(See also “Pornography”)
Overview
“Violence against women and girls” is an important policy issue addressed over and over in UN policy documents. Yet, despite all of the discussions and multiple outcome documents, one of the key drivers of violence—pornography— and one of the most important protective factors for women and children— living within a stable, married, mother/father family—are rarely if ever even mentioned.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals address violence specifically in SDG Target 5.2, calling upon governments to “Eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls.”
Unfortunately, a narrative often advanced in UN negotiations is the claim that marriages and families are a main source of violence against women and children and that a married woman may be more at risk for violence than a single woman. This narrative, though oft repeated, is completely unfounded. While certainly some women and children are abused in a married family setting, overwhelmingly the data show that, over all, marriage and family are significant protective factors in preventing violence against women and girls.
The term “domestic violence” is not a good term to use if we want to determine where the most abuse is occurring. Instead, “cohabitating violence” is a better descriptor. This is because it is among non-married cohabitating couples (i.e., a mother living with her boyfriend), not among married couples, where the majority of “violence against women” occurs worldwide.
Decades of research demonstrates that women who are married and girls who live with their married parents are not only less likely to experience domestic violence, but they are not as likely to be victims of other crime, and children are less likely to experience abuse as well.
Important measures that any state can take that would protect women and girls include to (1) restrict the availability of pornography and, (2) promote strong and stable marriages and families. Marriage and family are key to preventing “violence against women and girls.”
Negotiating Strategies
Insist that the family and marriage be promoted as a solution to “violence against women and girls,” rather than being viewed as the problem. Quote from the statistics above to show that violence occurs much more in cohabitating relationships rather than in a stable, married, mother/father family.
If marriage or family is promoted as a cause of “violence against women and girls,” object and insist on the removal of any such language. State: In their landmark report about encouraging marriage and families as a way to end violence against women, W. Bradford Wilcox & Robin Fretwell Wilson said, “The bottom line is that married women are less likely to be raped, assaulted, or robbed than their unmarried peers” and that “girls raised in a home with their married father are markedly less likely to be abused or assaulted than children living without their own father.”[1]
When causes of violence are discussed, include pornography and cohabitating as significant factors/causes of “violence against women and girls.” (See “Gender-Based Violence” and also see the “Pornography” section and for more information on how pornography viewing is a main driver of “violence against women and girls.”)
Talking Points
1. Marriage is safer for women. As a group of family scholars has noted, cohabitation is associated with higher rates of violence, including fatal violence, by partners than marriage.[2] One study found that “women in cohabiting relationships were nine times more likely to be killed by their partners than were women who were in marital relationships.”[3]
2. Married women experience much less violence than single women. “Overall, single and divorced women are four to five times more likely to be victims of violent crime in any given year than are married women. Single and divorced women are almost ten times more likely than are wives to be raped, and about three times more likely to be the victims of aggravated assault. For instance, the U.S. Department of Justice estimates that the violent victimization rate was 17 per 1000 married women compared to more than 60 per 1000 single and divorced women in 1992–1993.”[4]
3. The family is the safer environment for women and girls. One U.S. social scientist stated, “girls raised in a home with their married father are markedly less likely to be abused or assaulted than children living without their own father.”[5] British data are similar. They show “that rates of serious abuse of children are lowest in the intact married family but six times higher in the step family, 14 times higher in the always-single-mother family, 20 times higher in cohabiting-biological parent families, and 33 times higher when the mother is cohabiting with a boyfriend who is not the father of her children.”[6]
4. Pornography is a significant cause of violence against women and girls, yet, it is rarely addressed in UN policy negotiations. (See “Pornography” section.)
5. Since as long ago as 1995 up until as recently as 2016, [quote from selected research findings related to pornography below] studies have emerged showing how pornography viewing is a major driver of violence against women and girls. If we want to protect women and girls from violence, we need to add a statement calling for the elimination of pornography, or at a minimum, calling for stricter regulations on pornography distribution.
Research Findings on Pornography Viewing and Violence
- Men who were exposed to film depictions of sexual violence were more accepting of sexual violence and more attracted to it and less sympathetic to victims.[7]
- A meta-analysis showed pornography use was correlated with attitudes of support for violence against women, particularly if the pornography itself was violent.[8]
- A review of 22 studies from seven countries showed consumption of pornography was associated with verbal and physical sexual aggression.[9]
- Study of college-age men found strong association between use of almost all forms of pornography and “rape and rape proclivity.[10]
[1] Wilcox, W. B., Wilson, R. F. (2014, June 10). One Way to End Violence Against Women? Married Dads. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/06/10/the-best-way-to-end-violence-against-women-stop-taking-lovers-and-get- married/ ?noredirect=on&utm_term=.45f442b890c7
[2] Wilcox, W. B. (2011). Why Marriage Matters, Third Edition: Thirty Conclusions from the Social Sciences. New York, NY: Institute for American Values. Retrieved from https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/64484987/files/uploaded/Why-Marriage-Matters-Third-Edition-FINAL.pdf
[3] Pirog, M. & Vargas, E. D. (2007). Cohabiting Violence. In N. A. Jackson (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Domestic Violence (172-178). New York, NY: Routledge.
[4] Wilcox, W. B. (2011). Why Marriage Matters, Third Edition: Thirty Conclusions from the Social Sciences. New York, NY: Institute for American Values. Retrieved from https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/64484987/files/uploaded/Why-Marriage-Matters-Third-Edition-FINAL.pdf
[5] Wilcox, W. B. , Wilson, R. F. (2014, June 10). One Way to End Violence Against Women? Married Dads. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/06/10/the-best-way-to-end-violence-against-women-stop-taking-lovers-and-get-married/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.45f442b890c7
[6] Rector, R. E., Fagan, P. F., Johnson, K. A. (2004, March 9). Marriage: Still the Safest Place for Women and Children. Heritage Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.heritage.org/marriage-and-family/report/marriage-still-the-safest-place-women-and-children#pgfId-1075836
[7] Weisz, M. G. & Earls, C. M. (1995). The Effects of Exposure to Filmed Sexual Violence on Attitudes Toward Rape. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 10(1).
[8] Hald, G. M., Malamuth, N. M., Yuen, C. (2010). Pornography and Attitudes Supporting Violence Against Women: Revisiting the relationship in nonexperimental studies. Aggressive Behavior, 36(1), 14-20.
[9] Wright, P. J., Tokunaga, R. S., Kraus, A. (2016). A Meta‐Analysis of Pornography Consumption and Actual Acts of Sexual Aggression in General Population Studies. Journal of Communication, 66(1), 183-205.
[10] Boeringer, S. B. (1994). Pornography and sexual aggression: Associations of violent and nonviolent depictions with rape and rape proclivity. Deviant Behavior, 15(3), 289-304.