Male Peer Support and Woman Abuse in CollegeUniversity Dating

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Male Peer Support and Woman Abuse in
College/University Dating

• Dr. Walter S. DeKeseredy
• Criminology Justice Studies
• University of Ontario Institute
• of Technology
• [phone]
• Walter.dekeseredy_at_uoit.ca

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Are Colleges Really Peaceful Sanctuaries from the
Real World?

• Many people see colleges as places.where the
  pursuit of truth and the exercise of reason
  prevail, and where it is assumed that our
  daughters will be safe from the lion in the
  streets.

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Is This Really So?

• Unfortunately, for many female students, college
  campuses are not and rarely have been safe
  retreats.
• Even Harvard University had, and still has, its
  share of crime.

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North American College Campuses have Long Been
Breeding Grounds for an Endemic Level of Crime

• For example, more than 150 years ago, Harvard
  University (pictured here) complained that
  students frequently committed crimes worthy of a
  penitentiary.

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And the Most Common Threat to Female Students
Safety is Woman Abuse in Dating

• Every day, many female undergraduates experience
  brutal and terrifying examples of not the way to
  love.
• These are behaviors that I and many others refer
  to as woman abuse.

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Definition of Woman Abuse in Dating

• It is any intentional physical, sexual, or
  psychological assault on woman who is her lover,
  live-in partner, steady, or casual date.
• There are many predictors of woman abuse in
  dating, but research shows that one of the most
  significant of these determinants is male peer
  support.

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Relevant Article to Read

• An article I wrote about defining woman abuse for
  this journal (Vol. 6, No. 7, July 2000) is
  available for you to read at your convenience.

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Definition of Male Peer Support

• Male peer support is a concept I developed.
• I define it as the attachments to male peers and
  the resources that these men provide which
  encourage and legitimate woman abuse.

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The Incidence and Prevalence of Woman Abuse in
North American College DatingSome Fast and
Disturbing Facts

• The Canadian National Survey on Woman Abuse in
  Dating (CNS) found that about 28 of female
  participants stated that they were sexually
  abused in the past year, while 45.1 stated that
  they were victimized this way since leaving high
  school.
• These data are consistent with those generated by
  large U.S. studies, such as the one Done by Mary
  Koss and her colleagues.

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Some More Disturbing Facts About Sexual Assault

• Based on data gleaned by their National College
  Women Sexual Victimization survey, Fisher et al.
  (2000) estimate that women at a college that has
  10,000 female students could experience more than
  350 rapes a year.
• Their date rape data show that 12.8 of completed
  rapes, 35 of attempted rapes, and 22.9 of
  threatened rapes took place on a date.

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Physical Abuse

• National Canadian and U.S. surveys show that at
  least 22 of female college students were
  physically assaulted by their boyfriends or
  dating partner in the past year.
• A higher rate is always reported when respondents
  are asked to describe what happened during a
  longer time period.

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Psychological Abuse

• In Canada and the U.S., national surveys found
  that over 80 of women reported having been
  psychologically abused by male dating partners in
  the past year.

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Stalking Can be Considered a Form of
Psychological Abuse

• Fischer et al.s (2002) 1997 national study of
  U.S. female college students shows that 13.1 of
  the women in their sample were stalked during the
  7 months prior to their survey.
• More than 4 in 10 known stalkers were a boyfriend
  or ex-boyfriend.

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To Advance a Better Understanding of Woman Abuse
in Dating, and to both Prevent and Control it,
More than just Accurate Data are Needed.

• We need to explain why college men engage in
  woman abuse.
• Thus, in this presentation, we will examine one
  of the key reasons why woman abuse takes place.

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DeKeseredys Male Peer Support Model
Dating Relationship
Stress
Male Peer Social Support
Woman Abuse
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Summary of Theory

• Many men experience various types of stress in
  dating relationships, ranging from sexual
  problems to challenges to their patriarchal
  authority.
• Some men try to deal with these problems
  themselves. Others turn to their male friends for
  advice, guidance, and various other kinds of
  social support.
• The resources provided by these peers may
  encourage and justify woman abuse under certain
  conditions.

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What Do the Data Say?

• Data derived from one of my earlier studies show
  that for men with high levels of dating life
  events stress, social ties or bonds with abusive
  peers is strongly related to woman abuse.

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Still, the Model Has Some Limitations, Such as

• Too focused on individual factors.
• Even though the variables described in the
  original model are related, DeKeseredy and
  Schwartz argue that four more factors need to be
  added to any model the ideologies of familial
  and courtship patriarchy, alcohol consumption,
  membership in formal groups (e.g., fraternities),
  and the absence of deterrence.

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Lets Now Turn to DeKeseredy and Schwartzs
Modified Model
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Evaluation of Expanded Model

• Although each of the elements of the model have
  been tested, there has not been a test of the
  entire model.
• It is basically a teaching model, which
  summarizes the complex literature on the linkage
  between male peer support and woman abuse.
• Nevertheless, several hypotheses from the model
  have been tested and data generated by several
  studies support them.

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• For example, data generated by my national
  Canadian study show that there is a relationship
  between sexual abuse in college courtship and
• attachments to male peers who physically,
  sexually, and psychologically abuse their dating
  partners and
• Friends who verbally encourage the abuse of dates
  or girlfriends in certain situations, such as
  challenges to patriarchal authority.
• Furthermore, males who report abusing dating
  partners are more likely to adhere to the
  ideology of familial patriarchy than non-abusive
  males.

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Suggestions for Further Empirical and Theoretical
Work

• Need to examine social class and ethnic
  variations in male peer support.
• Male peer support among nonuniversity groups.
• Cyber male peer support.
• Growing out of it?
• How do pro-abuse peer groups develop and
  reproduce themselves?

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Ending Woman Abuse in College DatingThe
Contribution of Profeminist Men

• Since it is men who are the offenders, it should
  be men not women who change their behavior
• Ron Thorne-Finch, author of Ending the Silence.

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What Do Profeminist Men Do?

• They are involved in an ongoing process of
  changing themselves, self-examination, and
  self-discovery, with the ultimate goal of
  shedding their patriarchal baggage.
• They work individually and collectively to change
  other men.
• Also, with feminists, they critique the broader
  social and economic structure and institutions
  like the pornography industry, the military,
  professional sports, and the justice system.
• They contend that men must take an active role in
  stopping woman abuse and other forms of
  patriarchal control and domination.

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Campus-Based Profeminist MensEfforts to End
Woman Abuse

• Protesting and boycotting video stores that carry
  pornography.
• Demanding that issues of central concern to the
  gay, lesbian, and transgendered community be
  addressed in classes, dorms, etc.
• Confronting men who make sexist jokes and who are
  abusive.

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Other Campus-Based Profeminist Mens Strategies

• Supporting and participating in woman abuse
  awareness programs.
• Actively listening to women and reading
  literature on their concerns.
• Protesting racist practices and discourses.

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Evaluating the Effectiveness of Campus
Profeminist Mens Efforts

• To the best of my knowledge, there has been no
  systematic empirical evaluation of the
  effectiveness of strategies like those described
  here.
• Still, the most likely effective strategy would
  be a collaborative, coordinated, integrated
  community response to woman abuse.

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New Profeminist Strategies for Change

• Develop ties with profeminist mens groups at
  other campuses.
• Use humor and art.
• Letters to newspapers, television shows, etc.
• Volunteer to appear on talk shows, invite the
  media and call press conferences about special
  events, hold book launches, etc.

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For More Information on Profeminist Mens Work,
Please Read

• Ron Thorne-Finchs (1992) Ending the Silence.
• Russ Funks (2006) Reaching Men.
• M. Schwartz and W. DeKeseredys Sexual Assault on
  the College Campus The Role of Male Peer Support.

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More Information

• The Role of Profeminist Men in Dealing with
  Woman Abuse on the Canadian College Campus.
  Violence Against Women, Vol. 6, No. 9, September
  2000, pp. 918-935.

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• Co-authored by me, Martin Schwartz and Shahid
  Alvi, this article has been given to you to read
  at your convenience.

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Conclusion

• Many scholars and activists contend that much of
  what is bad our world is the product of men and
  masculinity.
• This is understandable because men commit most of
  the predatory street and corporate crimes, take
  us to war, and are the main perpetrators of
  intimate violence.

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However,

• We often forget an important point made by Lee
  Bowker, Much of what is good in the worldhas
  been contributed by masculine role players.

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Profeminism Can Challenge Male Peer Support for
Woman Abuse

• It replaces proabuse peers with antisexist peers
  and patriarchal norms, values and beliefs with
  those that are profeminist.
• Profeminist men are also challenging the
  antifeminist backlash, homophobia, etc. that are
  precluding men from giving up their patriarchal
  baggage.

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Prepare for the Long Haul

• There is no short cut to make campuses abuse
  free.
• But, regardless of how long it takes to get
  there, the long hard profeminist journey toward
  equality is worth it, and I encourage all men to
  be fellow travellers.