Context Of Domestic Violence Research Articles

Mirrored Harms: Unintended Consequences in the Grant of Tribal Court Jurisdiction over Non-Indian Abusers

1st Place Winner of the American Indian Law Review National Writing Competition 2019-2020. Rates of domestic violence are astonishingly high in Indian country. More than half of Indian women have experienced physical violence in their lifetimes. They are twice as likely to experience rape as white women and to experience more violent rape when it occurs. Their plight is also deeply intertwined with race: Ninety percent of women reported that the intimate partner violence they experienced was at the hands of a non-Indian perpetrator. At the same time, tribes are largely unable to address this problem through their criminal laws due to the centuries-long erosion of tribal sovereignty. In the 1977 case of Oliphant v. Suquamish Tribe, the Supreme Court held that tribes had no inherent authority to prosecute non-Indians for crimes committed on Indian land. This departure from commonly understood tribal sovereignty principles created a vacuum that disproportionately affected Indian victims of domestic violence. Non-Indians could act with virtual impunity, immune from prosecution by the tribe and, usually, the state. Meanwhile, the federal government, which retained criminal jurisdiction, declined to prosecute an astonishing two-thirds of sexual violence cases and nearly half of assault crimes. In response to these problems, Congress passed Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction (SDVCJ) in its 2013 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. This provision “recognize[s] and affirm[s]” the “inherent power” of tribes to exercise criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians, effectively overruling Oliphant with respect to crimes of domestic violence. Tribes overwhelmingly applauded this legislation for its enhancement of tribal sovereignty and for its effort to combat the scourge of domestic violence in Indian territory. Despite the best intentions of the legislators, however, a number of defects in the legislation undermine its goal of protecting Indian victims of domestic violence. In this paper, I argue that SDVCJ has created unintended harms that mirror the very harms that the domestic violence movement as a whole has been trying to address. I do not argue that SDVCJ is a net detriment to remediating domestic violence or enhancing tribal sovereignty, but that the harms present in the current iteration of SDVCJ should concern legislators and advocates seeking to actually address domestic violence. In particular, I track how limitations on the type of crimes that can be prosecuted — essentially, only physical assaults — mirror problems from early periods in the domestic violence movement, including the perception that only physical assaults are sufficiently serious to be worthy of state sanction and the failure to recognize domestic violence as an exertion of power and control over a victim rather than a series of discrete, isolated incidents. I also explore how the elements of SDVCJ can be manipulated by a perpetrator based on his own identity or the identity of the victim — a problem that is unique to the intersection of SDVCJ and the political classification and racial makeup of Indians on tribal lands — and argue that this, too, mirrors existing and prior harms of domestic violence’s interaction with the law. I further argue that SDVCJ’s definition of a victim puts the onus on her to prove that she is worthy of protection, reflecting the traditional blame placed on the woman for failure to prevent her own battering. Finally, I discuss some potential solutions, and conclude that SDVCJ should be expanded to encompass all crimes committed within a domestic violence context and without regard to the identity of perpetrator or victim.

Participation of women in social organizations and family networks in the context of domestic violence

El aislamiento social de mujeres victimas de violencia domestica constituye un factor de riesgo agravante y perpetuador del fenomeno para la poblacion afectada. El objetivo del trabajo fue vincular mujeres embarazadas victimas de violencia domestica con la participacion en organizaciones sociales y redes familiares. Estudio retrospectivo, de fuentes secundarias con muestreo consecutivo de mujeres que acudieron a hospitales publicos de Alto Parana, Paraguay. Se aplico la Escala de Gelles y Straus y un cuestionario sobre participacion en organizaciones sociales y contacto con familiares. El 70,1% (n=733) de las 1046 mujeres fue victima de violencia psicologica; 23,9% (n=250) de violencia fisica; 7,5% (n=78) de abuso sexual y 7,9% (n=83) de violencia economica. La participacion en organizaciones fue reportada como sigue: 41% (n=429) en grupo de iglesia, 12,8% (n=134) en cooperadora escolar, 16,3% (n=171) en organizaciones vecinales; 5,5% (n=58) en clubes deportivos, 4,1% (n=43) clubes de madres, 3,4% (n=36) organizaciones de mujeres y 2,6% (n=27) en organizaciones sindicales. El hecho de ser victima de violencia psicologica se asocio con la no participacion en cooperadoras escolares (p<0,045) y al no frecuentar amigas (p=0,020). Tanto ser victima de abuso sexual (p<0,004) como ser victima de violencia economica (0,028) se asociaron con no frecuentar a los padres. La poblacion de estudio ademas de reunir caracteristicas sociales de vulnerabilidad, es victima de violencia domestica asociada a su falta de participacion en organizaciones sociales y redes familiares.

Parental reactions to parent- and sibling-directed aggression within a domestic violence context.

Parent- and sibling-directed aggression by minor children are two forms of family violence that often co-occur and have strong relations to prior exposure to domestic violence, yet are often overlooked in intervention efforts. In addition, current research does not examine these forms of family violence in tandem, and there is very limited research with samples exposed to domestic violence. To better understand how these forms of aggression operate within a domestic violence context, we interviewed 44 women residing in a domestic violence shelter with at least one child over 3.5 years of age who was aggressive toward them and/or siblings. Caregivers reported on their emotional reactions to children's parent-directed aggression and the types of and effectiveness of help they sought for parent- and/or sibling-directed aggression. In line with previous literature, caregivers endorsed a complex mix of emotional reactions to their children's parent-directed aggression, including anger, sadness, guilt, forgiveness, and worthlessness. In contrast to other studies, most caregivers (89%) had sought help for children's parent- and/or sibling-directed aggression and found it effective. Findings contribute to the literature on parent- and sibling-directed aggression and provide implications for how to effectively intervene.

Bringing Community Based Participatory Research to Domestic Violence Scholarship: an Online Toolkit

In the absence of ongoing involvement in the communities that are the subjects of research, even well-intentioned researchers can develop questions that are not relevant to community needs, employ methods that hurt community members, or disseminate findings in ways that are inaccessible to those most affected. Recognizing these harms, a growing number of domestic violence (DV) researchers have embraced community-based participatory research (CBPR), an approach in which researchers and community members share power at every level of the research process, co-creating knowledge that can be applied to enhance community well-being. Despite growing interest in this approach, however, there are insufficient opportunities for interested researchers to learn how to actually engage in it, especially in the DV context. To remedy this gap, the authors of this paper collaborated to develop an online toolkit for emerging researchers interested in CPBR. This brief report frames the need for CBPR in DV research using short vignettes that come from our own research experience; introduces Power Through Partnerships: A CBPR Toolkit for Domestic Violence Researchers; and presents recommendations for developing, promoting, and disseminating future CBPR research. We chose to announce the development and availability of this toolkit in an academic journal in order to highlight its scholarly and practical relevance for researcher audiences who might be less familiar with the CBPR approach.

A Qualitative Study of Intimate Partner Femicide and Orphans in Cyprus

The paper first contextualizes femicide in the broader context of domestic violence, and homicide in the Republic of Cyprus. It then goes on to report a qualitative study of eighteen intimate partner femicide (IPF) orphans during the period 2001-2014. Findings concerning IPF, offender, and victim characteristics but also pertaining to a broad range of themes that emerged in the face-to-face interviews with the orphans are also reported and discussed. In support of theoretical notions of power and control and gender inequality, the study reported also documents of a prior history of serious conflict, physical, verbal, and psychological abuse of the IPF victim by a jealous, possessive, controlling, and oppressive violent male partner or ex-partner. Evidence is provided of the tragic inability of the authorities to heed numerous warning signs and threats-to-kill by the offender and so avert such murders. Finally, attention turns to the policy and research implications of the findings with emphasis on lethal domestic violence prevention and better support of the orphans involved.

Assessing the feasibility of a web-based domestic violence intervention using chronic disease frameworks: reducing the burden of 'treatment' and promoting capacity for action in women abused by a partner.

BackgroundDomestic violence shares many features with chronic disease, including ongoing physical and mental health problems and eroded self-efficacy. Given the challenges around help-seeking for women experiencing domestic violence, it is essential that they be given support to ‘self-manage’ their condition. The growing popularity of web-based applications for chronic disease self-management suggests that there may be opportunities to use them as an intervention strategy for women experiencing domestic violence, however, as yet, little is known about whether this might work in practice.DiscussionIt is critical that interventions for domestic violence—whether web-based or otherwise—promote agency and capacity for action rather than adding to the ‘workload’ of already stressed and vulnerable women. Although randomised controlled trials are vital to determine the effectiveness of interventions, robust theoretical frameworks can complement them as a way of examining the feasibility of implementing an intervention in practice. To date, no such frameworks have been developed for the domestic violence context. Consequently, in this paper we propose that it may be useful to appraise interventions for domestic violence using frameworks developed to help understand the barriers and facilitators around self-management of chronic conditions. Using a case study of an online healthy relationship tool and safety decision aid developed in Australia (I-DECIDE), this paper adapts and applies two theories: Burden of Treatment Theory and Normalisation Process Theory, to assess whether the intervention might increase women’s agency and capacity for action. In doing this, it proposes a new theoretical model with which the practical application of domestic violence interventions could be appraised in conjunction with other evaluation frameworks.SummaryThis paper argues that theoretical frameworks for chronic disease are appropriate to assess the feasibility of implementing interventions for domestic violence in practice. The use of the modified Burden of Treatment/Normalisation Process Theory framework developed in this paper strengthens the case for I-DECIDE and other web-based applications as a way of supporting women experiencing domestic violence.

Predictors of Child Abuse Charges Within the Context of Domestic Violence Arrests

This article investigates how different factors of a domestic violence incident impact the likelihood of a child abuse charge within the context of domestic violence arrests. Data from 5,148 domestic violence arrests were used to test whether domestic violence-, incident-, and child-based predictors increased the likelihood of a child abuse charge. Logistic regression models of gender-stratified samples were employed to test for gender differences among domestic violence arrestees. The results demonstrated predictors affected men’s odds of a child abuse charge when compared with women. For men and women, children witnessing the domestic violence incident had the largest impact on a child abuse charge. These results contribute to the underdeveloped area of police response to child abuse in domestic violence cases.

Improving Identification of Strangulation Injuries in Domestic Violence: Pilot Data From a Researcher–Practitioner Collaboration

Efforts to partner researchers and practitioners have the potential to significantly improve both research and response to non-fatal strangulation within the context of domestic violence. Non-fatal strangulation is far more common than most formal data suggest and is a highly gendered form of domestic assault often used to control or intimidate a partner; however, depending on how the assault takes place, it can leave little obvious physical evidence to an untrained investigator. The present study estimates the occurrence of strangulation cases and possible strangulation cases that may not be explicitly classified as such in official police reports due to inadequacies in law enforcement training. We offer a description of these types of cases as they compare with domestic violence police reports from non-strangulation cases. Results highlight the gendered nature of strangulation as well as the importance of practitioners and researchers critically reflecting on issues within the criminal justice system in an effort to redress inadequacies, hold offenders accountable, and save lives.

Violencia sexual en casos de tortura, un castigo adicional por ser mujer

En México la tortura es considerada como un problema generalizado. Cuando durante la tortura existen actos de violencia sexual, los estragos generados por éstos se suman al sufrimiento y daños físicos y psicológicos que la tortura provoca por sí misma. Consideramos que este tipo de agresiones sexuales se presentan de forma frecuente en torturas perpetradas contra mujeres, esto como un ejercicio de poder y sumisión del victimario hacia la víctima, aunado a un contexto de violencia de género que prevalece a nivel nacional, en el que se considera que la mujer puede ser violentada y castigada utilizando su sexualidad como un medio para generar sufrimiento. En el presente trabajo se estudiaron las recomendaciones emitidas en los últimos cinco años por hechos de tortura por dos organismos defensores de derechos humanos, en las cuales se observó una tendencia de violencia sexual hacia las mujeres víctimas de tortura.

Complexity of domestic violence in a South Asian context in Hong Kong: cultural and structural impact

With the dearth of empirical research related to the experiences of domestic violence among South Asian communities in Hong Kong, this study engages with migrant South Asian women’s subjective understanding and experience of domestic violence. Presenting women’s narratives of their experiences with domestic violence allow for a better understanding of the complexities that inform and shape women’s experiences and decision-making in the face of partner violence. This empirical study investigated South Asian women’s experience of domestic violence in the context of Hong Kong through in-depth interviews with 14 South Asian women who had experienced abuse and 6 helping professionals from 4 social service agencies. Analysis of the data revealed that the nature and context of abuse posed as a barrier in their help seeking. The findings highlight the importance of understanding the influence of cultural and structural conditions and the difficulties and complexities women face that increases women’s vulnerability to abuse. This paper offers an analysis of how structures thereby come to impact on women’s distress and vulnerability. The study also highlights the need for inclusive service provision for minority ethnic women experiencing domestic violence.

Supporting the relationship between mother and child within the context of domestic violence

Supporting the relationship between mother and child within the context of domestic violence

Prosecutors’ perceptions of how to improve the quality of evidence in domestic violence cases

Limited evidence in domestic violence prosecutions is a persistent problem. Focus groups with 13 prosecutors from across Australia and New Zealand were used to explore how to improve the quality of evidence collected and presented in these cases. A thematic analysis identified three main strategies: improving the quality of investigations by initial police responders, supporting the complainant and tailoring the trial process to the domestic violence context. The most discussed strategy within these categories has previously received little attention– police video recording the complainant's initial account and using that video as the basis for the complainant's courtroom testimony.

Causes and Contexts of Domestic Violence: Tales of Help‐Seeking Married Women in Sylhet, Bangladesh

Domestic violence (DV) against married women is widely prevalent across Bangladesh and this merits nuanced attention. Multifarious factors are believed to perpetuate DV in different socioeconomic contexts within the country. This study aimed to understand the causes and contexts of DV in the Sylhet region (a distinct sub‐culture that carries Sylheti identity). This was a qualitative study based on the experiences of 42 victims of DV who sought help from two social welfare organizations, namely ‘Women Support Program (WSP)’ and ‘Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST)’, both located in Sylhet. Using in‐depth interviews, we tried to interact with the victims to retrieve the causes and contexts of DV in Sylhet. Findings revealed that a number of factors led to DV. These causal and contextual factors for DV were dowry practice, illiteracy, cultural approval of wife beating, women's silence, polygyny, socioeconomic dependency of the wife, conflicts related to extra‐ and premarital affairs, poverty, stigmatization, and drug addiction of the husband. The study concluded that all these factors could be brought under the umbrella of age‐old patriarchal cultural values that continue to create the contexts where DV takes place unabated.

Using feminist phenomenology to explore women's experiences of domestic violence in pregnancy

This article presents the philosophical and theoretical dimensions of a doctoral study which aimed to explore women's experiences of domestic violence in pregnancy. The intention is to share some contributions from the literature that enabled the researcher to prepare to collect and analyse sensitive data. A qualitative methodology underpinned by feminist values and the philosophy of interpretive phenomenology was employed. The researcher aimed to locate the most congruent approach and method which would allow the women's voices to be heard and facilitate an understanding of the women's experiences of domestic violence and the impact on their general health and wellbeing during pregnancy. An overview of the context of domestic violence is provided to demonstrate the need for a gender sensitive philosophical foundation and theoretical framework for the research.

“A lei ficou louca”: A Lei Maria da Penha e os efeitos da incondicionalidade da lesão corporal no trabalho policial em duas DDM de São Paulo

Em 2006, foi promulgada a Lei nº 11.340, Lei Maria da Penha, com o propósito de criar mecanismos para coibir a violência doméstica e familiar contra a mulher. Viso compreender de que maneira tal mudança teria impactado a prática e falas policiais em de duas Delegacias de Defesa da Mulher da cidade de São Paulo, investigando a interação das policiais com a nova lei e as mudanças nela previstas, os significados que lhe são atribuídos, e mais especificamente os efeitos da decisão do Supremo Tribunal Federal, de fevereiro de 2012, de transformar o delito de lesão corporal, dentro do contexto da violência doméstica, em ação pública incondicionada, isto é, retirando da mulher a decisão de transformar o registro da ocorrência em investigação e instaurando o inquérito policial a despeito da vontade da vítima.

Gender-Conscious Confrontation: The Accuser-Obligation Approach Revisited

The Supreme Court’s recent Confrontation Clause decisions have had a dramatic effect on domestic violence prosecution throughout the United States, sparking debate about possible solutions to an increasingly difficult trial process for prosecutors and the survivors they represent. In this Note, I revisit and reinterpret the suggestion by Professor Sherman J. Clark in his article, An Accuser-Obligation Approach to the Confrontation Clause,1 that we should view the Confrontation Clause primarily as an obligation of the accuser rather than a right of the accused. Specifically, I reevaluate Clark’s proposition using a gendered lens, ultimately suggesting a novel solution to the problem of the “victimless” domestic violence prosecution that would extend beyond the domestic violence context. An approach that views the Confrontation Clause as an accuser’s obligation, and focuses on the values of honor, courage, and respect, while simultaneously taking a gender-conscious approach in defining those values, will produce a body of jurisprudence that can satisfy the courts, academics, and advocates alike.

Socio-cultural contexts of domestic violence against women: A qualitative study

Background: Violence against women is a problem that is closely correlated with the social and cultural contexts and many societies in different aspects encounter this problem. The aim of this study was to explore socio-cultural factors of violence against women. Methods: This study was a qualitative content analysis. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 women as the victims of domestic violence. Purposive sampling was initiated and continued until data saturation. The collected data analyzed using a qualitative content analysis. Results: Seven themes were explored of the women, which represented their experiences of social-cultural factors influencing on violence against women. The themes included: the failure of masculine authority, lack of social life skills, addiction, inappropriate marriage, fake friend, powerlessness, and irrational beliefs. Conclusion: Social and cultural factors are effective in the destruction of the family life through domestic violence. The community education, to develop the real position of the family and women situation in Islam, women empowerment, marriage problem solving methods, and family management skills needed to prevent and to control the violence against women.

Health care professionals' role in preventing child homicides in the context of domestic violence

This review article highlights the risks that children may face inthe context of domestic violence (DV). Although there are significantrisks for psychological harm for children exposed toDV, in extreme cases, children may be exposed to a domestichomicide or become homicide victims themselves. Often thesetragedies appear predictable and preventable with the presenceof several risk factors. Risk assessment tools currently being usedto identify the level of risk to an adult victim of DV also indicatea potential risk to a child. Health care professionals need to beaware of the risk for lethality with children exposed to DV andto raise these issues with patients in consideration of the risk tochildren. Prevention of these tragedies requires enhanced trainingon domestic violence and the risk for lethality with victimsand children. Standardized protocols for interventions and riskmanagement that include safety plans for children are needed. Conclusion – Reviews of domestic homicides suggest that childrenmay be at significant risk of harm and health care professionalsneed to recognize that risks to adult partners in thesecircumstances also pose risks to children.

Framing Deadly Domestic Violence

The news media play a substantial role in shaping society's perceptions of social issues, including domestic violence. However, minimal research has been conducted to examine whether news media frame stories of femicide within the context of domestic violence. Using frame analysis, the present research compares newspaper articles representing 113 cases of femicide that define the murder as domestic violence to a random sample of 113 cases without coverage defining the femicide as domestic violence. Findings indicate that both groups are represented by multiple frames, including a previously unidentified frame that places the femicide in the context of domestic violence as a social problem.

Power, Control, and Marital Violence; Beliefs vs. Behavior. A Test of the Graham-Kevan Archer Measure

We argue that Western conceptualizations of a common couple violence/intimate terrorism divide in domestic violence categories may be ill-suited to the Korean context because they are rooted in psychopathological explanations of control motivation (Holtzworth-Munroe &amp; Stuart, 1994; Johnson, 2008). Control motivation in Korea may be more related to the cultural necessity of keeping face in a normatively patriarchal context rather than the attachment issues suggested by Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart (1994). To examine the power and control context of domestic violence in Korea, we implemented Graham-Kevan and Archer's (2003) measure on a sample of 77 Korean students at an elite university in Seoul. We used cluster analysis to separate the sample into high and low control cluster families. The high control cluster was associated with more domestic violence, more violence by the husband, more injuries from violence, and marginally more child abuse. Contrary to our prediction, being in the high control cluster appears to be a more important predictor of domestic violence than patriarchal beliefs. Implications and limitations are discussed.