Sociology of gender violence in Spain. A proposed analysis

Abstract

Johan Galtung coined the concept of «triangle of violence» to explain the dynamics of the generation of violence in social conflicts. According to this author, violence is like an iceberg in which the visible violence (or direct violence) is only a part of the conflict, with other more invisible types of violence such as structural violence and cultural violence. Understanding violence, in this case against women, means taking into account the three types of violence. Likewise, in the feminist theory, the presence of a specific type of violence to which women are exposed by their gender and which concerns injuries, physical, sexual, psychological or economic distress was made explicit. From this point of view, violence against women is understood as part of a system of domination or, more specifically, as dominance practices established by men. The purpose of the text presented hereafter is to describe and analyze the various types of violence against women in relation with the uneven situation of women in society. The methodology used has required the consultation of secondary data obtained from official resources, as well as the development of indicators which show the violence experienced by women from the perspective of the «triangle of violence», regarding data in relation with direct, structural or cultural violence. The findings suggest the interrelation of such violence types, specifying that, in all of them, the lesser power and the inequality of women with regard to men constitutes an explanatory factor in the production of violence.