Effect of Militarization and Conflict on Intimate Partner Violence in Israel and South Africa

Abstract

It has only been recently that many countries have begun to look at domestic violence as asocietal problem, rather than a private one. Though several theories have been proposed as towhat factors are responsible for intimate partner violence (IPV), there is still a paucity ofresearch on the effect of militarization on gender violence. This thesis establishes a theoreticalframework for evaluating the militarized cultures of Israel and South Africa, the conflictthat both countries have experienced, and the extent to which militarization and conflicthave affected intimate partner violence within each society. The first case study evaluatesIsrael throughout its recent history as a state, while the second analyzes South Africa,specifically during and after the fall of Apartheid. Both case studies were chosen due to theirhistory of violent conflict within the state and the consequent militarization of their civilsocieties. I found that conflict affects gender violence because it is responsible for traumainduceddisorders (this study specifically looked at PTSD), which are significant predictors ofintimate partner violence. Furthermore, militarization creates militarized values within a societywhich leads to the degradation of, and violence directed at, “femininity”. Both conflict andmilitarization cause violence to permeate individual lives, which contributes to an individual’suse of violence in his/her personal life. The significance of this research is that it explains whyintimate partner violence occurs in areas under extreme conflict.