Comparison of Burgess and Draper's theory of family violence and the film, The Burning BedI. IntroductionBurgess and Draper argue that coercive patterns of family interaction represent the primary causal pathway that links ecological instability to violence within families. They argue that this raises the possibility that some of the common correlates of such violence are themselves reactions to sudden or chronic ecological instability. For example, alcoholism, depression, and anxiety may be responses to ecological stresses within the family, such as job loss, excessive financial debt, or divorce. Burgess and Draper suggest that violence against spouses or children may therefore be a direct result of ecological instability. They argue that certain individual traits (e.g., alcohol problems), which were previously thought to precipitate violent behavior, may actually be the result of the same factors that lead to family violence itself. The film, The Burning Bed, is made for television. film focused on the issue of domestic violence. The main characters were Francine and Mickey Hughes, a battered wife and an abusive husband. In the story, Francine fought against Mickey's violence and bullying for almost twenty years and finally ended up killing him in his sleep. It is a vivid and realistic film about domestic violence and the way society viewed this violence in the not-so-distant past. Comparing the film to Burgess and Draper's hypothesis, some agreements and disagreements become apparent. Do Burgess and Draper adequately explain and predict Hughes's model of domestic violence?II. Ecological Instability Ecological instability describes when a... middle of paper ...... was beaten and then when she was marked and bruised, I think Mickey Hughes deserved what he got, but he should have suffered more. The compassion I feel for any woman who is victimized by a man probably makes me biased in this sense. After reading Burgess and Draper's article, I feel even more vindicated in my position. They encourage the reader to look for the cause of the abuse elsewhere than in the woman's or man's alcohol consumption. The way Burgess and Draper's article reflects the abusive relationship within the Hughes family helps put the abuse in the correct perspective, where an adult can still be held responsible for their own actions. Works Cited: Burning Bed, The (1984) (TV). Directed by Robert Greenwald. Writing credits: Rose Lieman Goldemberg. Ohlin, Lloyd and Michael Tonry, eds. Family violence. University of Chicago Press, 1989.