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Understanding violence in a social context
of gender inequality
Gendered patterns in violence
perpetration and victimisation
Most men are not violent: they are loving, caring and
respectful partners, brothers, fathers, friends and colleagues.
But around 95% of all victims of violence – whether women
or men – experience violence from a male perpetrator. 33
Experiences of violence are also gendered, with men
subjected to violence mostly from other men in public spaces,
and women mostly from men they know in private contexts.
Women are far more likely than men to experience sexual
violence and violence from an intimate partner, and with
more severe impacts. 34 Women are more likely than men to
be afraid of, hospitalised by, or killed by an intimate partner. 35
Regardless of gender, violence against anyone is
unacceptable. But to prevent violence against women,
our explanations and understandings must account for
these gendered patterns, particularly that violence is
overwhelmingly perpetrated by men.
95%
A socio-ecological model
for individual behaviour
Historically, many attempts to understand violence against
women have sought simplistic or single-factor causes for
individual men’s violence. Such explanations point to the
psychology or mental health of the perpetrator, his life
experiences (such as childhood exposure to violence),
behaviour (such as alcohol use) or personal circumstances
(such as unemployment). While such individual level factors
may well be relevant, we need to explain why most men to
whom they apply are not violent, and why other men not
exposed to any of these factors are violent. We also need
to explain why such factors seem relevant in some cases,
contexts or countries, but not others.
The notion of a ‘social ecology’ is a useful way of both
understanding individual behaviour in a social context,
and illustrating the dynamic interrelations between relevant
factors located at the individual, organisational, community,
systemic and social levels represented by the concentric
circles in Figure 3.
The research reviewed in Framework foundations 1 shows
that factors associated with higher levels of violence against
women include the ideas, values or beliefs that are common
or dominant in a society or community – called social or
cultural norms. Norms are reflected in our institutional or
community practices or behaviours, and are supported
by social structures, both formal (such as legislation) and
informal (such as hierarchies within a family or community),
as shown in Figure 3.
OF ALL VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE
– WHETHER WOMEN OR MEN – EXPERIENCE
VIOLENCE FROM A MALE PERPETRATOR.
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