A Gender Inclusive Paradigm for Domestic Violence Offenders

This chapter explores the ongoing debate between the gendered paradigm and the family violence paradigm in explaining the etiology of intimate partner violence (IPV). The gendered paradigm of IPV typically argues that violence occurs as an expression of power and control to exert patriarchal norms that clearly delineates an aggressor (man) and victim (woman) binary. The family violence paradigm advances social learning models as necessary to understanding the development of IPV, not as an expression of patriarchy, but from how behavior and the relationship to feelings are learned. Given that research has pointed toward comparable rates of IPV occurring across gender and sexual identity, a new theoretical model is needed to better understand how and why people use violence in navigating their intimate relationships. Building on these approaches, we introduce a novel paradigm rooted in queer theory to improve our understanding of who, how, and why people from diverse sexuality and gender backgrounds engage in IPV. This queer paradigm of IPV deconstructs the aggressor –>victim binary presented in the gendered paradigm to reveal the ways in which individuals can draw on their own agency to redraw their relationships with emotions to reduce instances of IPV.