Survivors Of Victims Research Articles

Building a Legacy of Research for Black Survivors of Homicide Victims: A Call to Action for Social Work

Building a Legacy of Research for Black Survivors of Homicide Victims: A Call to Action for Social Work

Double stigma: a cross-sectional study of Lassa patients with hearing loss in North Central Nigeria.

Lassa fever is a zoonotic infectious disease endemic in West Africa with a high case-fatality rate and reported stigmatization of surviving patients. This study examines discrimination among survivors of Lassa fever (LF) complicated by hearing loss (HL). This cross-sectional qualitative study used an in-depth interview guide to collect information from patients with HL about their experience of stigma. Interviews were conducted by a trained team of interviewers at the Jos University Teaching Hospital between January and April 2022 in Hausa language after informed consent was obtained. Recordings of the interviews were transcribed and translated from Hausa to English. Data analysis was conducted using NVivo software using a thematic framework approach. Most (73%) respondents were male (n = 11); 27% were female (n = 4). The median age was 35 years (interquartile range, 16.5). Some Lassa fever patients experienced stigma and discrimination (53%) including isolation and withdrawal of family and community support during and after illness. HL increased stigma, as some patients were labeled "deaf" by other community members, increasing perceived stigma and devaluation. HL affected the socio-economic wellbeing of some who could not communicate well with their families and customers and constrained social interactions, evoking pain and apathy. Some survivors of LF and victims of its sequelae of HL experienced double stigmatization. While they were ill with LF, a third of respondents reported avoidance and isolation by family and community members who withdrew care and support both to them and their close family members. These forms of stigmatization strained their relationships. There is a need to address stigma in LF survivors who develop HL through concerted community-owned awareness to improve their quality of life along with a robust social support system to aid prevention.

Amplifying victim–survivor voices: media power, collective action, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish identity in the Leifer case

This article underscores the transformative impact of victim–survivor voices in reshaping public discourse on child sexual abuse (CSA). The research project took as the backbone for analysis the Malka Leifer case that spanned 15 years and is linked to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse's report of Case Study 22, which examined responses in ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools to child sexual abuse. Adopting a mixed methods research approach, this study combines qualitative media analysis of 102 news articles and 8 in-depth focus groups to investigate the impact of media outlets in amplifying victim voice and influencing public discourse, and how this impacts the subjects of mediatised public crises. Drawing on the theorising of Couldry and Cottle, the article considers the capacity and limitations of survivor-advocates to leverage media power in the contemporary media system. By exploring the ‘Privileging Victim Voice’ frame, this paper sheds light on how victim–survivor advocates utilised mainstream, local religious, and social media to solidify their central place in the narrative and its reportage. The media analysis served as the foundation for a ‘peer conversation’ style of focus groups with Jewish community members to investigate local impacts of the case's media reportage. The focus group methodology sought to represent this diverse community as wholly as possible. Findings reveal the significant power of journalists’ framing and sourcing practices, and how Jewish institutional child sexual abuse is framed by media outlets within the Australian media landscape. Further, it showcases the broader implications of public inquiries, such as Australia's Royal Commission, in empowering victim–survivors and centreing their narratives in media reportage.

Invisible Wounds: Exploring the Coping Strategies of Black Survivors of Homicide Victims in Canada.

Canada has experienced a steady increase in homicide. Specifically, out of the 10 provinces and 3 territories, Ontario has consistently experienced the highest number of homicides, the majority concentrated within predominantly African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) communities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Despite this disproportionate reality, there is limited research on the ways in which survivors of homicide victims cope with the murder of their loved ones. This article explores the identification and characterization of coping strategies for ACB survivors of homicide victims residing in five neighbourhoods in the GTA. Participants in this study provided their insights and experiences, highlighting the coping mechanisms employed, the influence of cultural identity, and the challenges they experienced in accessing adequate care following the death of their loved ones. Implications for future research, policy and practice are discussed.

Determinants of Referral Outcomes for Victim–Survivors Accessing Specialist Sexual Violence and Abuse Support Services

ABSTRACT Sexual violence and abuse (SVA) is highly prevalent globally, has devastating and wide-ranging effects on victim-survivors, and demands the provision of accessible specialist support services. In the UK, Rape Crisis England & Wales (RCEW), a voluntary third sector organization, is the main provider of specialist SVA services. Understanding the profile of victim-survivors who are referred to RCEW and their referral outcomes is important for the effective allocation of services. Using administrative data collected by three Rape Crisis Centres in England between April 2016 and March 2020, this study used multinomial regression analysis to examine the determinants of victim-survivors’ referral outcomes, controlling for a wide range of potentially confounding variables. The findings demonstrate that support needs, more so than the type of abuse experienced, predicted whether victim-survivors were engaged with services. Particularly, the presence of mental health, substance misuse and social, emotional, and behavioral needs were important for referral outcomes. The referral source also influenced referral outcomes, and there were some differences according to demographic characteristics and socioeconomic factors. The research was co-produced with stakeholders from RCEW, who informed interpretation of these findings. That victim-survivors’ engagement with services was determined by their support needs, over and above demographic characteristics or the type of abuse they had experienced, demonstrates the needs-led approach to service provision adopted by RCEW, whereby resources are allocated effectively to those who need them most.

Hidden Risks of Economic Abuse through Company Directorships

Economic abuse is a form of family violence that severely inhibits victim survivors’ capacities to rebuild their lives. Although its effects are widely felt, it remains a hidden problem. This article contributes to the burgeoning scholarship on economic abuse by investigating its perpetuation through family-owned companies. Victim survivors commonly bear the liability for business failure and phoenix activity as ‘straw’ directors. Recent reforms introduced to deter and penalise illegal phoenix activity have increased the risks for survivors who are coerced or defrauded into becoming directors. The study examines how corporate law and the courts have responded to straw directors in the context of family companies. It interrogates the notion that victim survivors assume responsibility for business decisions voluntarily, as rational economic men with relatively equal bargaining power. This article proposes reforms to disrupt harm from economic abuse through coerced directorships, and to militate against the unintended consequence of recent reforms.

THE LEVITE'S CONCUBINE BASED ON JUDGES 19

This paper offers a hermeneutics of meaning developed for victims or survivors of sexual violence in the parish context, focused primarily on Judges 19 and its ramifications in Judges 20–21. I construct this hermeneutic through an exegesis of Judges 19, based on feminist commentaries that tease out entry points for discussion with victim survivors. Using an imagined community Bible study, i construct a hermeneutic of meaning based on reconciliation and action using the work of pastoral theologians Carrie Doehring, Al Miles, and Monica A. Coleman.

Disclosing Sexual Victimization Online and In-Person: An Examination of Bisexual+ and Heterosexual Survivors.

Bisexual+ (bisexual, pansexual, queer, attraction to more than one gender) people are at elevated risk for sexual victimization relative to their heterosexual counterparts. Disclosure of sexual victimization and social reactions received upon disclosure can play a major role in recovery following an assault. Using an online survey, the current study examined whether bisexual+ and heterosexual survivors of sexual victimization (N = 657) varied in disclosure of victimization, the type of disclosure (in-person vs. online via #MeToo), and receipt of various social reactions to disclosure in person and online. A chi-square test examined differences in disclosure and differences in types of disclosure (in-person only vs. MeToo across sexual identity). MANOVAS were used to examine whether in-person and online reactions varied across sexual identity. Bisexual+ survivors were more likely to disclose sexual victimization relative to heterosexual survivors. Among those who disclosed, bisexual+ survivors were more likely to disclose in person only whereas heterosexual survivors were more likely to disclose online via #MeToo. Whereas we did not find any significant differences for in-person reactions, we did find significant differences for online social reactions using #MeToo. Heterosexual survivors received higher turning against reactions (e.g., avoided talking to you or spending time with you) and more unsupportive acknowledgment relative to bisexual+ participants. Whereas bisexual+ participants received less turning against reactions and unsupportive acknowledgment during #MeToo/online disclosure, they were also less likely to disclose using #MeToo. Findings suggest that bisexual+ and heterosexual people vary in the way they disclose sexual victimization, and in how they are responded to when disclosing in person and online.

‘I’m a red-blooded male’: Understanding men’s experiences of domestic abuse through a feminist lens

The ways in which gendered expectations of women are used to maintain power and control by male perpetrators of domestic abuse are now well understood. It is also increasingly recognised that men can be victims of domestic abuse. This has led to calls to de-gender theories of violence and abuse, and arguments that the feminist theories which underpin many interventions are outdated. We draw on the experiences of 344 men using a helpline for male victim–survivors of domestic abuse to show that patriarchal constructions of relationships, femininity and masculinity, which underpin women’s experiences of domestic abuse by men are also central to understanding men’s experiences of domestic abuse by women. We propose that men’s victimisation by women perpetrators is not incompatible with feminist understandings of domestic abuse. Rather, that the influence of patriarchal norms in men’s victimisation accentuates the importance of gender in understanding and responding to domestic abuse.

Examining specific and non-specific symptoms of the best-fitting posttraumatic stress disorder model in conflict-exposed adolescents

BackgroundThe 5th revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) construes PTSD symptoms into 4 clusters (intrusion, avoidance, negative alterations in cognitions and mood, alterations in arousal and reactivity; Model 1). However, recent literature has shown that this symptom structure does not best represent PTSD. Unfortunately, the findings of studies investigating the proposed alternative models are from consensus. Adding to the complexity of the issue of symptom-grouping models is the identification of specific and non-specific symptoms of PTSD. The present study aims to address these gaps by identifying the best-fitting PTSD model and subsequently examining what symptoms are considered specific and non-specific to PTSD in adolescent-survivors of armed political conflict and violence.MethodsThe study utilized a sample of 641 adolescent victim survivors. We conducted CFA analyses and compared nested models through the scaled χ2 difference test, while comparison of non-nested models was done using the Bayesian information criterion (BIC). The best-fitted model was used in the consequent analysis, where we statistically controlled for the effect of non-specific psychological distress on PTSD by comparing the factor loadings and factor correlations before and after accounting for distress using the Aroian z-test.ResultsThe results provide support for the 7-factor hybrid model of PTSD over other proposed models for the current sample. Moreover, the data reveal that only 7 items could be construed as core symptoms, while the rest of the symptoms can be considered non-PTSD specific.ConclusionsOverall, the findings provide support for the validity of the hybrid PTSD model among political conflict-exposed adolescents. The results also show that the DSM-5 PTSD has both specific and non-specific features in the present sample of conflict-exposed adolescents. This has potential implications for theory, practice, and treatment of the disorder.

Adult disclosures of non-recent child sexual abuse: is there a role for restorative justice?

This article examines the views of 29 victim survivors (who were part of a larger study) who retrospectively disclosed non-recent child sexual abuse regarding their reasons for disclosure, the child protection and criminal justice responses to them, and the possible ways for improving system responses to address their needs and interests. The reasons for disclosure centred on a desire to pass the burden of the abuse to someone else, to achieve a subjectively defined form of justice and to regain power and control over their lives. Following disclosure, victim survivors often found themselves involved in two forms of investigation: child protection and criminal justice. The findings suggest that criminal justice systems do not adequately address victims’ needs in these circumstances. They often feel marginal to child protection investigations and feel used instrumentally in those proceedings. However, having social workers ‘rattle the cage’ of perpetrators provided comfort for some victim survivors who failed to get justice through criminal justice mechanisms. Based on the research presented in this study, it is suggested that restorative justice may have something to offer as part of the response to non-recent disclosures of child sexual abuse as part of both criminal justice and child protection investigations and processes.

Gender-based violence policy reform: assessing the risks and public value of co-production with survivors

Governments worldwide are increasingly engaging service users to reform public policies and services and enhance public value. Survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) are one group seeking to be heard by governments and gradually being engaged to improve policy outcomes. However, the history of the victims’ rights movement and feminist scholarship on political institutions indicate significant risks for survivors in these engagements with the state. This article examines the nature of these risks and how they are experienced and challenged, through a case study analysis of the implementation of the Australian state of Victoria’s Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council. Analysing government reports and interviews with survivors and policymakers, the article investigates how the state asserts control over survivors under the guise of co-production, inadvertently compromising public value creation. Informed by a feminist institutionalist lens, our analysis finds that efforts to address the power imbalances and gendered norms reflected in the informal rules of co-production are likely to better realise public value in terms of improved outcomes for all members of society, especially those experiencing GBV. The co-production risks we highlight and the ways to mitigate them we suggest are also relevant to other areas of co-production with other marginalised service users.

Firearm restrictions in domestic violence protection orders: Implementation, vetting, compliance, and enforcement

AbstractResearch SummaryWe quantified the implementation of WA state's domestic violence (DV)‐related firearm prohibitions (RCW9.41.800) by the courts and the Regional Domestic Violence Firearms Enforcement Unit (RDVFEU), a regional approach to compliance promotion. We measured implementation, vetting, compliance, and enforcement of firearm prohibitions before (2014–2016) and after (2018–2020) the RDVFEU was implemented using a 55% random sample of granted domestic violence protection orders (DVPOs) in King County, WA (n = 3543). We evaluated differences in judicial orders to surrender firearms and other dangerous weapons (OTSWs), respondent documented compliance, and respondent weapon and/or firearm relinquishment before and after implementation. Compared to DVPOs granted prior to RDVFEU implementation, granted DVPOs after RDVFEU implementation were at least 4.5 times more likely to include an OTSW. RDVFEU implementation was also associated with at least 3.4 times the odds of respondent documented compliance and at least 3.3 times the odds of respondent relinquishment of at least one firearm and/or other dangerous weapon. These findings demonstrate RDVFEU implementation was associated with benefits at each stage of the protection order process with improvements in both judicial enforcement and respondent compliance. Overall, RDVFEU implementation was associated with improvements in granted orders to surrender weapons, respondent compliance, and relinquishment.Policy ImplicationsDV‐related firearm prohibitions can be supported by interdisciplinary teams within the legal system to promote respondent compliance and enhance safety planning for DV victim–survivors.

Human Rights Penality and Violence Against Women: The Coloniality of Disembodied Justice

AbstractDespite the persistence of violence inside and around prisons, and the dubious adequacy of criminal law to respond to victim–survivors, international human rights (IHR) discourse increasingly promotes the mobilisation of the state’s penal apparatus to respond to human rights violations, including violence against women (VAW). Using an anticolonial feminist approach, this article scrutinises the ontological and epistemological commitments underlying ‘human rights penality,’ by analysing features of the Western-colonial register vis-a-vis more relational worldviews. Separateness, abstraction, and transcendence broadly underpin the exclusion of embodied experience, context, and material reality from the juridical field. In the second part, through discourse analysis of Inter-American and European case law, the author shows the deployment of human rights penality, the displacement of experience, and the disregard of context in IHR discourse. VAW is construed as a procedural and penal matter: it is the absence of a penal process that courts regard as failure to protect women, rather than the state’s inability/unwillingness to address structural subordination. Moreover, the ‘virtues’ attributed to the penal system justify its expansion, which facilitates the continuity of penal violence and debilitates alternative approaches to justice. Finally, the author posits penal abolition as an anticolonial praxis, pointing at examples of anti-carceral feminist work.

Cross-Sectional Examination of Physical Abuse Victimization Differences Between Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Service Members in the U.S. Military, 2018.

Purpose: The primary objective was to analyze the association between sexual orientation and physical abuse victimization using a representative sample from the U.S. active-duty military population. The secondary objective was to determine if differences exist by sexual orientation in perceived barriers (e.g., stigma) to mental health care utilization among physical abuse victimization survivors. Methods: The 2018 Department of Defense Health Related Behaviors Survey (HRBS) (n = 17,166 active-duty respondents) was used for analysis. Weighted logistic regressions and Poisson regressions were used for multivariable analyses, controlling for demographic and military variables. Results: Approximately 93.7% of respondents identified as heterosexual or straight, 2.3% identified as gay or lesbian, and 4% as bisexual. Bisexual active-duty service members had 1.5-fold greater odds of reporting any form of physical abuse victimization (adjusted odds ratio: 1.50 and 95% confidence interval: 1.07-2.10). However, there was no difference observed between gay/lesbian and heterosexual service members for physical abuse victimization. Among survivors of physical abuse victimization, bisexual (p = 0.0038) and gay (p < 0.0001) service members were more likely to report more than one mental health care barrier compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Conclusions: Bisexual service members were more likely to experience physical abuse victimization when compared to their heterosexual counterparts. In addition, gay and bisexual survivors of physical abuse were more likely to experience barriers to mental health care. Tailored interventions should explore strategies to prevent victimization and disparities in mental health care utilization by sexual orientation.

The “Freedom Work” of Feminist Domestic Violence Advocates

ABSTRACT Since the 1970s, there have been dramatic shifts in domestic violence advocacy in Australia. Domestic violence activism emerged from the women’s liberation movement with a clear feminist and emancipatory agenda, but this work has now shifted into the mainstream. This has seen the previous focus of domestic violence advocacy, which included women’s freedom and liberation, narrow to an emphasis more on women’s safety and risk management. While this “safety work” is a needed priority, there must also be an examination of what is lost when domestic violence practice does not allow space for “freedom work”. This article explores freedom work with 10 feminist domestic violence advocates in Australia. They detail four principles of their freedom work with victim—survivors, which includes that feminism is central to their survivor-led practice; that safety work can expand freedom when done from a feminist perspective; that advocates’ knowledge needs to meet victim—survivors where they are; and that while freedom is central to their practice, they acknowledge that this freedom is aspirational. IMPLICATIONS A focus on risk management and safety in domestic violence work can narrow women’s freedom and choices. Feminist domestic violence advocates who ground their work in emancipatory politics expand their focus beyond women’s safety to honour women’s freedom. This “freedom work” is mainly aspirational but seeks opportunities to expand women’s space for action and freedom alongside broader political activism.

Development and validation of the Inventory of Stress and Coping for African American Survivors of Homicide Victims.

African Americans disproportionately experience homicide. However, validated measures designed to assess the traumatic impact of coping with murder for surviving family members and friends of homicide victims are absent from research. This article describes four studies that contributed to the development and preliminary validation of the Inventory of Stress and Coping for African American Survivors of Homicide Victims (ISCASHV). The ISCASHV is a measure that assesses multicomponents (e.g., stress, appraisals, stigma, coping) of the sociocultural and psychological processes in which African Americans cope with homicide. Studies 2-4 provide strong support for the multicomponent 42-item scale consisting of five factors: cultural trauma, reactions to homicide, culture of homicide, racial appraisal, and coping. The ISCASHV demonstrates strong construct validity evidence and good internal consistency estimates. Each of the five measures demonstrated a high test-retest estimate for a 2-week period, suggesting the temporal stability of the factors. Results suggest that the ISCASHV is a promising multicomponent measure that assesses the racial- and sociocultural-bound manifestation of homicide-related grief for African American survivors of homicide victims. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

"'I am a Man. How Could I Possibly Have Been Raped?' Men Making Sense of Their Experiences With Sexual Violence".

Sexual violence among college students is an enduring issue that can shape adverse outcomes for victim survivors. The gender dynamics of college sexual assault and rape include rates of women overrepresented as victims and men as perpetrators. Dominant cultural frames reinforcing the (hetero)normative gendered sexual scripts of masculinity often preclude men from being considered as legitimate victims of sexual violence, despite evidence documenting their victimization. The present study contributes to knowledge of men's experiences of sexual violence by sharing the narratives of 29 college men survivors and how they make sense of their experiences. Through open and focused thematic qualitative coding, findings revealed how men struggled to understand their victimization experiences within cultural frameworks that exclude men as victims. Participants engaged in complex linguistic processes (i.e., "epiphanies") to process their unwanted sexual encounter, in addition to altering their sexual behavior after experiencing sexual violence. Findings can inform programing and interventions to be more inclusive of supporting men as victims.

Generative systemic‐constructionist psychotherapy in the face of crisis in the context of armed violence in colombia: Case of MM, Montes de María – Department of Sucre

AbstractThis article aims to show a process of systemic‐constructionist and generative therapy in the face of crisis situations experienced by MM. MM is a woman victim–survivor from the region of Los Montes de María in Colombia, a territory hard hit by armed violence between 1990 and 2008. Methodologically, the fragments presented are those that are repeated in three sessions. Psychotherapeutic work is a combination of dialogical and interactive resources, opportunities, and capacities that combine three kinds of time in MM's daily life. These are: first, the past of the violence; second, the present comprised of the presence of memories of violence, social and family interactions, together with psychiatric diagnoses; and third, the sense of a future based on the hope of reducing their suffering and taking action against the violence. Analysis and interpretation are hermeneutical constructions carried out throughout the psychotherapeutic process and in the midst of generative dialogues. On the one hand, the scientific and everyday knowledge that helps to process and transform the crisis is recognised. On the other hand, it shows a form of knowledge that distances itself from the parameters of science and positivist approaches. In conclusion, this article is an opportunity to question traditional positions within the field of mental health in the light of moments constructed with MM in the framework of systemic‐constructionist therapy, seen as a relational space where generative contexts are built.

The Indirect Effects of Proximal Stressors Associated with Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Severity among Sexually Victimized Sexual Minority Women: A Cross-Sectional Path Analysis.

Sexual minority women (SMW) are at risk for sexual victimization and stressors specifically related to their minority identity (e.g., discrimination). However, SMW experience posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at rates beyond what may be explained by elevated risk for sexual victimization alone. This study aimed to examine the impact of stigma on PTSD symptoms among SMW survivors of sexual victimization. Results indicate that in relation to minority-specific distal stressors (i.e., heterosexist experiences), both minority-specific and general proximal stressors (i.e., internalized heterosexism, negative posttraumatic cognitions) indirectly affected PTSD symptom severity among this cross-sectional sample of sexually victimized SMW.