Search

Intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors seeking safety and justice for themselves and their children through family court and other legal systems may instead encounter their partners' misuse of court processes to further enact coercive control. To illuminate this harmful process, this study sought to create a measure of legal abuse. We developed a list of 27 potential items on the basis of consultation with 23 experts, qualitative interviews, and existing literature. After piloting these items, we administered them to a sample of 222 survivor-mothers who had been involved in family law proceedings. We then used both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Rasch analysis (RA) to create a final measure. Analyses yielded the 14-item Legal Abuse Scale (LAS). Factor analysis supported two subscales: Harm to Self/Motherhood (i.e., using the court to harm the survivor as a person and a mother) and Harm to Finances (i.e., using the court to harm the survivor financially). The LAS is a tool that will enable systematic assessment of legal abuse in family court and other legal proceedings, an expansion of research on this form of coercive control, and further development of policy and practice that recognizes and responds to it., Author(s): Ellen R. Gutowski [sup.1] , Lisa A. Goodman [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.17063.33, 0000 0001 2157 2938, Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Toronto, , Toronto, [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically highlighted the isolation of domestic violence survivors, triggering media coverage and innovative efforts to reach out to those who are trapped in their homes, facing greater danger from their partners than from the virus. But another harmful aspect of this difficult time has received far less attention: survivors' intensified loneliness. Although loneliness can be catalyzed by isolation, it is a distinct psychological phenomenon that is internal and subjective in nature. Loneliness is not only acutely painful in its own right; it also inflicts a range of long lasting, health-related harms, and heightens survivors' vulnerability to violence, creating a vicious cycle that may continue long after strict stay-at-home and physical distancing policies end. This may be particularly true for marginalized survivors, for whom larger structural inequalities and institutional failures compound the negative impact of loneliness. This brief report describes what we know about the nature and costs of survivor loneliness and uses the COVID-19 pandemic as a lens through which to review the ways current DV interventions may help alleviate loneliness (as distinct from isolation), and how these might be expanded to enhance survivor wellbeing, immediately and even after a return to 'normal.', Author(s): Lisa A. Goodman [sup.1] , Deborah Epstein [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.208226.c, 0000 0004 0444 7053, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College, , 310 Campion Hall, [...]

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study that draws upon a collaborative research strategy and has two main objectives: 1) Translating and adapting into French the Measure of Victim Empowerment Related to Safety (MOVERS scale) (Goodman et al. Psychology of Violence, 5(4), 355-366, 2015a (See CR21)); 2) Validating the French version of the MOVERS scale in a population of French-Canadian women receiving shelter services. The French-Canadian MOVERS (FCM) was administered to 189 women receiving shelter services in the province of Québec (Canada). The factorial structure, reliability and validity of the FCM were tested. This paper highlights that the FCM replicates the three dimensions found in the original version (Goodman et al. Psychology of Violence, 5(4), 355-366, 2015a (See CR21)), displays significant correlations with measures of depression, anxiety and stress, self-esteem, perceived social support, satisfaction with life and self-efficacy, and has overall good reliability estimates. The FCM is a valid and reliable scale to assess safety-related empowerment among women receiving shelter services. Furthermore, the scale provides interesting opportunities to shelter workers, which will be discussed in the paper., Author(s): Isabelle Côté [sup.1] , Joël Gagnon [sup.2] , Simon Lapierre [sup.3] , Dominique Damant [sup.4] , Stéphanie Louis Jean Esprival [sup.1] , Lisa A. Goodman [sup.5] Author Affiliations: (1) [...]

This qualitative descriptive study examines the perspectives of 19 mothers who survived intimate partner violence (IPV) and sought custody of one or more children through the family court system. We explored these mothers' perceptions of the nature of court processes from start to finish, their understandings of the impact of court processes and outcomes on their well-being, and their recommendations for improvements to facilitate a process that is sensitive to survivors' experiences with IPV. Mothers interviewed in this study described an experience that was largely invalidating and distressing, compounding the adverse effects of IPV on their well-being. Qualitative content analysis yielded six clusters: 1) survivors must enter into a court environment that implicitly presumes the absence of trauma, 2) survivors face obstacles to getting their stories of abuse across and heard, 3) survivors experience harmful and helpful interactions with court professionals, 4) survivors endure distress in the courtroom, 5) survivors suffer psychosocial consequences outside of the courtroom, and 6) survivors make recommendations for an improved custody process that is sensitive to experiences of IPV. Results paint a picture of a family court system that has the potential to cause grave, lasting harms to survivor-mothers who are separating from abusive partners., Author(s): Ellen Gutowski [sup.1], Lisa A. Goodman [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.208226.c, 0000 0004 0444 7053, Department of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology, Campion Hall, Boston College, , 02467, Chestnut [...]

Domestic violence (DV) advocates aim to restore survivors' choice and control, a process that involves sharing power with survivors, to the extent possible. At the same time, as mandated reporters, they are legally required to observe, evaluate, and potentially report survivors' parenting to the Department of Children and Families (DCF), an activity that involves exerting enormous power over survivors. Although research has long documented the tension between systems that support DV survivor-mothers and systems that support children, almost no research has explored how advocates think about and manage on a daily basis these perhaps contradictory roles. This study aimed to fill this gap. Using a qualitative, focus-group methodology, we conducted six focus groups with advocates across four programs. Findings demonstrate that advocates perceive profound tension between their role as facilitators of empowerment and their obligations as mandated reporters, especially given their (advocates') general distrust of DCF. They use myriad strategies to manage the resultant conflict, including inward facing strategies, designed to manage their own biases and see survivors in context; survivor-facing strategies, designed to name, share, and use their power in every way possible within the systemic constraints they face; and system-facing strategies that balance cooperation with DCF and continued advocacy for survivor-mothers. Despite their thoughtful and strategic efforts to minimize 'power-over' dynamics, however, advocates report that navigating this tension often exacts an emotional toll on them, causes irreparable damage to their advocacy relationships, and harm survivors. A number of actionable recommendations follow, including the need to establish opportunities for survivors to talk with each other, outside the earshot of staff, about their parenting challenges., Author(s): Lisa A. Goodman [sup.1] , Jennifer E. Fauci [sup.1] , Helen P. Hailes [sup.1] , Laura Gonzalez [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.208226.c, 0000 0004 0444 7053, Boston College, , [...]

When intimate partner violence survivors seek help from public institutions, including domestic violence programs, they necessarily submit to the scrutiny of staff who are required to report suspicions of child abuse or neglect to the state child protective system. This prospect would frighten anyone but has particular weight for survivor-parents who - during a period of enormous stress, chaos, and trauma - are often held responsible for the conditions of abuse they are trying to end or escape. So, what happens when they enter such systems? How do survivors think about and manage the experience of being evaluated, and more acutely, the looming possibility of a mandated report? And how do advocates, trained to restore power to survivors navigate their roles as mandated reporters? Each of the articles in this special section describes a piece of this puzzle. But the profound implications of their findings cannot be understood clearly without an understanding of the historical and structural contexts of oppression in which they play out - contexts that many survivors know only too well. This article aims to review briefly the broader social, historical, and structural contexts of mandated reporting and the linked phenomena of parenting surveillance and the forced separation of families of color. Centering these broader legacies of violence and other harms expands our capacity to ask the right research questions and support survivors more effectively as they seek help from systems they need for safety and healing, but that they also rightly fear., Author(s): Lisa A. Goodman [sup.1] , Jennifer E. Fauci [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.208226.c, 0000 0004 0444 7053, Department of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology, Lynch School of Education, Boston [...]

For survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), the act of seeking help from a domestic violence (DV) shelter can incur enormous costs. One cost is what we refer to as 'parenting surveillance:' that is, DV advocates can monitor, evaluate, and sometimes control survivors' parenting-activities given weight through their mandated reporter role. Although surveillance has long been a feature of state intervention into family life, particularly for low-income women of color, it is largely unexplored in the DV shelter system. This is a striking gap: Though most DV programs are committed to supporting survivors' autonomy and empowerment, the surveillance of parenting may echo abusive dynamics from which survivors are attempting to escape. This qualitative-descriptive study aimed to explore survivor-mothers' experiences of parenting surveillance among 12 residents of four shelters. Qualitative content analysis yielded five clusters: Survivor-mothers (1) experience and witness parenting surveillance in their programs even as they also find support, (2) describe negative psychological responses to surveillance, (3) report effects on parenting from surveillance, (4) cope with and resist surveillance, and (5) offer recommendations that minimize or diminish surveillance. Although surveillance is a structural phenomenon, baked into the policies and practices of DV shelters, participants' experiences of it vary based on their personal identities and histories and their relationships with advocates. Despite these variations, however, the costs of surveillance for mothers is significant. For advocates, addressing this phenomenon requires pragmatic and relational shifts grounded in empathy for survivor-mothers' subjective experience of parenting in challenging conditions., Author(s): Jennifer E. Fauci [sup.1] [sup.2] , Lisa A. Goodman [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.208226.c, 0000 0004 0444 7053, Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology, Boston College, , 140 Commonwealth Avenue, [...]

INTRODUCTION 401 I. TYPES OF GATEKEEPER-IMPOSED CREDIBILITY DISCOUNTS 405 A. Story Plausibility 406 1. Internal Consistency 406 a. Neurological Trauma: Traumatic Brain Injury 407 b. Psychological Trauma: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [...], In recent months, we've seen an unprecedented wave of testimonials about the serious harms women all too frequently endure. The #MeToo moment, the #WhyIStayed campaign, and the Larry Nassar sentencing hearings have raised public awareness not only about workplace harassment, domestic violence, and sexual abuse, but also about how routinely women survivors face a Gaslight-style gauntlet of doubt, disbelief and outright dismissal of their stories. This pattern is particularly disturbing in the justice system, where women face a legal twilight zone: laws meant to protect them and deter further abuse often fail to achieve their purpose, because women telling stories of abuse by their male partners are simply not believed. To fully grasp the nature of this new moment in gendered power relations--and to cement the significant gains won by these public campaigns--we need to take a full, considered look at when, how, and why the justice system and other key social institutions discount women's credibility. We use the lens of intimate partner violence to examine the ways in which women's credibility is discounted in a range of legal and social service system settings. First, judges and others improperly discount as implausible women's stories of abuse, based on a failure to understand both the symptoms arising from neurological and psychological trauma, and the practical constraints on survivors' lives. Second, gatekeepers unjustly discount women's personal trustworthiness, based on both inaccurate interpretations of survivors' courtroom demeanor and negative cultural stereotypes about women and their motivations for seeking assistance. Moreover, even when a woman manages to overcome all the initial modes of institutional skepticism that minimize her account of abuse, she often finds that the systems designed to furnish her with help and protection dismiss the importance of her experiences. Instead, all too often, the arbiters of justice and social welfare adopt and enforce legal and social policies and practices with little regard for how they perpetuate patterns of abuse. Two distinct harms arise from this pervasive pattern of credibility discounting and experiential dismissal. First, the discrediting of survivors constitutes its own psychic injury--an institutional betrayal that echoes the psychological abuse women suffer at the hands of individual perpetrators. Second, the pronounced, nearly instinctive penchant for devaluing women's testimony is so deeply embedded within survivors' experience that it becomes a potent, independent obstacle to their efforts to obtain safety and justice. The reflexive discounting of women's stories of domestic violence finds analogs among the kindred diminutions and dismissals that harm so many other women who resist the abusive exercise of male power, from survivors of workplace harassment to victims of sexual assault on and off campus. For these women, too, credibility discounts both deepen the harm they experience and create yet another impediment to healing and justice. Concrete, systematic reforms are needed to eradicate these unjust, gender-based credibility discounts and experiential dismissals, and to enable women subjected to male abuses of power at long last to trust the responsiveness of the justice system.

Author(s): Kristie A. Thomas [sup.1] , Lisa A. Goodman [sup.2] , Elizabeth Schön Vainer [sup.3] , Deborah Heimel [sup.4] , Ronit Barkai [sup.5] , Deborah Collins-Gousby [sup.6] Author Affiliations: (1) [...]

In the absence of ongoing involvement in the communities that are the subjects of research, even well-intentioned researchers can develop questions that are not relevant to community needs, employ methods that hurt community members, or disseminate findings in ways that are inaccessible to those most affected. Recognizing these harms, a growing number of domestic violence (DV) researchers have embraced community-based participatory research (CBPR), an approach in which researchers and community members share power at every level of the research process, co-creating knowledge that can be applied to enhance community well-being. Despite growing interest in this approach, however, there are insufficient opportunities for interested researchers to learn how to actually engage in it, especially in the DV context. To remedy this gap, the authors of this paper collaborated to develop an online toolkit for emerging researchers interested in CPBR. This brief report frames the need for CBPR in DV research using short vignettes that come from our own research experience; introduces Power Through Partnerships: A CBPR Toolkit for Domestic Violence Researchers; and presents recommendations for developing, promoting, and disseminating future CBPR research. We chose to announce the development and availability of this toolkit in an academic journal in order to highlight its scholarly and practical relevance for researcher audiences who might be less familiar with the CBPR approach., Author(s): Lisa A. Goodman [sup.1] , Kristie A. Thomas [sup.2] , Nkiru Nnawulezi [sup.3] , Carrie Lippy [sup.4] , Josephine V. Serrata [sup.5] , Susan Ghanbarpour [sup.6] , Cris Sullivan [...]

Given the centrality of court interventions to the U.S. response to intimate partner violence (IPV), it is crucial to evaluate their impact on reabuse. To do so, this study examined whether female IPV victims' experiences of abuse in the year following a criminal court case against their partner varied by case outcome or by whether the batterer had or had not been incarcerated. Consistent with prior research, we found no main effect differences in reabuse trajectories by court case outcome or by incarceration. We also examined variables that might moderate the impact of case outcome and incarceration on reabuse and found that although batterer legal history did not affect the impact of case outcome, his age, Time 1 employment status, the couple's Time 1 living arrangement, and duration of abuse did interact with case outcome. No variables tested moderated the relationship between incarceration and reabuse over time. Findings suggest that in certain cases there may be benefits to case outcomes that leave potential consequences hanging over the offender's head. These results also add to the growing body of evidence questioning the efficacy of one-size-fits-all approaches to IPV cases. Keywords Battered women * Criminal court * Abuse * Legal, Over the past 40 years there has been a cultural shift in the United States wherein intimate partner violence (IPV) is now considered a social problem requiring a societal response, [...]

This study describes a qualitative study of student advocates' experiences of their work with low-income women struggling with symptoms of depression. Using an advocacy model called Relationship-Centered Advocacy, these 1st-year counseling psychology graduate students worked intensively with their 'partners' for 9 months. Advocate--partner teams met together each week, developing collaborative relationships and addressing the women's emotional and material needs in integrated ways. Using qualitative content analysis of participant interviews and journal entries, this study describes emergent themes involving negotiating the advocacy relationship, insider--outsider dynamics, responding to perceptions of privilege and disparity, and gaining professional and personal insights. It concludes with a discussion of the practice and research implications, highlighting the possibilities of Relationship-Centered Advocacy as a new training tool. DOI: 10.1111/j.1939-0025.2010.01006.x

Although poverty is associated with a range of mental health difficulties among women in this country, mainstream mental health interventions are not sufficient to meet the complex needs of poor women. This article argues that stress, powerlessness, and social isolation should become primary targets of our interventions, as they are key mediators of the relationship between poverty and emotional distress, particularly for women. Indeed, if ways are not found to address these conditions directly, by increasing women's control, choice, and connections, the capacity to improve the emotional well-being of impoverished women will remain limited at best. This is the first of 5 articles that comprise a special section of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, called 'Beyond the 50-Minute Hour: Increasing Control, Choice, and Connections in the Lives of Low-Income Women.' Together, these articles explore the nature and impact of a range of innovative mental health interventions that are grounded in a deep understanding of the experience of poverty. This introduction: (a) describes briefly how mainstream approaches fail to address the poverty-related mental health needs of low-income women; (b) illuminates the role of stress, powerlessness, and social isolation in women's lives: (c) highlights the ways in which the articles included in this special section address each of these by either adapting traditional mental health practices to attend to poverty's role in participants' lives or adapting community-based, social-justice-oriented interventions to attend to participants' mental health; and (d) discusses the research and evaluation implications of expanding mental health practices to meet the needs of low-income communities. DOI: 10.1111/j.1939-0025.2010.01002.x

This article describes a qualitative study of how low-income women who are struggling with symptoms of depression experience feminist relational advocacy, a new model that is informed by feminist, multicultural, and community psychology theories. Using qualitative content analysis of participant interviews, the authors describe the processes and outcomes of feminist relational advocacy from participants' perspectives; they also consider how emergent themes fit with principles of the model, including the importance of women's narratives, the inseparability of emotional and practical support, the centrality of the advocacy relationship, and oppression as a source of emotional distress. The article concludes with a discussion of the practice and research implications of the study, highlighting the possibilities of feminist relational advocacy as a new tool for counseling psychologists and the lessons for advocacy models in general.

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2009.01485.x Byline: Margret E. Bell (1), Lisa A. Goodman (2), Mary Ann Dutton (3) Abstract: Despite assumptions that leaving the batterer offers the best chance for improvement in battered women's lives, few studies provide conclusive data on this issue. Although many women eventually reunite with partners, also unexamined is the influence of relationship course over time. Five waves of data from 206 low-income, largely Black, help-seeking battered women revealed minimal differences in emotional well-being either initially or over time for women following different relationship trajectories during the course of 1 year. Consistency in relationship status (completely apart, completely together) tended to be associated with sharper drops in violence during the year; abuse tended to decrease most slowly among women who were in and out of their relationship over time. Findings suggest that the act of leaving is not necessarily associated with improvements for victims-how the process of leaving occurs may be more influential. Challenging common assumptions, women remaining with partners may sometimes fare better than women who leave. Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Veterans Affairs (2)Boston College (3)Georgetown University Article History: Initial submission: January 24, 2008Initial acceptance: April 21, 2008Final acceptance: June 18, 2008 Article note: Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Margret Bell, VA Boston Healthcare System, 150 S. Huntington Ave., 116B-3, Boston, MA 02130. E-mail: mebell@aya.yale.edu

Recent efforts to survey the opinions of people with learning disabilities have tended to include only those with mild to moderate disabilities, or those with relatively good communication skills. Here, [...]

Current theory assumes that intimate partner violence (IPV) victims' helpseeking is a process that unfolds over time rather than a one-time event, but this assumption has never been explored with longitudinal data. This study describes the pattern of formal helpseeking efforts in a sample of 406 IPV victims over the course of a year. Further, we explore the relationship between legal and extralegal helpseeking, reflecting current controversy over how these two types of interventions should be coordinated. We constructed and tested latent growth curve models using structural equation modeling to explore helpseeking patterns, and found that repeated helpseeking was common, with 80% seeking additional help during follow-up. Results also showed that legal and extralegal helpseeking decreased together over time, and that this similarity in pattern can best be described as a connection between behaviors that are similarly influenced by time-specific events like re-abuse, rather than a connection between overarching trajectories. Results suggest that time varying factors are more important than stable characteristics in predicting helpseeking patterns, and support coordination through a one-stop-shopping model rather than primarily through referral systems. Keywords: intimate partner violence, victims, helpseeking, coordination of services, legal response

The development and initial validation of the Brief Coercion and Conflict Scales, a new measurement tool, in a sample of incarcerated women is undertaken so as to understand and measure domestic violence within the context of conflict and coercion. Overall, findings support the instrument as a variable option, but further psychometric evaluation of internal and external validity with additional samples is warranted.

Increasing emphasis on specialization in social and mental health services leaves these systems largely unable to attend to marginalized women's complex needs, despite new models designed to ameliorate specialization's impact. In this article, the authors describe how inattention to these women's contexts leaves them ill-served and leaves programs struggling. The authors articulate a new framework of principles and practices that privileges context and community, and describe two programs that use this 'Full-Frame Approach.' The authors contend that systemic recognition of full-frame programs as a strategic counterbalance to specialization is a vital component of helping marginalized people and communities move to new levels of health and cohesion. Keywords: context, community-based programs, marginalized women, fragmentation, relationships

Individuals with sexual assault or abuse histories are likely to engage in risky sexual and other self-destructive behaviors. Studies of these behaviors, however, have focused on target traumatic events without accounting for other events in the participant's history, recency of the events, and/or developmental level at time of occurrence. The present study addressed some of these confounds by creating groups with unique and non-overlapping trauma histories among adolescent participants whose first trauma occurred at age 12 or older. Sophomore women from six regional campuses were screened in a two-stage procedure, and 209 of 363 final interviewees were included in the present report. These were assigned to a no trauma group, or to one of five groups with a unique trauma history: a single traumatic loss, a single physical assault, a single sexual assault, ongoing sexual or physical abuse, or multiple single traumas. Risky sexual behavior, suicidal ideation, and elevated perpetration of violence were most prominent among those with ongoing abuse exposure, although a single exposure to interpersonal violence during adolescence was sufficient for some risky behaviors. Major depression (MDD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were associated with many of the behaviors, and may serve to heighten risk.

Battered women experience different constellations of violence and abusive behavior characterized by various combinations of physical violence, sexual violence, psychological abuse, and stalking. The goals of the current study were to determine whether it was possible to identify empirically derived and meaningful patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) and to examine correlates and outcomes of the IPV patterns. Three IPV patterns were identified using cluster analysis. Pattern 1 was characterized by moderate levels of physical violence, psychological abuse, and stalking but little sexual violence. Pattern 2 was characterized by high levels of physical violence, psychological abuse, and stalking but low levels of sexual violence. Pattern 3 was characterized by high levels of all violence types. IPV Pattern 3 was associated with the highest prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression, and IPV Pattern 2 had the highest levels of revictimization during the year following recruitment. The clinical and policy implications of the findings are discussed. Keywords: IPV patterns; cluster analysis; PTSD; depression; revictimization

This paper suggests a conceptual framework for understanding the processes of help-seeking among survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). A cognitive theory from general literature on help-seeking in 'stigmatizing' situations suggests three relevant processes or stages of seeking help in the IPV context: defining the problem, deciding to seek help, and selecting a source of support. Individual, interpersonal, and sociocultural factors that influence decision-making at each of these stages are discussed and illustrated with case examples. KEY WORDS: intimate partner violence; social support; help-seeking; culture; domestic violence; battered women.

For decades, battered women's advocates have placed coercive control squarely at the center of their analysis of intimate partner violence. Yet, little work has been done to conceptualize and measure the key construct of coercive control. In this article, we apply French and Raven's social power model to a conceptualization of coercive control in intimate partner violence relationships. Central elements of the model include: social ecology; setting the stage; coercion involving a demand and a credible threat for noncompliance; surveillance; delivery of threatened consequences; and the victim's behavioral and emotional response to coercion. These elements occur in spiraling and overlapping sequences to establish an overall situation of coercive control. The implications of this model for theory and practice are discussed. KEY WORDS: intimate partner violence; coercion; development and validation; measurement.

A key question facing researchers of intimate partner violence is how the real-life contexts of victims' lives should affect state policy. The bulk of recently adopted and much touted criminal justice reforms have token the form of relatively inflexible, one-size-fits-all mandatory responses focused on counseling, restraining, and punishing batterers. Even the protection order system relies far more heavily on batterer treatment programs than on victim support to prevent future violence. Together, these reforms have largely sacrificed the contextualized, woman-centered focus from which the antidomestic violence movement originated. Recently, however, a small body of research has emerged indicating that responding flexibly to victims' needs and providing them with advocacy and broad social support could be a more successful strategy for keeping women safe. These data highlight the importance of expanding victim-centered resources and reincorporating a particularized perspective into current policy and practice. Development of this literature should guide future reform efforts. Keywords: intimate partner violence; domestic violence; social support; women's movement; future directions

Despite recent calls for counseling psychology to embrace social justice-oriented work, there has been little discussion about what such work actually looks like. The first part of this article derives a set of principles from feminist and multicultural counseling theories that counseling psychologists should consider as they engage in social justice work. These include (a) ongoing self-examination, (b) sharing power, (c) giving voice, (d) facilitating consciousness raising, (e) building on strengths, and (f) leaving clients the tools to work toward social change. The second part of the article describes a program designed to integrate social justice work into the core curriculum of the Boston College doctoral program. The authors discuss ways in which the above principles have shaped students; activities, and some of the ethical dilemmas that have emerged. Finally, the article underscores professional obstacles that counseling psychologists doing social justice work are likely to face, and offers recommendations for overcoming them.

In their comments regarding Goodman, Liang, Helms, Latta, Sparks, and Weintraub's article 'Training Counseling Psychologists as Social Justice Agents: Feminist and Multicultural Principles in Action,' Kiselica, Palmer, Thompson and Shermis, and Watts offered a number of useful suggestions for elaborating on social justice theory, practice, and training. Their reactions and feedback challenged Goodman et al. to revisit and clarify their thinking about several related issues, including (a) the importance of student and faculty self-examination, (b) the need to ground our social justice theories and practice in organizing philosophies, (c) the difficulties of educating students about social justice work, and (e) the imperative to collaborate across professions. In this reply, the authors discuss each of these issues in turn, noting points of agreement and disagreement with their colleagues.

Most studies on the psychological impact of trauma exposure focus on the response to a single type of trauma, with little or no attention paid to the contribution of prior traumatic experiences. The goal of this study was to disentangle some of the confounding effects of multiple trauma exposures by exploring the unique contribution to mental health outcomes made by specific types and dimensions of trauma. This report compares the psychological outcomes of college women who experienced different types of trauma during adolescence, including traumatic bereavement, sexual assault, and physical assault. Young women who had experienced a single event of one of these types were compared with peers who had experienced multiple single events, ongoing sexual and/or physical abuse, as well as those who had experienced no trauma. Results, based on structured clinical interviews, and self-report measures showed that there were some significant differences in mental health outcomes based on trauma type. However, trauma exposure versus no exposure and the cumulative effects of exposure versus one-time experiences played the key roles in differentiating the groups.

Objectives. This study examined the prevalence and correlates of violent behavior by individuals with severe mental illness. Methods. Participants (N = 802) were adults with psychotic or major mood disorders receiving inpatient or outpatient services in public mental health systems in 4 states. Results. The 1-year prevalence of serious assaultive behavior was 13%. Three variables--past violent victimization, violence in the surrounding environment, and substance abuse--showed a cumulative association with risk of violent behavior. Conclusions. Violence among individuals with severe mental illness is related to multiple variables with compounded effects over the life span. Interventions to reduce the risk of violence need to be targeted to specific subgroups with different clusters of problems related to violent behavior.

This article examines the effectiveness of a legal advocacy program in which law students work with battered women to obtain protective orders. The author maintains that compared with standard court-based services the advocacy program demonstrates the women involved report less abuse and feel they have more emotional support.

This article discusses risk factors for repeat abuse among batterers. Topics include psychological abuse, domestic violence, and danger assessment.

As a result of mandatory arrest and no-drop prosecution policies, domestic violence cases are flooding courts throughout the country and overwhelming available resources. Ideally, the most dangerous offenders would be prosecuted and sentenced most aggressively and victims at the highest risk would receive the most intensive advocacy. Thus, judges, prosecutors, probation officers, and advocates are calling for empirically validated methods to assess future risk among arrested batterers. This article describes a pilot investigation of the utility of the Danger Assessment Scale for contributing to the prediction of repeat abuse. Findings suggest that the Danger Assessment Scale, administered to battered women seeking help from the justice system, can contribute significantly to the prediction of short-term abuse recurrence among arrested batterers. Implications for future research are discussed.

Research presented concerns the psychology aspects of domestic violence, and the difficult task of prosecuting domestic abusers when their partners are unwilling to cooperate with the criminal justice system. Findings suggest severity of violence, presence of children, and emotional dependence were factors influencing the decision of the abused to cooperated with law enforcement.

The attempts of abused women to seek help from the justice system and the affects of psychological, physical, and sexual abuse in their legal involvement are explored.

This research assessed the lifetime prevalence of traumatic events and current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 275 patients with severe mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia and bipolar disorder) receiving public mental health services in Concord and Manchester, New Hampshire, and Baltimore, Maryland. Lifetime exposure to traumatic events was high, with 98% of the sample reporting exposure to at least 1 traumatic event. The rate of PTSD in our sample was 43%, but only 3 of 119 patients with PTSD (2%) had this diagnosis in their charts. PTSD was predicted most strongly by the number of different types of trauma, followed by childhood sexual abuse. The findings suggest that PTSD is a common comorbid disorder in severe mental illness that is frequently overlooked in mental health settings.

Associations between childhood sexual and physical abuse and HIV-related risky behavior were examined among low-income, urban women with severe mental disorders. Early sexual abuse was found to be related to adult sexual and physical assault, alcohol and cocaine abuse, and prostitution; childhood physical abuse was related to adult physical assault and alcohol abuse. Findings highlight the importance of making HIV risk-reduction programs a part of integrated services that address a full range of psychosocial needs.

This Psychology in the Public Forum section, authored by the American Psychological Association's Committee on Women in Psychology's Task Force on Male Violence Against Women and by Senator Joseph Biden, examines the prevalence, impact, and public policy dimensions of physical assault, sexual assault, and sexual harassment of women. This introduction reviews common themes that emerge from the articles that follow. It concludes by emphasizing that the problem of violence against women cannot be fully understood, let alone solved, by focusing exclusively on individual psychology. Only by changing the social and cultural institutions that have given rise to the problem can a lasting solution be achieved.

Most mental health literature on homelessness has focused on characteristics that may be risk factors for homelessness. The authors of this article argue that homelessness itself is a risk factor for emotional disorder and use the construct of psychological trauma--focusing on social disaffiliation and learned helplessness--to understand the potential effects of homelessness. Psychological trauma is likely among homeless individuals and families for three reasons. (a) The sudden or gradual loss of one's home can be a stressor of sufficient severity to produce symptoms of psychological trauma. (b) The conditions of shelter life may produce trauma symptoms. (c) Many homeless people--particularly women--become homeless after experiencing physical and sexual abuse and consequent psychological trauma. Research suggests that negative psychological responses to traumatic events can be prevented or mitigated by a supportive and empowering posttrauma environment. The implications of trauma theory for improving the psychosocial conditions of homeless people are discussed.

The history of physical and sexual abuse among 50 homeless and 50 housed poor mothers was compared, with particular attention to details of prevalence, type, and severity. No significant differences were found except in higher reported rates of sexual abuse in adulthood among housed mothers. However, 89% of the total sample reported experiencing some form of abuse in their lifetimes. The unexpected lack of differential and the high prevalence rates are discussed in terms of service delivery and social policy implications.

Research has established the connection between intimate partner violence victims' empowering experiences in the court system and their satisfaction with the process, but not between these experiences and victims' broader wellbeing, a link suggested by the framework of therapeutic jurisprudence. This study investigated the relationship between empowerment and victim depression, quality of life, fear, and intention to use the system in the future among 142 court-involved women. At 3 and 6 months after recruitment, over and above repeat abuse, the outcome of the criminal case, and expectations about the court system, more empowering experiences in the court predicted improvement in depression and quality of life, in addition to stronger intention to use the system in the future if needed. Implications include the need for research on what aspects of victim experience in the court are empowering and evaluations of innovations that can increase the likelihood they will occur.

Studies among patient with intimate partner violence history reveal that a posttraumatic stress disorder model (PTSD) characterized by interrelated factors of avoidance, intrusions, dysphoria and hyperarousal was found to be stable and superior to other models.

A study explored how the cultural context of intimate partner violence affected accessibility to mainstream services for one immigrant group, Haitian women. Suggestions for overcoming cultural barriers through education, increasing cultural competency of mainstream services, and creating alternative community-based services are provided.