Context Of Domestic Violence Research Articles

Domestic Violence at the Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender

This article provides a comprehensive review of the emerging domestic violence literature using a race, class, gender, sexual orientation intersectional analysis and structural framework fostered by women of color and their allies to understand the experiences and contexts of domestic violence for marginalized women in U.S. society. The first half of the article lays out a series of challenges that an intersectional analysis grounded in a structural framework provides for understanding the role of culture in domestic violence. The second half of the article points to major contributions of such an approach to feminist methods and practices in working with battered women on the margins of society.

Where Do You Go When It's 40 Below? Domestic Violence Among Rural Alaska Native Women

Although domestic violence is now recognized as a serious social problem in American society, little information is available on this problem in rural indigenous communities. This article, which is derived from in-depth interviewswith 9 rural Alaska Native womenwho have been in abusive relationships, explores the environmental and cultural context of domestic violence in a remote Alaska Native community and the adaptations that such a context requires for the provision of culturally appropriate services.

Factors associated with domestic violence in low-income Lebanese families.

To analyze the cultural context of domestic violence in low-income Moslem and Christian-Armenian families living in Lebanon. Analysis also included an identification of family stressors, conflict management strategies, and Moslem and Christian-Armenian cultural differences. The study was part of a larger project designed to identify patterns of wife and child abuse in low-income Middle Eastern families living in Lebanon and Egypt. Qualitative content analysis of descriptive narratives by 60 low-income women who self-reported spouse abuse in two urban Lebanese clinics during a 2-month period in 1992. Narratives describing exemplary incidents were obtained during a semi-structured interview and recorded in the participant's native language then translated to English for coding and content analysis. Contextual factors for violence included unmet gender role expectations, conflict with husband's relatives, and alcohol abuse. Family stressors were: emotional, financial, and work. Women used three types of conflict management: negotiation, taking initiative, and passive resignation. From a cultural perspective, the analysis revealed both strengths and vulnerabilities of Lebanese women who experienced domestic violence. The study raised several questions, including whether it is appropriate to apply Western-generated domestic violence theories to a Middle Eastern population. Culturally-specific nursing interventions should be directed toward bolstering strong family and social resources to cope with family stressors and to modify patterns of maladaptive communication.

Perceptions of Domestic Violence in a Chinese American Community

Thirty-one Chinese adults (16 men and 15 women) were randomly selected using a 1995 telephone directory for the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County. A telephone questionnaire on perceptions of domestic violence was administered. Respondents defined domestic violence as physical or sexual acts of aggression between spouses as opposed to psychological aggression. Chinese men and women did not agree with the use of violence in the home or that hitting is an effective problem-solving strategy. However, they tended to justify it in cases of self-defense and defense of a child. Domestic violence was attributed to individual and environmental factors. Minimal gender differences were found; however, age and length of residence in the United States were significantly related to various perceptions of domestic violence. The cultural context of domestic violence and implications for social work interventions and research are discussed.

Breaking the silence. Battered women's perspectives on medical care

To determine the barriers to identification and management of domestic violence from the battered women's perspective. Qualitative research methods using semistructured focus groups. Urban and suburban community-based organizations serving women and their families in the San Francisco Bay (Calif) area. Fifty-one women with histories of domestic violence comprised eight focus groups divided as follows: two groups of Latino (n=14), two groups of white (n=14), Asian (n=14), and two groups of African-American (n=9) women. Participants from all ethnic groups identified major factors that affect identification and management of battered women in the health care setting. Factors that interfere with patient disclosure included threats of violence from the partner, embarrassment, adherence to gender roles, concerns about police involvement and lack of trust in the health care provider. One factor that predisposed a woman to seek help from providers was a need for the providers to exhibit compassion, awareness, and respect for the patient's need to make the final decisions about her situation. Most participants said that providers should take the initiative to ask directly about domestic violence, establish a supportive patient-provider relationship, and refer battered women to available community resources. The major institutional barriers to using the health care system included the high cost of medical care and long waiting periods. Many battered women experience social, institutional, and provider barriers to obtaining help from the health care system for problems related to domestic violence. Providers as well as institutions can overcome these barriers through an understanding of the social context of domestic violence and the victim's needs. Identification may be improved through a trusting patient-provider relationship and by direct questioning about domestic violence.

Women's and their children's experiences of sexual violence: Rethinking the links

This article takes a new look at the theory that evidence that many women whose children are sexually abused (by men) have been sexually abused themselves in childhood is indicative of a “cycle of abuse.” It reviews the evidence on the experiences of sexual violence, past and present, reported by women whose children have been sexually abused, and argues that the concept of a “cycle of abuse” misrepresents existing findings and their significance, diverts attention from the responsibility of abusive men for child sexual abuse, pathologises and stigmatises women who have been sexually abused as children, and obscures recognition of the present context of domestic violence within which intrafamilial child sexual abuse often takes place. It then draws on a qualitative study of 15 women whose children had been sexually abused by a male relative to explore the ways in which they made connections between their own and their children's experiences of sexual violence, connections which are not causal but meaningful, that is, they reflect the meaning the women attributed to events in their own and their children's lives. The article argues that we need both to reject the “cycle of abuse” concept and to pay attention to the links women and their children may make between their own and each other's experiences, links which are more variable in meaning and, therefore, in impact than the concept of a cycle suggests.

Domestic Violence and the Per Se Standard of Outrage

This article explores the tort of Intentional infliction of emotional distress within the domestic violence context. It argues that violation of a restraining order should be considered to be per se outrageous for purposes of the tort.

Sociocultural and Epidemiological Issues in the Assessment of Domestic Violence

This paper presents alternative models for the integration of multicultural issues in research on domestic violence. Issues are discussed that illustrate ethnic specific strengths, concerns, and weaknesses of ethnic families and communities. These issues need to be incorporated in future research that more thoroughly examines ethnic and cultural issues in violence research. Alternative strategies for future research are also suggested which call for the incorporation of ethnic and cultural issues on an ongoing basis, so that commonalities across studies can emerge and we can begin to understand the cultural context of domestic violence.

Book Review : Domestic Violence in Context by Robert T. Sigler Lexington Books, 1989 175 pages

Book Review : Domestic Violence in Context by Robert T. Sigler Lexington Books, 1989 175 pages

Domestic Violence in Context: An Assessment of Community Attitudes.

Domestic Violence in Context: An Assessment of Community Attitudes.

Domestic violence in context: an assessment of community attitudes

Domestic violence in context: an assessment of community attitudes