Domestic Violence and Social Time

Abstract

Domestic violence is the use of force between partners who live together as a couple. Most is a form of conflict management known as self-help: the handling of a grievance with aggression.  Here I introduce two principles of domestic violence that explain 1) which couples have more violence and 2) what causes their violence. The first principle -- domestic violence is a direct function of domestic distance -- explains why some domestic structures (such as “cold patriarchies”) have more violence than others (such as “close democracies”).  The second principle -- domestic violence is a direct function of the movement of domestic time -- explains particular cases of domestic violence with changes (such as decreases of intimacy or increases of inequality) in the domestic relationships where they occur. These principles explain domestic violence in traditional and modern societies, by men and women, and in heterosexual and same-sex couples.