address the admonitions of women activists of color in the antiviolence movement: We cannot simply “add women of color and stir.” To effectively attend to issues of violence against Black women and other women of color, we must heed the approach advanced by Incite! activists and scholars:
That is, what if we do not make any assumptions about what a domestic violence program should look like, but instead ask: What would it take to end violence against women of color? What would this movement look like? What if we do not presume that this movement would share any of the features we take for granted in the current domestic violence movement? … [W]hen we shift the center to women of color, the importance of addressing state violence becomes evident. This perspective then benefits not only women of color, but all peoples, because it is becoming increasingly clear that the criminal justice system is not effectively ending violence for anyone.36
The theoretical framework that I use here is called “Black feminist criminology” and has roots in existing feminist ideology. Black feminist criminology expands on feminist criminology and is grounded firmly in Black feminist and critical race feminist theories. In conforming to these feminist theories, Black feminist criminology necessarily places the Black woman and her intersecting identities at the center of any analysis, as opposed to considering her identity as nonessential. Black feminist criminology specifically considers issues of crime, deviance, violence, and the workings of the criminal justice system in the lives of people of color. An explicit description of Black feminist criminology and the way in which it is a better framework for understanding how Black women experience intimate partner abuse is supplied in the following chapter.
The Extent of Intimate Partner Abuse by Race and Gender
Several sources document variation in the rate of intimate partner abuse by race. In general, as a group, it has been estimated that Blacks typically experience more intimate partner abuse than do other racial or ethnic groups.37 Shannan Catalano’s analysis of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)