The Correlation Between Substacne Abuse, And Abuse Agaisnt Women By Male Partners

8 Pages 2057 Words

abuse women is much more complicated than disinhibition theory says it is. I have included other’s perspectives of the substance-violence relationship in this essay as well, and they are briefly described below:
1. An excuse. In many societies, including ours, substance use has a role as a time out from responsibility during which the user can engage in exceptional behavior and later disavow the behavior as caused by the substance rather than the self ( MacAndrew & Edgerton, 1969 ). Some observers suggest batterers use substances first as a vehicle, then as an excuse, for being controlling and violent.
2. A cognitive disrupter. Drugs or alcohol may reduce the user's ability to perceive, integrate, and process information, increasing his risk for violence ( Pernanen ). Substance-induced disruption or distortion of thinking, in conjunction with other factors, increases the risk the user will interpret his partner's behavior as arbitrary, aggressive, abandoning, or overwhelming. Batterers may be more likely than non-batterers to misinterpret the actions of their partners in this manner, and substances enhance the misinterpretation.
3. A power motive. Substance abuse and woman abuse may share common origins in a need to achieve personal power and control ( Gondolf ). David McClelland ( 1975 ) argues that the alcohol-aggression relationship is conditional upon individual power needs. Small quantities of a substance tend to increase a social user's sense of altruistic power, or the power to help others. A large quantity of a substance for social users, or any quantity of a substance for substance abusers, tends to increase the user's sense of personal power and domination over others rather than their altruistic power. This power-using relationship seems to be speci...