The impact of gendered stereotypes and perceptions of violence: perceptions of female perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence

Historical approaches to research and practice have meant that female perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence have been marginalized from focused exploration. Despite the wealth of evidence of women’s intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration (Hines et al., J Family Violence 22(2):63–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-006-9052-0, 2007; West, J Lesb Stud 6(1):121–127. https://doi.org/10.1300/J155v06n01_11, 2002) and sexual violence (Weare, Arch Sex Behav 47(8):2191–2205. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1232-5, 2018a), there is still a widespread lack of acknowledgment of women’s IPV perpetration in policy (e.g., in the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (2021) in the United Kingdom [UK]), practice (Hope et al., Partner Abuse 12(4):384–408. https://doi.org/10.1891/PA-2021-0011, 2022), and in the public narrative and perceptions, including those within the criminal justice system (Donovan et al., The training needs of magistrates in relation to domestic abuse. Durham University. https://dro.dur.ac.uk/33192/1/33192.pdf, 2020). The aim of the current chapter is to review the existing literature on our understanding of how gender influences our perceptions of family and sexual violence. Specifically, this chapter will explore the influence of gender on how we perceive and address IPV, sibling aggression and child-to-parent violence in terms of how it affects treatment and intervention with both perpetrators and victims.