Lived Realities and the Construction of Social Problems: The Case of Wife Abuse

Abstract

This article examines the official and subjective realities of one social problem, wife abuse, and it considers consequences of differences between these two types of reality. First, claims appearing in the professional literature are used to define the specific content of the official social problem. Then, characteristics of violence as experienced are compared with this official definition. Finally, data from a shelter for battered women are used to illustrate consequences of official definitions in organizations designed to ameliorate the individual troubles associated with social problems. The study demonstrates how the official definition of wife abuse acts and actors has reduced the recognizability of the phenomenon in lived experience and also set the stage for reality‐definition contests in social services for abused wives. This illustrates the importance of examining sociologically the specific content of social problems claims and the necessity of attending to social problems in their full phenomenological realities.

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