Post-separation Violence Research Articles

Support or Betrayal? Swedish Survivors' Experiences of Support From Social Workers During Post-Separation Violence.

The aim of this study is to shed light on how Swedish female survivors of male intimate partner violence experience support from social workers during post-separation violence. This is explored through an interview study with sixteen survivors. Hester's three planet model is utilized in the analysis. The results show that while the survivors described positive experiences of support from social workers on the Domestic violence planet, they felt social workers in the family law system on the Child contact planet enabled post-separation violence, and reported that this contributed to them feeling betrayed rather than supported.

Swedish social workers’ support to female survivors breaking free from male intimate partner violence

ABSTRACT This study sheds light on how Swedish social workers interpret and handle support needs of female survivors trying to break free from male intimate partner violence (IPV). This is investigated through fifteen group interviews with forty-nine social workers in thirteen different organizations (social service support units and shelters run by NGOs and for-profit companies). The material is analysed thematically. The first theme focuses on how social workers saw structural obstacles that hindered survivors from leaving their abusive men, but felt that their discretion (cf. Lipsky 2010) to change these were limited. Instead, they directed support towards emotional obstacles. The second theme illustrates differences and difficulties in offering survivors long-term, holistic support to break free from post-separation violence, and how support risk becoming a lottery where survivors might not always receive the support they need. The study indicates that social workers in NGO women’s shelters may try to deal with structural obstacles and offer ‘holistic’ support. Social workers in organizations with other perspectives and limited resources may instead delimit support – and (unintentionally) treat violence as an individual rather than social problem.

Managing post-separation violence: mothers’ strategies and the challenges of receiving societal protection

ABSTRACT Given the profound consequences of post-separation violence on the well-being and quality of life of many women and children, protecting victims from further violence is a paramount concern. Understanding the complex challenges faced by women at risk for such violence is crucial for improving strategies for managing this risk and ensuring the safety of these women and children. In Sweden, access to society’s protective interventions often relies on the women actively seeking them. The aim of this study was to analyse the process of protection against post-separation violence as described by women with children in Sweden. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with women who had experienced domestic violence and were assessed with low to moderate risk of revictimization. The interviews explored strategies they employed on their own and the risk management interventions they received. Through thematic analysis, we identified five themes: activating own safety strategies, seeking societal protection, utilizing societal protection, bridging gaps in societal protection, and resigning to live unprotected. Together, they form a process of protection characterized by mothers employing numerous strategies at different phases to safeguard themselves and their children, relying on their own initiative as well as the assistance offered by society. However, despite these efforts, some mothers and children remained unprotected and were obligated to resign to live with post-separation violence. This study underscores the extensive demands placed on women subjected to violence, despite the presence of relatively strong legal rights and a well-developed societal system.

High-Conflict Separations and Differentiated Professional Responses – From Confrontational Interaction to Post-Separation Violence and Stalking

ABSTRACT This study explores high-conflict divorces and separations by critically analyzing their central features. It draws on qualitative materials produced through professionals’ work with high-conflict cases. A content-oriented analysis of the materials revealed three types of high-conflict separations differentiated by the following features: 1) confrontational interaction, 2) exacerbation of complicated psychosocial problems, and 3) post-separation violence and/or stalking. Based on these findings, we consider professional responses and interventions in helping families. The aim of the paper is to augment our understanding of high-conflict separations and differentiated professional responses to them in order to help parents and children who are undergoing a high-conflict divorce or separation.

Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence in Children Aged 6 Months to 8 Years: Factors Associated with Mothers' Awareness of Children's Exposure to This Violence

Early childhood exposure to intimate partner violence (EIPV) is a serious social and public health matter. Parents underestimate EIPV in comparison to their own victimization of intimate partner violence (IPV). However, few studies have attempted to compare the differences between the child's EIPV and the IPV victimization from the mothers' perspective and document the associated explanatory factors. Consequently, this study was conducted on a representative sample of 2046 children aged 6 months to 8 years in Quebec (Canada) to estimate the prevalence of EIPV and mother's awareness of EIPV over the past 12 months and to investigate factors that are associated with mother's awareness of EIPV. Findings revealed that 11.1% of young children were exposed to at least one form of IPV. However, that proportion decreases to 5.9% when the mother is asked whether the child is aware or a witness of the violence. Regression analyses revealed that child's younger age, mother's depressive symptoms, being a single parent, and the presence of adults' violent behaviors toward children were significantly associated with the mother's higher perceived awareness of EIPV. While some of these findings are consistent with previous studies, others such as living in a single-parent family open the door to different interpretations, including the presence of increased postseparation violence. As EIPV is increasingly recognized as affecting children regardless of their awareness of violent events, further studies are needed to better understand the context facilitating parental recognition of this exposure.

Gender- and power sensitivity, securitisation and social peace: rethinking protection for children exposed to post-separation violence

This article offers a rethinking of protection based on synthesised data from Finland and Sweden on children’s and mothers’ experiences of post-separation stalking, and social workers’ case reports on children risking exposure to gender-based violence after separation. Drawing on critical childhood studies and a feminist approach to violence and security, we ask how children’s everyday lives can be incorporated in a rethinking of protection for children in post-separation contexts. Departing from identified limitations in protective solutions for children, we propose three ways of rethinking the issue of protection: (1) protection as gender- and power sensitivity, (2) protection as securitising the here and now, and (3) protection as social peace. Our findings call for some changes in professional practices, social policy and legislation.

Experiencing ‘nikah Captivity’ in the West

Abstract Based on interviews with Muslim minority women and Islamic authorities, this article proposes a step-based model for understanding Muslim divorce processes in diaspora. Such processes are highly dependent on individual women’s embedding in gendered geographies of power: The analysis shows that second-generation immigrant women generally are quite easily able to put a full end to unwanted marriages. In contrast, first-generation immigrant women may end up living in yearlong ‘nikah captivity’, unable to have their nikahs (their ‘Muslim marriages’) dissolved, even though they have obtained a divorce under Danish law. When (ex)husbands keep (ex)wives in such nikah captivity, it can be regarded as a type of post-separation violence, facilitated by the migration-induced separation of Muslims from Islamic institutions.

The Involvement of Children in Postseparation Intimate Partner Violence in Italy: A Strategy to Maintain Coercive Control?

Violence against women often continues after couples separate. Although the involvement of children in intimate partner violence is known, no study has investigated the role of children in postseparation violence in southern Europe. The aim of this study was to analyze male perpetrators’ strategies to maintain control over the woman after couples separate and the involvement of children in this process. We designed a multimethod research with a sample of women attending five anti-violence centers in Italy: In the quantitative part, women were interviewed with a questionnaire ( N = 151) at baseline and followed up 18 months later ( N = 91); in the qualitative part, in-depth interviews were carried out with women ( N = 13) attending the same centers. Results showed that women experienced high levels of violence and that children were deeply involved. When women with children were no longer living with the violence perpetrator, threats, violence, manipulation, and controlling behaviors occurred during father–child contacts: 78.9% of women in the longitudinal survey and all women in the qualitative study reported at least one of these unsettling behaviors. The qualitative study allowed for discovering some specific perpetrator strategies. Making the woman feel guilty, threatening, denigrating, and impoverishing her; preventing her from living a normal life; and trying to destroy the mother–child bond were key elements of a complex design aimed at maintaining coercive control over the ex-partner. Results from this multimethod study provided a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of coercive control and postseparation violence and how perpetrators use children to fulfill their aims.

Coercive Control: Update and Review.

This article reviews the background, introduction, and critical response to new criminal offenses of coercive control in England/Wales and Scotland. How the new Scottish offense is implemented will determine whether it can overcome the shortcomings of the English law. We then review new evidence on four dimensions of coercive control: the relationship between "control" and "violence," coercive control in same-sex couples, measuring coercive control, and children's experience of coercive control. Coercive control is not a type of violence. Indeed, level of control predicts a range of negative outcomes heretofore associated with physical abuse, including post-separation violence and sexual assault; important differences in coercive control dynamics distinguish male homosexual from lesbian couples; measuring coercive control requires innovative ways of aggregating and categorizing data; and how children experience coercive control is a problem area that offers enormous promise for the years ahead.

Secondary Victimization: Domestic Violence Survivors Navigating the Family Law System.

This qualitative study explored the experiences of 22 domestic violence survivors attempting to negotiate safe post-separation parenting arrangements through the Australian family law system. Their allegations of violence put them at odds with a system that values mediated settlements and shared parenting. Skeptical responses, accusations of parental alienation, and pressure to agree to unsafe arrangements exacerbated the effects of post-separation violence. Core themes in the women's narratives of engagement with the family law system-silencing, control, and undermining the mother-child relationship-mirrored domestic violence dynamics, suggesting the concept of secondary victimization as a useful lens for understanding their experiences.

Perceived risk and safety-related behaviors after leaving a violent relationship

Given that victim’ risk perception could improve risk assessment in cases of intimate partner violence research is paying attention to it. However, it is not clear whether perceived risk relates to safety-related behaviors. This study is aimed to analyze how perceived risk by women who have left a violent partner relates to their safety-related behaviors and post-separation violence. Participants were 249 women (from protection services and the community) who had concluded a violent relationship. A structural equation model describes the relationships between three groups of factors: (1) women's risk perception; (2) three types of conditions that increase the opportunity for victim/abuser contact: (a) women's actions that make them easier to track, (b) women's reasons for not protecting themselves, and (c) batterers’ strategies to gain access to their former intimate partners; and (3) post-separation violence. Results indicate that psychological violence is positively related to perceived risk and helplessness. Moreover, while women's risk perception predicts less contact and self-deception, male strategies predict greater contact and routines. In turn, contact predicts intimacy, whose absence fully accounts for 93.3% of the prediction of no re-abuse, six months later. The results’ implications for intervention are discussed.

Explaining Aboriginal/Non-Aboriginal Inequalities in Postseparation Violence Against Canadian Women

Adopting a structural violence approach, we analyzed 2004 Canadian General Social Survey data to examine Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal inequalities in postseparation intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. Aboriginal women had 4.12 times higher odds of postseparation IPV than non-Aboriginal women (p < .001). Coercive control and age explained most of this inequality. The final model included Aboriginal status, age, a seven-item coercive control index, and stalking, which reduced the odds ratio for Aboriginal status to 1.92 (p = .085) and explained 70.5% of the Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal inequality in postseparation IPV. Research and action are needed that challenge structural violence, especially colonialism and its negative consequences.

Violence Against Separated, Divorced, and Married Women in Canada, 2004

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine violence against separated, divorced, and married women using Statistics Canada's 2004 General Social Survey. Based on a subsample of 6,716 heterosexual women (429 separated; 614 divorced; 5,673 married), available risk markers were examined in the context of a nested ecological framework. Consistent with past research, the results indicated that there may be differences in the dynamics of violence across the 3 groups. Separated women reported 7 times the prevalence of violence and divorced women reported twice the prevalence of violence than married women in the year prior to the study. Young age was an important predictor of violence for separated and divorced women. Unemployment and the presence of children of the ex-partner were important predictors for divorced women. Patriarchal domineering and sexually proprietary behaviors were strong predictors of violence for married women. The results suggested the possibility that motives for postseparation violence tend to differ depending on whether one is separated or divorced. Future research is warranted to uncover these potentially differing dynamics of risk.

The Elevated Risk for Non-Lethal Post-Separation Violence in Canada

The purpose of the study was to shed light on the potentially differing dynamics of violence against separated and divorced women by their ex-husbands and violence against married women by their current husbands. Using a nationally representative sample of 7,369 heterosexual women from Cycle 13 of Statistics Canada's General Social Survey, available risk markers were examined in the context of a nested ecological framework. Separated women reported nine times the prevalence of violence and divorced women reported about four times the prevalence of violence compared with married women. The strongest predictors of violence against married women, namely, patriarchal domination, sexual jealousy, and possessiveness, were not significant predictors of violence against separated and divorced women. This suggested that post-separation violence is a complex phenomenon the dynamics of which can be affected by much more than domination and ownership.

Separation, domestic violence, and divorce mediation

DOVE, an instrument designed to assess and manage the risk of domestic violence, was administered to a sequential, random sample of one hundred forty-seven male and female partners prior to their participation in divorce mediation. Nineteen statistically significant predictors of both pre- and post-separation violence and abuse were identified. Conjugal violence and abuse, male partner control, and mental health problems were prominent among predictors of post-separation violence and abuse. Safety plan interventions and referrals aimed at promoting women's safety during and following their participation in divorce mediation are identified in the concluding segment of the paper.

Post-Separation Violence: The Male Perspective*

This study investigated the male perspective of violence using a socio-ecological framework wherein violence is seen as the product of individual, social, cultural, environmental, and situational factors. Structured questions were developed for telephone interviews with separated males in Western Australia. Volunteers were recruited via a media campaign focusing on: “Why do some men hit women: Why don’t all men hit women?” One hundred and forty six interviews were analysed using Spearman’s rho and Pearson’s chi-square and thematic analysis. Sixty-one of the men reported having been violent, 14 at separation only. In 23 cases children witnessed the violence. Influencing factors were reported as finances, alcohol/drugs, fatigue/stress, “the system”. No significant association was found between violence and having a source of support. Nearly half of the men believed their violence was justified, either unequivocally or sometimes. Fairness in the legal system was the most frequent suggestion for redressing violence in society, followed by provision of counselling, support, and education appropriate to the needs of males. Implications for individual and societal responses are discussed.