Myths and truths in the criticism of the feminist approach to intimate partner violence. The centrality of gender in the intimate partner violence in Catalonia

Abstract

This study assesses the validity of the antifeminist discourse on three fundamental aspects of intimate partner violence (IPV): the degree to which the aggressors behave like other violent offenders who attack any people, or rather specialize in assaulting their partners; how much of their violence is unilateral (from men to women) or bilateral (also from women to men); and to what extent it is a phenomenon imported from abroad through migratory flows, or it has rather no frontiers even though it has a greater impact on vulnerable populations. Using data from criminal and assistance-to-victim records corresponding to a complete 5-year cohort of aggressors convicted of IPV crimes, and a random sample of about 10% of all offenders convicted for any crime during the same period in Catalonia, we conclude that the criticisms against the feminist discourse have little basis, at least in what regards the violence processed by the penal system. This violence is primarily a matter of men who specialize in assaulting vulnerable partners, many of them immigrants.