The Social Construction of Violence: The Case of Sexual and Domestic Violence.”Personality and Social Psychology Review. Vol 3 (3

What counts as "violence " is socially constructed, has varied over time, and reflects power relationships. Informed by social constructionism, we illustrate thesepoints us-ing as examples sexual violence and domestic violence. We review changes in how so-ciety and social scientists have defined and understood these topics during the last 30 years. We then discuss 3 areas ofcontinuing controversy: who should decide ifsexual or domestic violence has occurred, what to count as sexualand domestic violence, and the role ofgender in defining sexual and domestic violence. The American public is concerned about violence. The nightly news brings stories of serial rapists prowl-ing neighborhoods, estranged husbands murdering their wives, and strange men molesting children on their way to school. The public is understandably frightened and concerned. Social scientists have re-sponded by attempting to explain why some individu-als engage in violence and by recommending solutions. Although explaining and preventing violence seems difficult, identifying what behaviors constitute violence seems, at first glance, to be obvious. The pro-cess of labeling some behaviors as violent and others as nonviolent, however, is not as simple or straightfor-ward as it might seem. How do some behaviors come to be regarded as violent, worthy of news reports, leg-islative action, and scholarly inquiry, whereas others come to be regarded as nonviolent or escape our atten-tion entirely? How is violence defined, and what dif-ference does it make? In this article, we examine how violence is defined and conceptualized. Our thesis is that what counts as violence is socially constructed, has varied over time, and reflects power relationships. Informed by social constructionism, we illustrate these points using as examples sexual and domestic violence