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Confronting Violence

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Thesis Domestic Violence Statistical Data, 1975–1980

For her master's thesis, nursing student Jacquelyn Campbell analyzed cases of women killed by current or former partners in Dayton, Ohio between 1975 and 1979. She discovered that over 70 percent of the cases involved a prior history of domestic violence. Many of the women killed had sought medical services prior to their deaths, yet none had been identified by medical professionals as abuse victims.

In an effort to understand the causes of such violence, Campbell studied cultural and theoretical texts and ultimately concluded that misogyny and machismo grow out of patriarchal societies subordination of women, which normalizes violence against them. In a 2012 interview, Campbell reflected that this thesis provided a roadmap for her entire career.

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

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