Eichhorn Katherine Capstone

UC Riverside UCR Honors Capstones 2020-2021 Title Psychological Consequences on Male-Gendered Victims of Domestic Violence Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/27m5m7s3 Author Eichhorn, Katherine M. Publication Date 2021-08-13 Data Availability The data associated with this publication are within the manuscript. eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES ON MALE-GENDERED VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE By Katherine Marie Eichhorn A capstone project submitted for Graduation with University Honors May 06, 2021 University Honors University of California, Riverside APPROVED Dr. Amalia L. Cabezas, Ph.D. Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies Department of Media and Cultural Studies Dr. Richard Cardullo, Howard H Hays Jr. Chair University Honors ABSTRACT To create a better legal system for victims of violence and sexual crimes, research is necessary regarding the emotional impact on affected victims. What is the impact emotionally and socially on male-gendered victims of domestic violence? What changes can be made to further improve the legal system in a way that allows a better environment that encourages individuals to come forward and prosecute their perpetrators? How can accessibility and availability of resources be expanded to assist the non-female victim population? Domestic violence cases are one of the more difficult situations legally and socially. In many cases, individuals have a secure emotional attachment to their abuser and may feel that their case will fall through the cracks of the system. The form of research conducted will be through a literary review of domestic violence research in a way that expands towards the underserved and underrepresented population of those who are male-gendered. There is a gap in the current research that needs to be filled and studied more thoroughly. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to express my great appreciation for my mentor on this project, Dr. Amalia L. Cabezas, for her valuable insights and critiques, continuous patience and guidance, and endless encouragement. Without her, it would have been much more challenging to complete this project, and she helped me learn to be more patient with myself and trust the tedious researching and writing process. I would also like to thank the University of California, Riverside University Honors Program, Dr. Richard Cardullo, and the countless other staff in the program. Without the program and the team, I would not have spent the time researching a topic I have become quite passionate about over the last few years. A special mention should go to the Riverside Area Rape Crisis Center. Without the valuable life experience and personal interactions I have been privileged to have with survivors, I would not have as much personal experience and knowledge on this subject. I also need to thank my partner, Gabriel, who sits down and listens to me every time I am stressed and supports and encourages me to pursue everything I want out of life. Finally, I wish to give special thanks to my parents for helping shape me into the person I am today. They have allowed me to accomplish everything I have in my life so far, and I cherish their continuous support for everything I do and will achieve in the future. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction II. What is Domestic Violence (DV) ? III. Public Opinion and Domestic Violence IV. When Men Were Excluded V. Literature Review VI. Men as Victims VII. Conclusion and Recommendations 4 I. Introduction In May of 2016, Amber Heard filed for divorce and had filed a restraining order against Depp for alleged Domestic Violence and Abuse (Nessif 2016). Using the term alleged is purposeful in this case as there has been no formal conviction. It has not been proven in the court of law that the statements she made are truthful. Her filing a restraining order and alleging abuse was the gateway to a social media uprising where teenagers and young adults, mainly on Twitter, chose sides in their divorce. After this initial social media frenzy, Amber Heard also wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post discussing her alleged experiences of physical abuse with her partner at the time, Johnny Depp. In the op-ed, she stated that "Like many women, I had been harassed and sexually assaulted by the time I was of college-age. But I kept quiet — I did not expect filing complaints to bring justice. And I didn't see myself as a victim." And "I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real-time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse" (Heard 2018). It was a "he said she said" situation, but over time, people went against Heard because pictures of Depp surfaced online with black eyes, and he used his platform to say he suffered the abuse from Heard. In 2016 when Heard showed up for a temporary restraining order appearing with bruises on her face, Depp denied being the abuser. He stated that "She was the perpetrator, and I was the victim. While mixing prescription amphetamines and non-prescription drugs with alcohol, Ms. Heard committed innumerable acts of domestic violence against me, often in the presence of a third-party witness, which in some instances caused me serious bodily harm." (Anon "Johnny Depp Accuses" 2019). Heard filed her restraining order in 2016, but the #metoo became prominent the following year. This movement sparked passion over Twitter about the importance of believing survivors who tell their stories and reducing victim-blaming. 5 Initially, in 2016, Twitter users believe everything Heard said to them and trusted her. However, when Johnny Depp made responding statements, the #metoo movement also helped propel his voice. He has stated numerous times that Amber Heard had her lawyers claiming abuses that were unbacked and lacked evidence. Even now, there are trending hashtags on Twitter calling for #justicefordepp, and a petition gained millions of signatures calling for the firing of Amber Heard from many prominent film roles. She did end up losing these roles. However, because of the controversy, Johnny Depp did as well. When I began to examine the information about Johnny Depp's and Amber Heard's social and legal disputes, there had not been many updates since the summer of 2020. However, as of April 30, 2021, there has been an uproar in allegations that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating Amber Heard in Australia for perjury (Davis 2021). A YouTuber pre- empted this, and there is no objective evidence, but that shows just how much interactions online can influence public opinion. The emphasis on how strongly influenced public opinion can be is essential because, with many individuals who use social media, public opinion can change within days or weeks. Utilizing an online platform could bring awareness about the pervasive issues in society, including the understudy of males as victims. The ignorance of sexual and physical victimization occurred over a prolonged period, centuries even. Gender and power relations perpetuated this ignorance, and they are still prevalent in society today. Over the last few decades, there has been much progress for women's justice, but what about the men suffering the same abuses? In the case of Johnny Depp, it took a massive movement of fans to change the public discourse and question why females are recognized as victims regularly, but males are not. There has been no conclusion or answers for 6 what truly transpired between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, and there may never be. There is a possibility that they were, in fact, both the victims and both the perpetrators. People will never know what truly happened behind closed doors. This case brings more significant questions to the forefront: what does the idea of a man being the victim mean for people? How does a man being a victim put their masculinity into question? What is the public perception of this male following the announcement that they may be the victim? In this paper, I investigate the relationship between male exclusion from domestic violence literature and how that may carry psychological consequences for male-gendered victims of domestic violence. I will present a definition of Domestic Violence and how it became part of today’s public discourse. I examine the exclusion of men from both genealogy and rhetoric and how that has a ripple effect throughout the lives of male-gendered victims of domestic violence. Using a literature review, I will analyze how the exclusion socially and in research impacts the experience of victims of domestic violence who are male-gendered. II. What is Domestic Violence (DV)? In California, the legal legislations of Family Code - FAM Division 10 "Prevention of Domestic Violence" encompasses codes 6200-6219. They refer to this division as the Domestic Violence Prevention Act that became effective on January 1, 1994. Abuse is defined as any intentional or reckless attempt to cause of bodily injury, sexual assault, placing a person in "reasonable apprehension of imminent serious bodily injury," and any abuse that is not limited to the infliction of physical injury (CA Family Code, 6203). This abuse, as defined by California legislation, becomes "domestic violence" when a spouse or former spouse perpetrates the abuse, 7 a cohabitant or former cohabitant (defined in section 6209), a person with "whom the respondent is having or has had a dating… or relationship", a person with whom the respondent has had a child with, a "child of a party or a child who is the subject of an action under the Uniform Parentage Act, where the presumption applies that the male parent is the father of the child to be protected," or any other person related consanguinity or otherwise (CA Family Code, 6211).

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