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10 Critical Criminology 1 (2001)

handle is hein.journals/ctlcrm10 and id is 1 raw text is: LA Critical Criminology 10: 1-16, 2001. © 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. TOWARD A GENDERED SOCIAL BOND/MALE PEER SUPPORT THEORY OF UNIVERSITY WOMAN ABUSE * ALBERTO GODENZI Boston College MARTIN D. SCHWARTZ & WALTER S. DEKESEREDY Ohio University Accepted 7 July 2001 Abstract. Despite many calls for integrated woman abuse theories, few have made any such attempts. Taking as a starting point that gender blind and conservative theories may still have some value, Hirschi's social bond theory is examined with insights from feminist male peer support theory and other critical perspectives. The goal is not a formal new theory but rather a heuristic designed to show the value of adding feminist insight to gender blind theory. Hirschi is turned upside down here with an argument that attachment and involvement with conven- tional peers may in fact promulgate violence against women on college campuses when it is noted that conventional institutions are patriarchal and part of a rape culture. University groups (social fraternities, sports teams, etc.) may enforce adherence through homophobia and group pressure, while promoting a hypermasculine culture that encourages men to use coercion and force to increase their count of sexual encounters. Introduction Among the many theories of woman abuse, few attempt to engage the major theoretical contributions of criminologists (Cardarelli 1997), and integrated theories of woman abuse are rare. The social bond/male peer support model presented here brings together several bodies of knowledge - feminism, masculinities, control theory, and male peer support - partially in response to Miller and Wellford's (1997) call for theory integration in explaining male- to-female victimization, and following a growing trend among criminologists to develop integrated theories (e.g., Barak 1998; Messner, Krohn, and Liska 1990). Further, like the theoretical contributions made by Ellis (1989), Young (1999), and Branch, Sellers, and Cochran (2001), our model shows that consensus or middle range theories that have been sharply attacked for ignoring gender may still have useful theoretical constructs that can be combined with critical insights. * Correspondence should be sent to Martin D. Schwartz, Sociology and Anthropology, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701. We would like to thank Shahid Alvi, Gregg Barak, Desmond Ellis, Paul Leighton, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments.

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