Intimate Violence Research Articles

Textual Instability around Gendered and Sexual Violence in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight and Midnight Sun

This article explores Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight alongside the partial, leaked PDF and authorized book of Midnight Sun using textual studies approaches to analyzing multiple versions of a text. These methods are coupled with feminist media effects theory to consider the significance of textual variants in Meyer’s representations of sexual and gendered violence in teenage romantic relationships. The international notoriety of Twilight has afforded her the opportunity to respond to commentary, critiques, and adulation from readers, fans, critics, and film adaptations, as well as to react to evolving feminist zeitgeists. Her multiple, publicly available rewritings of the same story could be viewed as one such response. These include Life and Death (2015), the Midnight Sun PDF (2008) and book (2020), in addition to spin-offs like The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (2010). This analysis across retellings of the Twilight story considers variations in representations of what many critics have articulated as the male protagonist Edward’s abusive attitudes and behaviours toward the female protagonist Bella. It elucidates change and continuity in these representations and identifies a trajectory of increasingly misogynistic attitudes and behaviours expressed by Edward’s character. The article concludes that the availability of multiple versions of the story offers readers, fans, and educators an unusual opportunity to understand Edward as a literary construct and to engage further with representations of abuse in relationships.

Understanding the epidemiology and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on domestic violence and child abuse in Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the impact of a pandemic on the lives of vulnerable members of the community who have experienced or are 'at risk' of experiencing intimate family violence and child abuse in Saudi Arabia. By reviewing the experience in Saudi Arabia in the context of the international literature, the study explores similarities and differences in the impact of the pandemic on family violence. The study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on family violence and child abuse in Saudi Arabia by conducting a comparative analysis of the prevalence of cases, types of abuse, and geographical location of those experiencing violence between the years 2019 and 2020. Data were obtained from the Family Violence Reporting Center 1919 in Saudi Arabia. The study found that the risk of family violence and child abuse increased during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia, similar to findings in other countries. Conversely, there was a decrease in the number of reports due to factors associated with COVID-19. The study highlighted the importance of ensuring that existing policies and services are sufficient to ensure the risks arising from the impact of COVID-19 responses and minimize the negative consequences.

LGBTIQ CALD People's Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence: A Systematic Literature Review.

Experience of surviving intimate partner violence (IPV) is well documented in research, policing practices, newspapers, and awareness campaigns domestically and internationally. Arguably, those who have survived IPV and have their experiences reflected within society undergo a transformative experience of empowerment. As society recognises and validates their experience has occurred, and responds to it, accordingly, as some survivors have targeted services and interventions to assist in this transformation. However, for LGBTIQ-identifying peoples, experiences of IPV are poorly understood in contemporary society, which is further exacerbated for LGBTIQ-identifying CALD people as they continue to remain hidden. The systematic literature review aims to explore the experiences of this group in their development of resilience following an abusive and violent relationship. Of the potential 230 identified studies, 5 studies met the eligibility criteria. In line with the eligibility criteria, these studies were first reviewed by title, then by abstract and then by full text. Of those studies which the research team deemed relevant for inclusion, their reference lists where also reviewed to determine if any further relevant studies could be identified using this strategy. As a result of the above process, five (5) studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in the study. From data extraction, three major themes emerged: Intimate Partner Violence as Experienced by LGBTIQ survivors, Marginalised Identity and Types of Survivorship. While refined, these themes capture a more robust set of sub-themes that identify the diverse ways in which LGBTIQ survivors experience responses to their victimised status as experienced in IPV situations. Overall, the review found that resilient outcomes for LGBTIQ CALD survivors remain misunderstood and missing within the literature. There is a propensity to focus on negative coping strategies and an exclusive focus on LGBTIQ CALD vulnerabilities. Future research requires investigation into strategies and support that move beyond coping to include resilient outcomes and support systems that allow manifestations of resilience.

Do Different Legal System and self-referral Pathways Influence Relationship Violence Intervention Program Success?

Do Different Legal System and self-referral Pathways Influence Relationship Violence Intervention Program Success?

The Context and Core of Relational Violence in Families1*

Few topics generate as much controversy and confusion in society, therapeutic practice, and science as violence in families, often referred to as domestic violence. There is a neverending dispute around the definition and about the statistics. Is relational violence mainly against women or are women as violent as men in intimate relationships? Outcomes from research are contradictory. When we zoom out, we can be aware that violence is everywhere and that we are part of it. At the same time, we can sense that the world is full of love. Both are part of the destructive dynamics of escalating conflicts in families that are more related to powerlessness than to power. In a therapeutic context we focus on the destructive dynamics in which the languages of perpetrator and victim are not helpful. We suggest the formulation of keystones as light posts to help us find a way to help family members to de‐escalate conflict.

Women's Lived Experience of the Interconnectedness of Trauma, Substance Use, and Prison.

The aim of the study was to explore women's experience of Icelandic prisons and of the interconnectedness of trauma, substance use, and prison. Nine incarcerated women, 20-45 years old, participated in this phenomenological study. One or two in-depth interviews were conducted with each participant, in all 16 interviews. The interconnectedness of trauma, substance use, and prison was evident in the participants' accounts. The participants had experienced severe traumas, in childhood and/or in adult life, most of it caused by recurrent experience of violence, bullying, neglect, and beatings and later violent relationships. For the participants, substance use was an unhelpful coping strategy intended to numb severe emotional distress. Most of the participants used substances intravenously that had progressed incredibly fast from initial drug use. They had tried most of the addiction treatments available to them, none of which were trauma based. Participants struggled with complex physical and mental health problems related to substance use and previous traumas but often felt prejudged when they sought healthcare services. They experienced being in prison as depersonalizing and dehumanizing. Most of them were mothers and had lost custody of their children because of substance use causing some of them deep grief. Participants called for more active substance treatment programs in prisons and complained about idleness that they felt increased their addiction. As a conclusion, we call for a trauma-informed care approach in prisons for women to prevent revictimization as well as to assist with mental health issues and substance use.

The institutionalised momentum of slow violence: Spatiotemporal contradictions in young people’s accounts of school bullying

As contemporary research explores the social and cultural dynamics of school bullying, notions of space and time provide avenues to unpack youth-centred insights into students’ bullying experiences. Furthermore, spatiotemporal analysis demonstrates the links between similar experiences, such as bullying and relationship violence, that are often siloed in research and policy. Yet, within this converging field, there are contradictory accounts, from both young people and researchers, of the school as both a non-violent space and a space filled with unseen violence. In this paper, I argue that this contradiction reveals an essential aspect of young people’s experience of bullying in schools. To develop this approach, school bullying is conceptualised in this paper as ‘social violence’ with a momentum that can linger and become institutionalised in the architecture of schools.

Home drinking during and post-COVID-19: Why the silence on domestic violence?

There is a well-established body of evidence demonstrating alcohol is a compounding factor increasing both the occurrence and the severity of domestic violence in intimate relationships. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health measures such as lockdowns and social distancing have contributed to a rise in domestic violence. Yet, despite the closure of public drinking venues and substantial changes to the home drinking landscape, the role of alcohol in domestic violence has received little attention from both the alcohol and domestic violence fields. In this commentary, we argue that the pandemic has magnified existing silences across these fields, resulting in missed opportunities for intervention. The implications for home drinking in particular on domestic violence deserve greater focus in research and policy.

Continuous Traumatic Stress: Examining the Experiences and Support Needs of Women After Separation From an Abusive Partner.

Intimate partner violence causes significant, long-lasting harm to almost one-third (27%) of the world's population of women. Even when women leave abusive relationships, some men continue to exercise control over their ex-partners through psychological control, threats, violence, stalking, and other forms of harassment. In this qualitative study, 52 purposively sampled women who self-identified as victims or survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) from male partners were interviewed. Data were analyzed with a theoretically informed thematic analysis, supported by Nvivo® software. We found that leaving a violent relationship was a long-term process fraught with difficulty and ongoing risks of psychological harm. The concept of Continuous Traumatic Stress (CTS), first developed to understand the impact of state-sponsored violence and war, was found to be a particularly useful tool for the analysis of the impact of post-separation abuse. Additionally, CTS encourages researchers and practitioners to think anew about resilience-centered approaches to improving protection and access to justice for female victims.

Intimate Partner Violence in a Heterosexual Marriage: Case Study of a Korean Couple

This study explores an abusive wife's symptoms and risk factors of intimate partner violence (IPV) in a heterosexual relationship. A qualitative approach, using a conceptual cluster network, was used to analyse the family therapy case of a wife abusing her husband. Findings indicate that the wife's IPV‐related symptoms included victim mentality, despair, depression, insomnia, aggression, and the desire to divorce the husband. The wife's risk factors were present at the personal, family‐relational, and sociocultural levels. This study indicates that therapists counselling violent Korean couples may explore couples' communication styles, undifferentiation of self, transference, the culture of filial piety, and the influence of Confucian culture.

Changing Patterns of Intimate Partner Violence against Pregnant Women: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) against pregnant women adversely impacts women's and infants' health. This study aims to provide longitudinal evidence regarding how pregnant women's exposure to IPV changes over time. Additionally, we examine the risk and protective factors associated with these changes. In total, 340 pregnant women were recruited from an antenatal clinic in Hong Kong. IPV experiences and health conditions were assessed at pregnancy and at both 4 weeks and 3 years after childbirth. The women also reported adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), their family support, and perceived partner involvement. We found IPV prevalence among the study sample decreased from 22.9% before pregnancy to 13.5% during pregnancy, 14.7% at 4 weeks after childbirth, and 11.8% at 3 years after childbirth. We further found three types of IPV: 11.8% of women had a violent relationship (VR) persistently over time from pregnancy to 3 years after childbirth, 20.6% experienced decreased IPV (DVR), and 67.6% reported a nonviolent relationship (NVR) throughout the study period. VRs were associated with more severe mental health problems and higher ACEs. Family support and partner involvement may be protective factors for decreased IPV. Our present findings highlight the importance of identifying different IPV types over time to provide targeted intervention to the most vulnerable groups.

Does time heal all wounds? How is children's exposure to intimate partner violence related to their current internalizing symptoms?

The effects of time and the longitudinal course of the children's internalizing symptoms following Intimate Partner Violence Exposure (IPVE) are still of great interest today. This study aimed to analyze the effect of the frequency of IPVE, adverse experiences after the cessation of the IPVE and the time elapsed since the termination of the violent relation on the prevalence of anxiety and depression among children. Participants were 107 children and their mothers who had been victims of IPV and had existing judicial protection and restraining orders. Hierarchical logistic regression models were estimated to analyze children's adjustment, considering the effect of the time elapsed since the termination, frequency of IPVE, experiences of revictimization, maternal pathology, and anxious anticipation of the mother at the prospect of future harm. Exposure to multiple events of violence at the hands of multiple ex-partners and higher scores in the mother's anxious anticipation were significant predictors of children's pathological depression and anxiety. Our results emphasize the need for early psychological evaluation of women and children's victims of IPV to provide timely interventions that avoid symptoms from becoming chronic. Strategies to bring support and emotional security to the victims after the end of the violent relationship are desirable.

Social norms concerning dating and relationship violence and gender among adolescents: a systematic review of survey measures used in dating and relationship violence research

BackgroundAdolescent dating and relationship violence (DRV) is widespread and associated with increased risk of subsequent poor mental health outcomes and partner violence in adulthood. Shifting social norms could be important for reducing DRV. We aimed to map and evaluate measures of social norms concerning DRV and gender reported in DRV research. MethodsWe did a systematic review of global peer-reviewed and grey DRV literature in English, reporting on content and validity of measures used with individuals aged 10–18 years in four domains: descriptive DRV norms, injunctive DRV norms, descriptive gender norms, and injunctive gender norms. Searches included nine databases and Google Scholar (original search up to June, 2019; updated March, 2022), organisation websites (June, 2020), reference checking and known studies (June, 2019–May, 2022), and expert requests (September, 2019–April, 2022). Search terms included three concepts linked by “AND”: “social norms concerning DRV and/or gender”, “DRV”, and “adolescents”. Results were screened by title and abstract and then full text. After data extraction we summarised measure characteristics within each domain and assessed measures against seven quality criteria: participatory development, defined reference group, reliability (internal consistency, test-retest reliability, or split-half reliability), content validity, construct validity (association with DRV behaviour), other evidence of construct validity (association with theoretically related constructs) or convergent validity (factor analysis), and statistically desirable properties (responsiveness, absence of floor or ceiling effects, or data available on measures of central tendency and distribution of total score). Findings24 reports were included (14 North America, four Africa, four Europe, one Middle East, one Latin America) containing 40 measures assessing DRV (n=33) and gender (n=7) norms. No measure was shared across studies. 36 (90%) measures were significantly associated with DRV outcomes, 24 (60%) showed good reliability, and 38 (95%) had a defined reference group. Other evidence of quality was mixed. Several DRV norm measures specified heterosexual relationships, but measures rarely separated norms governing DRV by girls and boys. No measures specified same-sex relationships. Gender norm measures focused on violence, but missed broader gendered expectations underpinning DRV. InterpretationValid, reliable measures of social norms associated with DRV exist, but measurement methods are inconsistent. Researchers should report on development and quality of such measures, which should be gender-specific when norms exert gendered influence, consider sexual minority relationships, and assess gender norms beyond gendered violence. Evaluators should draw on such measures to assess whether changes to norms mediate effect on DRV. FundingUS Agency for International Development (agreement number AID-OAA-A-15-00042).

The Intersection of Abortion and Criminalization: Abortion Access for People in Prisons.

Most incarcerated women are of reproductive age, and more than a third of women will have an abortion during their reproductive years. Although women are the fastest growing population in Canadian prisons, no one has studied the effect of their incarceration on access to abortion services. Studies outside of Canada indicate rates of abortion are higher among people experiencing incarceration than in the general population, and that abortion access is often problematic. Although international standards for abortion care among incarcerated populations exist, there conversely appear to be no Canadian guidelines or procedures to facilitate unintended pregnancy prevention or management. Barriers to abortion care inequitably restrict people with unintended pregnancy from attaining education and employment opportunities, cause entrenchment in violent relationships, and prevent people from choosing to parent when they are ready and able. Understanding and facilitating equitable access to abortion care for incarcerated people is critical to address structural, gender-, and race-based reproductive health inequities, and to promote reproductive justice. There is an urgent need for research in this area to direct best practices in clinical care and support policies capable to ensure equal access to abortion care for incarcerated people.

QUALITY OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION IN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP

This research looks at how communication can help victims of abusive relationships maintain their relationships. The goal of this study is to first figure out how victims can stay in abusive relationships, and then to figure out how victims' experiences in abusive relationships are described. The notion of Interpersonal Communication and the theory of Relationship Maintenance were applied in this study. This research employed a phenomenological method and a qualitative approach with a constructivism paradigm. The information was gathered by interviews or in-depth interviews with four sources, and the results were assessed using the source triangulation data validity technique. The findings revealed that relationship violence can take many forms, including physical, emotional, sexual, and financial. During and after the occurrence of violence, abusive relationships tend to go through cycles. Even though they are in an abusive relationship, the perpetrator still engages in relationship maintenance behaviors such as giving praise, being open to each other, providing certainty in relationships, doing tasks together, and interacting with others, as stated in the relationship maintenance theory. Victims of abusive relationships have their own reasons for staying in abusive relationships, such as the fact that they have been in an abusive relationship for a long time, still love them, and are frightened to leave.

Domestic noir: Fictionalising trauma survival

How can authors fictionalise trauma without cognitively suffering intense vicarious trauma in that writing process? This paper explores this question through the lens of fictionalised Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) representations in domestic noir narratives. Domestic noir operates within the constraints of a domestic space that is subverted from a sanctuary to a potential psychological space of tyranny or violence. This may include reiterative chronic traumas such as IPV or other forms of relationship violence. Viewed as a trauma fiction, domestic noir is peculiarly suited to interrogating the survivor narrative. The domestic noir models focused on IPV develop a complex combination of the victim, survivor and hero in their representations of traumatised protagonists. The effects of writing about IPV trauma may be transformed by this fictionalising into an emerging hero-as-survivor narrative. The Emerging Hero Process developed and elaborated within this paper indicates, through reiterative cycles of the protagonist’s emotional and behavioural response, their capacity to summon the heroic act that may enable a reframed and reconciled survivor outlook. The Emerging Hero Process has evolved into an IPV writing model of a survivor narrative that may also filter or reposition the vicarious trauma of the writing process.

Dwelling justice: locating settler relations in research and activism on stolen land

There is a general consensus now in Australia that we are in the grip of a severe housing crisis. The characteristics of spiralling housing costs and deepening precarity are unfolding in a context of the systematic managed decline of public housing as a critical social infrastructure, such that the capacity to make and find ‘home’ is thinning every day. Yet in a settler-colony, such as Australia, the struggle against housing injustice is set inside an already violent relationship of un-homing that creates the very conditions for others to make home. Reckoning with this monstrous dilemma, of the politics of dwelling justice on stolen land, is the focus of this essay, which springs from our own experience and failure to fully comprehend the ways that our housing research and activism works to reinforce settler colonial logics of dwelling on stolen land.

Adopting a "Both/And" Mindset to Address Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct (RVSM) in Institutions of Higher Education.

Michigan State University (MSU) created a long-term, values-based strategic plan to increase help-seeking and reduce the incidence of relationship violence and sexual misconduct. Creating systemic change in institutions of higher education is challenging, particularly so in the wake of massive institutional crises and betrayal, as we had at MSU. In this paper, we address the challenges and critiques of our strategic planning efforts offered by esteemed scholar-activists: Jacobson López (2023), Hirsch and Khan (2023), McMahon (2023), and Boots et al. (2023).

Enhancing Inclusivity for LGBTQIA+ Student Survivors of Color Commentary: Creating a University Strategic Plan to Address Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct (RVSM): An Application of Principles-Focused Evaluation at Michigan State University.

Campbell and colleagues propose a robust and rigorous strategic model to address and reduce Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct (RVSM) at Michigan State University, which significantly advances the field of RVSM prevention and education, particularly for survivors belonging to marginalized populations. While prior efforts have addressed RVSM on college and university campuses, Campbell and colleagues' model is groundbreaking in its ability to reduce RVSM against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual/agender (LGBTQIA+) students of color, by its principles of intersectional and trauma-informed action. This commentary highlights the contributions of Campbell et al.'s model and provides recommendations for enhancing programming and postassault services by addressing the totality of LGBTQIA+ survivors of color's identities.

Creating a University Strategic Plan to Address Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct (RVSM): An Application of Principles-Focused Evaluation at Michigan State University.

This paper describes a multi-year initiative at Michigan State University (MSU) to change our institutional response to relationship violence and sexual misconduct (RVSM) in the aftermath of a large-scale institutional crisis. While the circumstances at MSU are unique, many universities have faced or will face moments that bring RVSM issues into the spotlight. To inform other colleges and universities, we describe how we developed a 5-year strategic plan to transform services for survivors and develop prevention programming for multiple audiences and at multiple levels of analysis. We titled this framework Know More. Do More. Support More, whereby "know more" reflects our ongoing use of campus climate surveys and data sharing to educate our community about RVSM; "do more" includes our institutional-level strategic plan for culture change; and "support more" provides guidance to our community members on how to respond to disclosures in a trauma-informed way and connect survivors to support services. We discuss the challenges and opportunities that stemmed from our choice to work "within the system" to create this model, as well as the ethical dilemmas we faced in these partnerships.