Teenagers need to know where love stops and abusive relationships start

an article by Holly Bourne for the Guardian

Many young women have been in an abusive relationship without even realising. A new website aims to teach them about coercive control


Repeated stalking’: Edward and Bella in Twilight. Photograph: Allstar/Summit Entertainment/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

Why are we always pointing to Instagram as the cause of mental illness in our teenagers? It’s frustrating that abusive relationships, and the trauma they cause, are rarely mentioned in discussions about the prevalence of mental health problems in young people. Research by Women’s Aid and Cosmopolitan has found that a third of teenage girls have been in an abusive relationship. And, if that isn’t shocking enough, when the remaining two-thirds were asked further questions, it emerged that 64% of them had, in fact, experienced abusive behaviour – they just didn’t realise it was abuse.

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Spaces of safety and more-than-safety in women’s refuges in England

an article by Janet C. Bowstead (Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK) published in Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography Volume 26 Issue 1 (January 2019)

Abstract

Many women escaping domestic violence spend time in women’s refuges (shelters) whilst they deal with practical and emotional issues in a safe space. Such spaces are therefore an important place for women’s recovery and empowerment after abuse, but are also complex spaces of displacement.

In the UK, there is a wide range of refuge providers, and different models of accommodation and support provision in refuges. Differences, such as those between refuges providing self-contained flats and those with communal facilities and communal activities, can provide very different experiences for the women and their children who live there.

In addition, there have been shifts in the policy context of refuges, and increasingly individualistic models of service provision.

This article explores women’s refuges as spaces of safety, and of more-than-safety, drawing on interviews with women in the Midlands, South Coast and London, and on participatory creative groupwork with women in the Midlands and South Coast. Refuge spaces require, but also enable, contact and encounter between women; and communal living and group processes can enable interaction and collaboration between women.

The article draws on women’s words and images to exemplify these experiences, concluding that the safe spaces of women’s refuges can enable processes of more-than-safety. These collective processes begin to counteract the isolation of abuse and to help prepare women for their lives after the refuge.

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Counting the cost: BME women and gender‐based violence in the UK

an article by Hannana Siddiqui (Freelance consultant) published in IPPR Progressive Review Volume 24 Issue 4 (Spring 2018)

Abstract

Gender‐based violence is worryingly prevalent across all parts of the UK but it is among BME women and girls where its rates are highest. Hannana Siddiqui explores the impact of intersectional discrimination which is failing to support and protect these women.

Full text (PDF 8pp)

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Letting Go of the Victim Label: The Past Will Not Define Me

a post by Eboni Kelly for the Tiny Buddha blog

TRIGGER WARNING: This post deals with an account of domestic violence and sexual abuse, and may be triggering to some people.


“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” ~Unknown

It wasn’t long ago that I lived my life as a professional victim.

It wasn’t intentional, but somewhere along the way I had internalized the fact that my victimhood gave me an excuse to remain stuck. As long as I was a victim, I had a reason to wallow in sadness and self-pity, a reason to not move forward, and sympathy that was poured upon me like praise—because no one wants to shame the victim, right? So I put on my victim’s Badge of Honor and remained firmly planted in the past.

The thing about being a victim is that it doesn’t end there. Resentment is not far behind, and I soon found myself immersed in resentment. After all, I never asked to be born into a household filled with domestic violence, nor did I ask be molested by someone I shared the same bloodline with, but it happened, and I resented it.

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Unemployment and Domestic Violence: Theory and Evidence

an article by Dan Anderberg, Jonathan Wadsworth and Tanya Wilson (Royal Holloway, University of London) and Helmut Rainer (University of Munich and Ifo Institute) published in The Economic Journal Volume 126 Issue 597 (November 2016)

Abstract

Does rising unemployment really increase domestic violence as many commentators expect? The contribution of this article is to examine how changes in unemployment affect the incidence of domestic abuse.

Theory predicts that male and female unemployment have opposite-signed effects on domestic abuse: an increase in male unemployment decreases the incidence of intimate partner violence, while an increase in female unemployment increases domestic abuse.

Combining data on intimate partner violence from the British Crime Survey with locally disaggregated labour market data from the UK’s Annual Population Survey, we find strong evidence in support of the theoretical prediction.

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Neoliberalism and violence: The Big Society and the changing politics of domestic violence in England

an article by Armine Ishkanian (London School of Economics, England)published in Critical Social Policy Volume 34 Number 3 (August 2014)

Abstract

Focusing on the domestic violence sector as a case study, this article examines how the Big Society agenda, coming alongside public spending cuts, is affecting the independence and ability of women’s organizations to engage in progressive policy shaping.

By situating the analysis of the Big Society agenda within the broader context of international civil society strengthening programmes, the article considers how the processes currently unfolding in England, share certain similarities to what has happened globally wherever neoliberal policies aimed at instrumentalizing civil society for service delivery have been implemented.

It contends that the policies of the Big Society agenda, which are aimed at strengthening the ‘capacity’ of civil society, are instead creating a situation where the independence and ability of civil society organizations to engage in progressive policy making is weakened.

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Adolescent to parent violence: Framing and mapping a hidden problem

an article by Rachel Condry and Caroline Miles (University of Oxford) published in Criminology and Criminal Justice Volume 14 Number 3 (July 2014)

Abstract

Adolescent to parent violence is virtually absent from policing, youth justice and domestic violence policy, despite being widely recognised by practitioners in those fields. It is under-researched and rarely appears in criminological discussions of family or youth violence.

This article presents the first UK analysis of cases of adolescent to parent violence reported to the police. We analyse victim, offender and incident characteristics from 1,892 cases reported to the Metropolitan Police in 2009–2010, most of which involved violence against the person or criminal damage in the home. Our findings reveal that adolescent to parent violence is a gendered phenomenon: 87 per cent of suspects were male and 77 per cent of victims were female.

We argue that the absence of adolescent to parent violence from criminological discourse must be addressed if criminology is to have a thorough understanding of family violence in all its forms.

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Community-Based Career Counseling for Women Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence A Collaborative Partnership

an article by Krista M. Chronister, Eliza Harley, Christina L. Aranda, Leah Barr and Paula Luginbuhl (University of Oregon, Eugene, USA) published in Journal of Career Development Volume 39 Number 6 (December 2012)

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) costs women nearly 8 million days of paid work annually. Greater attention to violence survivors’ employment and career development can facilitate women escaping abusive relationships and promotes their overall rehabilitation and healing.

A first step to increasing attention to survivors’ career development includes collaborating with social service agencies in an effort to translate career intervention research findings into community-based practice.

The purpose of this article is to provide a description of an individual career counselling model that the authors use to serve women IPV survivors.

The authors review the structure of the service model, the theoretical and research foundations, and describe two case examples to highlight career counselling interventions relevant for women survivors.

Hazel’s comment:
The 8 million days are in the USA and I do not seem to be able to find a figure for the UK but this research underlines something that I learned very early on in my career as an adviser; you cannot move people on if there are mental health / trauma issues in their lives any more than you can get homeless people into work without addressing the underlying reasons for the homelessness.

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Law’s indifference to women’s experience of violence: Colonial and contemporary Australia

an article by Sarah Ailwood, Patricia Easteal and Jessica Kennedy (School of Law, University of Canberra, Australia) published in Women’s Studies International Forum Volume 35 Issue 2 (March-April 2012)

Abstract

Research suggests that despite substantial changes to domestic violence legislation since its conception in the 19th century, women’s voices continue to be muted and domestic violence continues to be invisible, to some extent, in the eyes of the law.

This paper uses the 1881 autobiography of Eliza Davies and the voices of contemporary women who speak out about their experiences to highlight the dynamics through which domestic violence becomes and remains invisible. It particularly focuses on the effects of the adversarial justice system, and its indifference to victims of violence within criminal and family law processes.

Clear parallels in the social, legal and juridical experiences of domestic violence between the mid-nineteenth century and contemporary Australia are drawn. It concludes that although many aspects of the law have changed, and clear improvements have been achieved in some areas, the procedures by which those laws are administered mean that their effectiveness to protect the victim is limited.

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Strategy of Career Interventions for Battered Women

 an article by Joshua C Collins (Texas A&M University) published in Human Resource Development Volume 10 Number 3 (September 2011)

Abstract

Female victims of domestic violence – also referred to as “battered women” – face serious career development challenges that necessitate the intervention and aid of human resource development (HRD) practice.The purpose of this article is to identify critical factors having an impact on the career development (CD) of battered women and to offer suggestions for how HRD practitioners may begin work to aid battered women in the development of their careers. This article is primarily concerned with career development interventions with battered women who also experience additional economic, educational, or networking hardships. Therefore, the findings of this article should not be considered inclusive of all female victims of domestic violence, but rather the start of an important conversation. The considerations in this article and the interventions suggested herein need testing and development, as do other methods of CD interventions with battered women. The expansion of HRD to include programs for those who have historically been minimized by systems of oppression should be considered a primary concern of current researchers and practitioners.

Hazel’s comment:
Encouraging battered women is wonderful, but so is encouraging anyone in a vulnerable position. It is, however, an ugly fact of life that the most vulnerable in society are much less likely to be employed and will, therefore, not benefit from HR intervention.

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Domestic violence laws fail to increase convictions

via Current Awareness by sally on 18 August

"Labour's flagship reforms to protect women from domestic violence have failed to increase criminal convictions, a government study has found."

Full story
The Independent 16 August 2008

Hazel's comment:
Where would I be without the Inner Temple Library and its wonderful picking up of stories that I miss completely?

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