SOWK6596: Domestic Violence Prevention

Domestic violence, or intimate violence, is becoming more prevalent and reported in our communities. This course will discuss theories behind intimate violence in families, possible causes or different types of intimate violence, as well as discuss intervention strategies for master’s level social workers when working with families, individual victims, or alleged perpetrators around intimate violence. In addition, students will have the opportunity to further understand intimate violence and how to treat victims, families, and advocate for policy changes on the community and state levels. We will begin with sociological and social-psychological theories of aggression and violence in general, including social learning theory, the frustration-aggression hypothesis, and violence as catharsis. Because intimate violence is so often entangled with issues of gender, we will be focusing on the contributions of gender socialization to the problem. We will explore the facilitative effects of social structure, with a special focus on race and socioeconomic status. We will consider two factors popularly considered to be contributors to intimate violence: pornography and alcohol abuse. Finally, we will investigate specific forms of intimate violence: partner abuse, elderly abuse, child abuse, and sexual aggression (including “date rape”); with each topic, we will examine the empirical studies conducted to date and will interpret the results of this research in light of the theories of intimate violence that guided them.