Status of Family Violence in China

Status of Family Violence in China

Author realized that there are a lot of family violence exists in China because a Chinese drama called "Don't Talk to Stranger" which first use family violence as a topic warn every Chinese people and society paying attention on this problem. Now, along with the change of society, domestic violence phenomena appeared unceasingly in China. According to "the Chinese women's situation in the white paper "which was Promulgated by the state council in 1994. There are about 400,000 family collapse each year, and about 25% is due to family violence.( Hunan Department by the National Women's Federation) Because rate of the family violence is up, we need to think of the reasons; finding out approaches to countering family violence is urgent.

Although family violence is an old problem, but even in the west, people began to emphasize and research this problem from the beginning of 1960s. The reason is that domestic violence is not a simple violent crime, and it are always intertwined with people's idea, family ethical value, and traditional culture of society. Family violence also is unintentionally hushed up, even considereid normal things. American criminologists who were researching family violence crime all tried to answer: why in such a long time, all public institutions and private groups could ignore its existence when there are sufficient evidences to prove that the family violence is the most serious violence?

Domestic Violence (also as family violence, referred to as DV), generally refers that the violence occurred between family members which is a common family phenomenon in ancient and modern family. (Robert E. Emery, 321)

For identifying domestic violence, we must first figure out each meaning about "family" and "violence". "Family" refers to the marriage and the kinship as links to the basic social unit. Based on marriage, "family members" means parents, children and other relatives who are live together. "Violence" refers to the violent behavior which is for encroaching personal safety and property, and violence should have the following characteristics: the nature of the illegal, rapid and violent forms, sudden time, serious consequences, subjective purpose, and so on.

I. The reason of Family Violence in China

A, Traditional and cultural factors.

Chinese feudal culture has more than two thousand years of. As the ideology of feudal culture, sexism is not only a social phenomenon at that time but also a deep-rooted concept in the human mind. Although China has worked hard on establishing gender equality, protecting the rights of women and minors such as the legislation of gender equality, workplace promotion and appointment of women cadres since the founding of New China, awareness in people's minds still keep a great market for the Patriarchal and husbandly ideology.

B, Social changes generated by social pressure.

According to the violence "oppression to induce" mode, the various factors caused the individual depress, and resulted in serious psychological conflict. When confronting to some external stimulations, it is very easy to bring out aggressive behaviors.(Wei,528) In the nearly two decades, China has undergone tremendous social change. On the one hand, social change has improved the people's material and cultural life; on the other hand, it also has increased the competitive pressures of life for people. Particularly, the social system of China is changing from the planned economy to a market economy. During the process, the impact of ideas results in vibration of social order, and it also brings the changes of the concept about life at home. The main form of social pressure is the laid-off urban workers and surplus rural labor. Since the state-owned enterprises generally loss, a significant increase is in the rural population; at the same time, some urban and rural workers are hard to make a living. Therefore, if the pressures of life build up to an unprecedented level, it will stimulate family violence.

C, Other factors.

Domestic violence is the result of a combination of factors. These factors include differences in economic level of husband and wife, education levels, the law environments, and the factors of physical differences. ?

As society changes, There are a lot of the changes which is the level of income in many couples. The income levels of husband are increasing, and the concept of the traditional patriarchal culture. It is easy to strengthen the role is that men always control the family. Once the wives are in conflict with this kind of control, it will prone to family violence. In addition,