Our human society loves its traditions and norms. We follow traditions even when we don’t know the origins of said traditions. If it was good enough for our parents, grandparents and ancestors, it can’t be wrong, right? There are many “mores” that we consider morally wrong today, yet they are still in practice in our world. One of these “mores” is the act of domestic violence against one’s spouse or romantic partner.
In Roman Law, a husband had the right to chastise (physically abuse) his wife even to the point of death! This law was in the early stages of the Republic, and towards the end of the Roman Empire a husband could not legally beat his wife to death. A man still had the right to physically abuse his wife, however.
In Great Britain, the law of chastisement slightly developed for the better. Under the old common law, the husband had the right to inflict moderate personal chastisement on his wife. The creators of the law thought “chastisement” was necessary to correct her for her misbehavior. The only limit on this rule was that the husband could only use a switch to chastise his wife, and the switch could be no bigger than his thumb. This law started becoming unpopular under the reign of Charles the Second. The poor and lower ranked people in British society still exercised their right to chastise their wives, and the courts allowed it in cases of gross misbehavior. The law was thankfully removed in 1891.
The British brought this right of chastisement to the United States during colonization. They brought the switch law over, and the courts gave justification for the law. In State v. Fulton, the court stated the reasoning behind the precedent:
1. “It is the husband’s duty to make his wive behave herself,” and thrash her if necessary to that end.
2. “To draw a veil over dealings between man and wife” and that a little wholesome chastising to “make her behave herself,” privately administered, would make less noise and scandal than the publicity of a court trail.
3. That there were long lines of legal decisions giving the husband privilege and immunity to inflict chastisement.
Other court cases gave husbands the rights to use violence against wives in certain conditions. In Pennsylvania, a court ruled a husband may lay his hands rudely upon his wife to prevent her from committing an unlawful act. In Massachusetts, a court ruled that a husband may exercise as much power as may be reasonably necessary to prevent his wife from making his home a brothel. Tennessee became the first state to outlaw spousal abuse in 1850. Starting in the 1870s, courts in the United States overruled the common-law principle of “physical chastisement of an errant wife”.
In most of the modern world, legal systems only recognized domestic violence starting in the 1990s. Domestic Violence is one of the most under-reported crimes in the world. One of the big reasons for domestic violence today is that outside of western society, husbands and wives are not considered equals and the wife must submit herself to her husband. This unequal viewpoint led husbands to believe they are superior and thus may do what they feel is necessary to make sure the wives are compliant to their wishes. It’s the same view points some people have about children or pet animals. In Yemen, a wife must obey her husband and must not leave the home without his permission.
One common aspect of abusers is that they witnessed abuse in their childhood, they then become participants in the intergenerational cycles of domestic violence. Research shows that the more children are physically punished, the more likely the will act violently towards family members and sexual partners as an adult. People who are spanked more as children are more likely as adults to approve of hitting a partner and experience more marital conflict.
All customs and mores aren’t good. Just because you witnessed a parent engaging in a behavior or endured abuse by one, doesn’t mean you have to continue the cycle of abuse. We have to be the generation who ends these abhorrent mores. I would argue that the totality of our current world is only more slightly developed on domestic violence than the ancient Romans. Chastisement of spouses hasn’t been and is no longer needed in this world. Women shouldn’t live in fear from the man they exchanged sacred vows with or the man they said I love you too. The legal court system developed and some of our societies developed, hopefully we can make domestic violence a relic of the past.
