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Restorative justice presents a morally relevant method for alternative conflict resolution. However, this potential is not always applied fully. Instead, the practice may be used in ways foreign to it. This claim comes to the fore in the practice of restorative justice in domestic violence cases. Despite the persistent feminist critique of it the practice is widely offered. This suggests that the practice can cater to needs not originally depicted in the rationale of it. This paper works out of a wittgensteinian approach and argues that there is a confusing language use going on around mediation. The argument is based on an analysis of public talk of mediation in Finland which shows that it is predominantly conducted in the light of homo economicus. This is problematic. The paper suggests that instead of referring to mediation in terms of homo economicus, the value of it should be counted in terms of homo moralis. This is what restorative justice originally intended to do. The paper establishes a new perspective on the critique of restorative justice in general and offers a fruitful way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global rates of excess mortality attributable to the Covid-19 pandemic provide a fresh impetus to make sense of the associations between income inequality, housing inequality and the social gradient in health, suggesting new questions about the ways in which housing and health are treated in the framing and development of public policy. The first half of the paper uses a social harm lens to examine the threefold associations of the social inequality, housing and health trifecta and offers new insights for policy analysis which foregrounds the production, transmission, and experience of various types of harm which occur within the home. The main body of the paper then draws upon the outcomes of an international systematic literature mapping review of 213 Covid-19 research papers to demonstrate three specific harms associated with stay-at-home lockdowns: (i) intimate partner and domestic violence, (ii) poor mental health and (iii) health harming behaviours. The reported findings are interpreted using a social harm perspective and some implications for policy analysis are illustrated. The paper concludes with a reflection on the efficacy of social harm as a lens for policy analysis and suggests directions for further research in housing studies and zemiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper draws on a community-based participatory action research project located in Seattle - before and during the COVID-19 pandemic - to examine the unanticipated impact that the pandemic has had on reducing barriers for survivors of domestic violence seeking protection through the legal system. We draw on interviews with survivors and victim advocates, along with autoethnographic participant observation during Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO) hearings, to trace survivors' experiences navigating the DVPO process before and after its transition from an analogue to digital system. We situate this research at the intersection of legal and digital geographic scholarship to analyze how the law and digital technologies reinforce the spatial operation of power and exclusion, while they simultaneously provide emancipatory potential for women's experiences of security, legal subjectivity and emotional personhood. By focusing on how the courts' transition to a digital system affects the emotional personhood and legal subjectivity of domestic violence survivors, this paper advances feminist calls within legal and digital geographies scholarship that encourage more sustained engagement with feminist thought to understand the varied effects of the law and digital technologies – respectively – on gendered bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concurrent with increasing social and legal discussions of coercive control, literary scholars are turning their attention to analyses of an emergent genre labelled 'domestic noir'. Adding to earlier work, particularly that of Deborah Philips (2021), 'Gaslighting: Domestic Noir, the Narratives of Coercive Control', Women: A Cultural Review 32:2, pp. 140–160 and Meg Vann (2019), 'Genre and Gender: Reading Domestic Noir through the Lens of Feminist Criminology', TEXT Special Issue 57, pp. n.p., this paper contributes a therapeutic history of interventions for domestic violence, highlighting the history of the concept of control contextualized by its emergence from second wave feminism. Critical analysis of two novels, Ilsa Evans' Broken (2007) and Kathryn Heyman's Storm and Grace (2017), demonstrate writers centralizing feminist critiques of coercive control in domestic noir in the Australian context. This paper highlights the significance of women's fictional representations of coercive control as sites of discursive sociocultural resistance and temporal political contextualization within the genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how home is produced by women under conditions of violence. It contends why domestic violence (DV) is not a disruption, but a 'condition of possibility' in the production of the ideal home. Drawing on cultural aphorisms the paper highlights the role of gender norms in simultaneously idealizing the mother and normalizing DV in Sri Lanka. The veneration of the mother in all ethno-religious communities, the paper argues, is conditioned upon a woman's capacity for nurture and her absorption of violence through the embodiment of feminine virtues: selflessness, forbearance, and long-suffering. The paper contributes to discussions of home and domestic violence in three ways. First, it illuminates cross-cultural meanings of home and the gendered labour that produces it. Second, it describes how women dwell with DV by embodying gender norms through acts of care and repair. Finally, the paper aims to underscore the materiality of gender norms in creating a 'moral-economy of care'; that is, the ways by which cultural truisms – in postulating a triumvirate of woman-home-suffering – emotionally tethers woman to home compelling her to produce it under conditions of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of theological beliefs and practices in the analysis of domestic violence is needed, hence this paper explores how Christian theological framings shape men’s perpetration of domestic violence. Through engagement with the Lutheran Church of Australia, interviews and a survey with Pastors found that gender was dominant in the themes and provided a framework for how Pastors understood domestic violence and how they articulated their explanations for why they perceived a denial of domestic violence in their religious contexts. The interviews in this study brought out the capacity of gendered theological discourse and the truth valency of scripture to both inform domestic violence and potentially be part of the solution, while at the same time the narratives express the inherent tensions and the resistance to change in the religious culture. The paper argues for the coming together of sociological, feminist, theological and spiritual understandings of gender identity to shape responses to domestic violence in Christian contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women in the Netherlands with non-western migration backgrounds experience domestic violence at the intersection of culture and gender, and visit their general practitioners (GPs) with health concerns related to the violence. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with GPs, this paper illuminates how GPs navigate the process of decision-making around intervention in domestic violence, with particular attention to the role of autonomy. Patient autonomy is a core principle in Dutch general practice. The term refers to the principle that GPs must respect that competent adults can make autonomous decisions about the care they do and do not want, and that GPs must respect patients' views, choices, and ways of life. The interview data shows great variation in how GPs respond in situations of domestic violence against women with non-western migration backgrounds. Deploying 'somatechnics of perception', this paper explores how GPs' perceptions of their patients' autonomy are both the agent and effect of a complex and embodied negotiation of gender, race, culture, ethnicity, medical ethics, and morality. In highlighting how these patients' autonomy is rendered (un)intelligible and (il)legible in contextually specific ways, this paper sheds light on how GPs in the Netherlands can better assist women with non-western migration backgrounds who experience domestic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing the gendered dimensions of family violence is central to preventing violence against women (PVAW). What is seen as more important for Indigenous PVAW programmes, however, is situating gender-based violence within the broader context of colonial violence. In this paper, the significance of this focus is highlighted through a case study of a healing and behavioural change programmefor young Indigenous men within Victoria (Australia). Drawing on the voices of two leading facilitators, the paper examines how this program recognizes and responds to the ongoing impacts of colonisation on the lives of its young Indigenous male participants. It details the significance of safe relations and spaces as requisite for healing the trauma of young Indigenous Australian men towards addressing their perpetuation of gender-based and other forms of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labelled 'the shadow pandemic' by UN Women, violence against women received considerable global public attention during 2020–21. Underpinning this moment of public concern, there lies a substantial history of efforts to document the nature of, and campaign against, the extent of violence against women globally. This is also the case in relation to femicide. Whilst we recognise that this is a contested term, for the purposes of this paper we use femicide to refer to the killing of women and girls because they are female by male violence. Femicide, as a death to be specifically counted in law only exists in a small number of jurisdictions. Where it is so recognised, primarily in South American countries as feminicidio, such deaths represent only the tip of the iceberg of such killings globally. This paper, in drawing on empirical data from a range of different sources (including administrative data, media analysis, and Femicide Observatory data) gathered throughout 2020, considers: what it means to call a death femicide, what implications might follow if all the deaths of women at the hands of men were counted as femicide, and the extent to which extraordinary times have any bearing on this kind of ordinary death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable management of water and sanitation is inextricably linked with women's health and well-being. This paper investigates slippage in sanitation, experienced by women beneficiaries of the Swacch Bharat Mission Rural programme through Amartya Sen's conception of justice. A total of 135 individuals were interviewed from 49 households in Kanjadwa and Madhnagar Manoharpur Gram Panchayats, Shravasti, India, out of which 90 were women. As per findings, 30% of women practice open defaecation despite possessing toilets, resulting in slippage. The Sanitation Well-being framework is deployed to study slippage and its linkage with women's agency. Personal, cultural, and structural factors contributing to this are child marriage, denial of education and employment opportunities, slut shaming, victim blaming, domestic violence, and character assassination. These are made worse by the state adoption of misogynistic IEC messages that reinforce cultural stereotypes and worsen women's condition. In the quest to attain ODF status in Ikauna Block, UP, the current sanitation programme became a tool of suppression. Consequently, we understand that open defaecation among women is an outcome of the basic unfreedoms rather than a volitional choice that prevents them from experiencing sanitation well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Victim support entails one of the most intense stress- and trauma-laden interactions faced by law enforcement professionals, and this function or role frequently triggers long-lasting negative effects on officers' psychological health and wellbeing. As police officers interact daily with victims, but also with other officers, social services, and institutions, the limits between tasks and needs may directly affect how they manage stress, trauma, and notions of individual and organisational responsibility. As such, boundary work may be a useful framework to understand and even improve how victim support police officers interact with other individuals and organisations. Drawing from a ground-breaking qualitative, in-depth research with police officers that provide support to victims of gender-based and domestic violence, this paper analyses conscious and unconscious boundaries as key elements in the officers' wellbeing. Informed by the empirical findings of a case study of Catalonia's Mossos d'Esquadra police corps, this paper explores how victim support officers negotiate their individual and organisational boundaries as they interact with other agents and institutions, and how these negotiations affect them. This paper argues for the relevance of an officer's agency and discretion for distinguishing between conscious and unconscious boundaries, as their limits may be blurred throughout the wide range of interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perhaps more than any other occupation, police witness the context and aftermath of domestic abuse but little is known about the police-victim overlap with regard to domestic abuse. This paper, based on survey responses from approximately one-quarter of the workforce in an English police force (weighted n = 876) addresses this gap. In the survey, respondents described personal characteristics, colleague and personal experience of domestic abuse victimisation. Weighting the data to address non-response patterns, we found lifetime prevalence of domestic abuse in the police workforce around 22%. Females were more likely than males to experience domestic abuse (relative risk (RR) 1.61, confidence interval (CI) 1.25–2.08). Of victims, 47% disclosed their victimisation to a colleague, while 37% disclosed to a line manager and 27% were abused by a partner who also worked in policing. Although there was no difference in disclosure between males and females, disclosure to a colleague (RR 1.66, CI 1.24–2.13) or a line manager (RR 1.79, CI 1.24–2.58) was more likely if the abuser worked in policing. This paper – the most comprehensive description of domestic abuse victimisation in a policing population – demonstrates that, despite their occupational role as guardians and enforcers of the law, the police workforce experience domestic abuse in similar ways as do the general population. As with the general population, this frequency of victimisation, coupled with the repetitive and continuous nature of domestic abuse and the harm it causes, represents a widespread problem and threat to the wellbeing of the police workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Honour-based abuse (HBA) is a complex phenomenon breaching the boundaries of the domestic abuse and violence against women frameworks within which it is dominantly situated. Although HBA is recognised as a multi-agency issue, police are ultimately responsible for responding to reports of known or suspected HBA. In 2015, a HMIC report highlighted that the police still have some way to go in terms of understanding HBA and adequately protecting victims. This paper presents findings from a project on the early identification of HBA, which generated evidence surrounding the key challenges encountered by police responding to HBA cases that may or may not have been identified as such, and recommendations on how practice can be improved. The focus is upon three key areas emerging as in need of attention: Firstly, negotiating the complexities posed by the frequently collective and collaborative nature of HBA; secondly, conducting effective risk assessments; and thirdly, ensuring a 'just' outcome for victims of HBA. The final part of the paper outlines opportunities for police policy and practice to be enhanced so that ultimately, victims of HBA can be more adequately safeguarded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic abuse continues to be a growing concern across the globe where the overwhelming majority of victims are women. Women also tend to experience more severe forms of violence, which includes murder. There is growing recognition that children who live in households where domestic abuse exists are directly harmed and often show psychological problems from an early age while other children present with no symptoms and appear unaffected. Domestic abuse is rife and its impact minimised and normalised by society when it occurs in intimate partner relationships. This paper highlights the complexities of domestic abuse noting its many presentations and how siloed responses from various organisations tackled to address it are inadequate. The paper will identify learning for practitioners in an effort to turn the tide and save lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses circumstances under which post-conflict humanitarian-development interventions may post success despite exacerbating population's vulnerability. It concerns Mercy Corps' (MC) Revitalisation of Agricultural Incomes and New Markets (RAIN) project in Lamwo District, Northern Uganda. MC identified market access as key component of community resilience measuring it through technical feedback processes. In its own terms, RAIN has proved successful, and the market became robust. However, a less narrow evaluation revealed RAIN's negative impact including diminished food security, increased child malnutrition, domestic and gender-based violence. On any rational understanding of resilience, interventions appeared to compromise rather than enhance population's resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. Based on the Australian context, we highlight how women from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities are vulnerable to Domestic and Family Violence (DFV). During the pandemic, CALD women experienced inequality in relation to DFV support and services. In this paper, our methodology is based on a case study from a rapid review of academic and grey literature that privileged the lived experience of CALD women affected by the pandemic. From a critical social work perspective, we explored the newly emerging literature highlighting DFV for CALD communities during the pandemic. Our research highlights an increase in DFV incidents, frequency and severity of incidents against CALD women, limited access to DFV services, and that women on Temporary and Humanitarian Visas (THV) were more likely to be subjected to DFV. We support the urgent need to include women's services in developing appropriate policy responses to address the specific issues facing women, particularly those on THV. Critical social work perspectives can be utilised to build on and support the response of services during the COVID pandemic to promote social and policy change, and increased access to services. This support can be implemented by workforce initiatives, dedicated resources and community engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has generated many problems and some opportunities in the housing market. The potential role of privately-owned short-term lets meeting specialist family violence crisis accommodation demand is one such opportunity. This paper engages with an important and increasing practice in the Australian context, of the utilisation of private housing stock as a component part of a public housing crisis response system, in this case explored in relation to domestic and family violence. In seeking to gain insights into the feasibility of this practice, this article will first frame mixed public/private accommodation provision as potentially overlapping relations between a thin territory of insufficient crisis infrastructure and a thick territory of commodified short-term let infrastructure. Second, this paper situates the potential of this intersection of mixed private/public responses in terms of riskscapes by unpacking how risk is perceived within these contested territories. The findings highlight tensions between both real and perceived understandings of safety, housing, wellbeing, economic and political risks. While there was some support for utilising short-term lets for crisis accommodation, barriers were revealed to adding thickness to the crisis accommodation space. Given increasing homelessness in Australia, diversifying crisis models could offer increased violence-prevention infrastructure to support women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines out-of-home placements from the perspective of children who have been exposed to domestic violence and have experienced child protection system interventions. Drawing on focus group discussions with children placed in residential care, family foster care and children crisis shelters, the paper analyses the ways in which the inclusion of children's opinions in child protection decision-making is facilitated or limited. The analysis shows that the children valued being consulted and welcomed any opportunities to work together with child protective service professionals in defining their placements. Based on the findings of this study, the experiences of the children in this study demonstrate that involving children in decision-making about their placements is generally to be encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how making art alongside clients supported a relational intersectional approach and aided the development of an attuned therapeutic relationship with Matthieu (pseudonym), a Black-British autistic adolescent who experienced domestic violence. The art therapy intervention took place at a Special Educational Needs (SEN) secondary school. Authenticity and capacity for consent were carefully considered not to compromise safety and trust in the therapeutic relationship. Consent was given via Matthieu's primary caregiver: this was in line with the therapy organisation's confidentiality framework. A relational intersectional approach examines the impacts of domestic abuse, structural violence, autism, and race in the therapeutic alliance to illuminate how chronic experiences of systemic harm and domestic violence may weigh on a black autistic young boy. Making art with clients, also termed 'Working alongside', has been shown to support mentalising process, attunement and support relationship building with autistic young people. The therapeutic relationship became accessible, and a shared racial identity encounter strengthened therapeutic rapport. Working alongside supported a relational intersectional approach and was pivotal to Matthieu's engagement in art therapy. Art therapy literature exploring the impact of shared ethnicity in the therapeutic encounter is an area needing further research. Therapist images made during a session with their client are generally termed 'working alongside'. Working alongside can encourage empathy, understanding and relationship-building with autistic young people with complex social-emotional needs and histories of domestic abuse. This practice paper highlights a journey of working alongside in art therapy practice with Matthieu, a Black-British autistic adolescent who had experienced domestic violence. A sensitive social, cultural, and political analysis aims to explore the intersection of race, gender and ability by enhancing discussions around the impact of shared racial identity on the therapeutic relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Policy & Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper extends the empirical analysis of child health by simultaneously considering the effects and contributions of parental bargaining to the rural–urban child health differential in Tanzania, a country where most communities are patriarchal in nature. We use the Heckman two-step procedure to correct for possible sample selection bias. The results suggest that domestic violence towards female partners increases the probability of child stunting while female autonomy in decision-making and discretion over household resources reduce the probability of child stunting. The significance of these effects are mainly observed in rural than in urban communities. Differences in female autonomy between rural and urban areas account for 5% of the rural–urban gap in child nutrition. The contribution reduces to 4% after correcting for sample selection bias. Thus, empowering rural women is essential in reducing the rural–urban child health differentials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the use of the term 'gachul (absconding from home)' in courts and immigration policies to punish the behavior of marriage migrant women who enter South Korea after marriage and then leave their husbands. The study focuses on penalized mobility outside migrants' marital homes, which is interpreted as deviance from the expected family role. By conceptualizing home as a confinable space, the paper discusses migrant women's exclusion from citizenship based on their contribution to the family. The paper draws from cases heard in criminal courts and laws and policies, paying attention to the conflation of criminal, immigration, and family laws and the effect on marriage and family. Notably, it highlights cases of uxoricide, marital rape, and international child abduction. The cases reveal that judicial and executive bodies penalize marriage migrants' departure from home, regardless of the justification for their actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lebanon's reservations in ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1997 left women at the mercy of the country's personal status codes derived from its 18 religious sects and its lenient, if not absent, laws on marital rape and domestic violence. It was only in August 2017 that article 522, which allows a rapist to escape punishment in case he marries his victim, was repealed by parliament. Rape, nonetheless, is still stigmatized and victims are often blamed and shamed. Using Bakhtin's heteroglossia and Foucault's moral principles of refusal, curiosity and innovation, this paper presents an in-depth analysis of women's advocacy campaigns to argue that these campaigns formulate heteroglossic discourses that consolidate the social field of women through their silence and visibility. Identifying heteroglossic disturbances as fundamental to the production of the discourse on gender and the propagation of its perception, the study also attempts to show how women's voice is generated through a particular staging of forces. The main case study for this paper is the campaign entitled Shame on Who?, launched in November 2018 by ABAAD, one of the most prominent non-profit associations advocating gender equality in the MENA region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a reconsideration and more in-depth discussion part of some the findings of the Home Office funded Sibling Sexual Abuse (SSA) project (King-Hill et al, 2023). The focus of the paper on the role of family systems, especially dysfunctional family systems, in the sexual abuse. The research is based on 17 semi-structured interviews with survivors of SSA (n=17 female), which were thematically analysed. This resulted in the research team being able to identify 10 commonly identified markers of SSA and family dysfunction. The 10 markers highlight that the family structure, systems, processes, and functionality all contribute to the conditions that enable Sibling Sexual Abuse to occur. The paper goes on to discuss the importance of understanding family systems, ACE's, and trauma in preventing and responding to Sibling Sexual Abuse. The paper concludes that the family system is a key player in Sibling Sexual Abuse and needs to be considered in prevention and treatment as the child who id harmed and the child that harms. The impact of this paper is both clinical and professional. It provides insights into the role of family systems in sibling sexual abuse cases and by result feeds into discussions around the effective prevention of and response to this form of sexual abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the implications and unintended consequences of the increased use of non-harassment orders in criminal proceedings. In particular, it considers how non-harassment orders co-exist with the existing framework for decisions related to child contact proceedings. In this paper it will be shown that while non-harassment orders are needed for the protection of the victim and any child of the family, such orders may impact upon the traditional routes in which child contact decisions are made. This fact has not been the subject of consideration but is very significant given the inherent tension which results in a landscape where there is a trend towards respect for the views of children in Scottish child contact proceedings. It is recommended that priority must now be given to the use of such orders in cases involving children. Opportunities to consider this issue in more detail are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers research insights on how refugee women who experience domestic violence develop employment prospects. Guided by social capital theory and the concept of group social capital, the paper uses a qualitative approach to identify intrapersonal and interpersonal processes in a group intervention that assist women members to adjust their cognitive reasoning about their domestic violence experience and engage in behaviours that potentially enhance their employment prospects. The paper contributes to understanding how group processes can foster small wins that may enhance the employment prospects of this vulnerable group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the leading six generation directors, Lou Ye often captures the changing social and political atmospheres in China by portraying melodramatic relationships with jolted camerawork, convoluted time frames, and emotionally charged narratives. The intimate, damaging, and symbiotic ties among individuals in the private, domestic space in Lou's works are often symptomatic of the trenchant social inequality and the inherent violence in capitalist values. This paper studies Lou's 2018 crime drama, Feng zhong you duo yu zuo de yun (The Shadow Play) and analyzes the way the film unpacks the upward narrative of capitalism as inherently gendered and discriminative. As the diegesis unfolds in a disjointed temporal order and heterotopic spaces in which high-rise skyscrapers and demolished residential buildings coexist, the film documents the way China's thirty years of reform and opening up perpetuate heteronormative gender performance and subjugation of women. Illuminated by Lauren Berlant's notion of "cruel optimism" that characterizes modern individuals' futile yet tenacious struggles and negotiation in their everyday experience with capitalist mores under the false hope of prosperity and success, the paper investigates the way the female characters' conformity to norms and improvised coping mechanisms lead to their downfall and insinuate a yearning for an alternative form of human bonding to that prescribed by masculinist hegemony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of nearly three decades of partnership between feminist researchers and activists to prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Nicaragua. A household survey conducted in 1995 in León, the country's second-largest city, revealed that 55 per cent of women had experienced lifetime physical intimate partner violence (IPV), and 27 per cent had experienced IPV in the last 12 months. The study results were instrumental in changing domestic violence laws in Nicaragua. A follow-up study in 2016 found a decrease of 63 per cent in lifetime physical IPV and 70 per cent in 12-month physical IPV. This paper examines possible explanations for the reduction, including the policy reforms resulting from feminist advocacy. We compare risk and protective factors for physical IPV, such as changes in women's attitudes towards violence, their use of services, and knowledge of laws, using data from both the 1995 and 2016 surveys, as well as three waves of Demographic and Health Surveys. We conclude that the decline in IPV can be partially attributed to the efforts of the Nicaraguan women's movements to reform laws, provide services for survivors, transform gender norms, and increase women's knowledge of their human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to domestic violence and abuse (DVA) poses significant challenges for the criminal justice system, with recent studies highlighting a number of significant gaps and failings in the nature of the police response in particular. This paper reports on findings from a component of the multi-stage ESRC funded project 'Justice, Inequality and Gender-Based Violence' (ESRC grant ES/M010090/1) that relates to 400 reported incidents of DVA involving intimate partners recorded by two police force areas in England in 2014. Drawing on this large data set concerning a wide range of incidents, this paper employs quantitative methods to analyse the trajectories of reports made to the police, and the factors that may influence their progress through, or attrition from the criminal justice system. In doing so, this paper finds that certain 'inequality' factors such as victim gender, vulnerability (including mental health) and incident type are found to impact the progression of cases through the criminal justice system. This work seeks to build on our understanding of what happens to incidents of DVA that are brought to the attention of the police by victims and survivors, and reflects upon how the outcomes of such incidents impact the broader debate concerning the pursuit of a formal, or criminal 'justice' in cases of DVA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying qualitative methods and evidence from the field, this paper explores the situation of women with disabilities within Bangladesh’s overall sociocultural, political, and economic contexts. The research found that participating women with disabilities were living in poverty and were disenfranchised. They reported being treated with disregard, and at times with contempt, both within their families and the wider society. In Bangladesh, disability is often regarded as a divine curse. In a patriarchal society where women are often seen as a liability, women with disabilities are particularly resented, and are often abandoned by their family members or are victims of domestic violence and abuse. In a society where sensitivity to the needs of people with disability is yet to take root, provisions for accessing basic services, such as education, are limited or non-existent for women with disabilities. Direct and representational participation of women with disabilities in the policy process is rare and changes relevant to their needs and empowerment are few. This research indicates that the situation of women with disabilities in Bangladesh is different from that of men with disabilities. More focused and gender-sensitive interventions are required at multiple levels – social, cultural and institutional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores disabled people's experiences of 'everyday' hate within and around their home. The characteristics of the home make it a particularly interesting site of analysis, as many of the features offer protections and risks simultaneously. Moreover, the home is a particularly important space within our everyday lives, particularly for disabled people who may encounter marginalization within other social spaces. In this article, I consider how encounters within the home shape the way in which the space is made, and how disabled people are able to be within them. I explore the home as a space where persistent and repeated violence can occur, which in turn, shapes how bodies come to occupy (or not), their homes and to what meanings the home takes on. In an attempt to explore this, I offer different conceptualizations of the home as a site of refuge, control and containment, avoidance, and resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic violence against women is a complex social phenomenon and a widely recognised issue of public health, which requires that all sectors of society, including the health sector, take the necessary action to prevent and address it. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion on the role of the primary health care in addressing domestic violence against women, by analysing health professionals' perceptions of their practice as well as the difficulties they experience in providing healthcare to victims. To fulfil this aim, a qualitative approach was chosen, using focus groups with health professionals working in the area of primary health care in an inland region of Portugal. The main findings point to the lack of a specific protocol and insufficient information and skills to respond to domestic violence situations, which hinders health professionals' confidence to intervene and tends to orientate them towards a more medical response. Resulting from these findings, implications for practice are discussed: the need for clear and specific orientations to guide health professionals' intervention; the need to offer training that enables them to provide appropriate healthcare to women experiencing domestic violence; and the need to position themselves in the context of an integrated, multi-sectoral intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been recognised as a serious health issue not only because of the immediate impacts at the time the injury occurs but even more so due to the longstanding impacts. Even though TBI is a globally recognised condition, the research is disproportionately focused on its incidence in, and immediate and long-term effects on men. A growing body of research suggests that generally, women who experience family violence are at high risk of TBI and suffer its impacts in ways that reflect gendered differences in the patterns and frequency of violence. In Australia, the social and physical costs of TBI are multiplied for Indigenous women, whose experience of disability and access to healthcare lies at the intersection of gender and race in the historical context of settler colonialism. The present study addresses the need for research into the sociodemographic inequalities that affect access to culturally appropriate hospital care, timely response systems, and flexible, safe and engaged social services. This paper draws on data from interviews and focus groups with Indigenous women, hospital staff and community-based service providers and suggests potential pathways for further research in settler-colonial settings elsewhere in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a drama-based method to illustrate the responses of healthcare and legal systems to women experiencing coercive control. This approach involved writing a play using the first-person narrative voice of a victim-survivor. We presented the play at the Stop Domestic Violence Conference (Gold Coast, Australia) in 2021. The central character, 'Kate', provided an embodied performance that enabled the conference participants to see, feel and understand experiences of coercive control from a personal perspective. We followed the trajectory of coercive control from the beginning of an intimate relationship to the time of separation. We showed how the process of coercive control escalates from love bombing, reproductive coercion, isolation, and technology-facilitated abuse until a point of police intervention. As Kate told her story, the conference audience witnessed the barriers and challenges faced by survivors of coercive control, and the emotional, financial, and psychological impacts that are intensified in geographically remote environments. They watched Kate navigate health and other systems meant to help women experiencing domestic and family violence, but that ultimately failed to deliver. Finally, the drama-based approach allowed us to present a feminist embodiment of coercive control and an innovative method for communicating inter-disciplinary research findings on domestic abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black Feminist theorist bell hooks has written of the way in which Black women construct 'homeplaces' as 'spaces of care and nurturance in the face of the brutal harsh reality of racist oppression.' But what happens when the home is not a place of safety for Black women? Beginning in the late 1970s, groups of Black women in Britain began to establish women's refuges designed to meet the needs of Black and Asian women who were experiencing domestic abuse. In so doing, they were providing an alternative homeplace where women could be safe, not only from abusive partners, but also from racism they sometimes experienced in mainstream women's refuges. This paper argues that specialist refuges were important spaces where Black women could heal from abuse, foster community, and find their political voices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial introduces a two-part Special Issue on the Disability Royal Commission and People with Intellectual Disabilities in Australia. The Commission was established in 2019 to investigate violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation of people with disabilities. The Commission's Final Report, delivered in 2023, included 222 recommendations, some of which were not unanimous. The report covers a wide range of issues and includes the perspectives of people with disabilities. The Commission's work involved public hearings, private sessions, and community engagements. The report has generated controversy, as it focuses on negative experiences and poor-quality services, without exploring positive experiences and factors contributing to good quality services. The text also discusses the challenges faced by governments in responding to the Commission's recommendations and mentions the release of the Independent Review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which intersects with the Commission's recommendations. The text provides guidance on accessing the Commission's publications, submissions, public hearings, and other resources. It introduces the articles in Part 1 of a Special Issue that critically analyze the Commission's findings and recommendations on various topics related to people with intellectual disabilities. The text concludes by mentioning that Part 2 of the Special Issue will include additional articles on education, health, and Positive Behaviour Support. [Extracted from the article]

Although restorative conflict resolution is gaining a steady foothold in many contexts, the context of domestic violence is strongly debated. The debate has been continuing and it still does. The argument in this paper sustains that the debate represents a typical conflict. When appreciating one, it is important to discern the core of it. The paper goes then on to arguing that the debate represents a typical moral conflict, rather than a judicial or a political one. The paper aims at establishing a framework for solving of moral conflicts, in the light of the debate between the advocates and the critics of restorative justice in domestic violence cases. As such the paper seeks to make a contribution to not only the debate relating to restorative justice in domestic violence cases but to restorative conflict resolution in general and to conflicts typical in societies today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies into Afro-Caribbean families focus primarily on the prevalence of matrifocal households or the subordination that characterised women's role in the home. While these themes are critical to understanding the gender dynamics within Afro-Caribbean households, the proliferation of this narrow view of women's roles as mothers or subordinated wives has contributed to an underestimation of the complexities of women's lives within the home. This traditional narrative of Afro-Caribbean women presents a portrait of the home, domesticity and economic security derived from dependence on a man which was unlikely for many Caribbean women. This paper captures the frequently trivialised trauma associated with women's experiences within the private sphere. The paper contends that while the dominant literature positions Afro-Caribbean women as revered heads of their households, many Afro-Tobagonian women endured years of misery within the home due to a culture of domestic violence, financial hardship and the social acceptance of extramarital affairs. This knowledge offers us a peek into the interiority of women's lives and complicates our understanding of Afro-Caribbean women's experiences from 1900 to 1960. This work is undergirded by oral testimonies from Afro-Tobagonians, newspaper articles and official documents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the second in a series of papers concerning forensic immigration social work. The first paper examined the broad issues and types of cases that require consultation by a forensic social worker in immigration cases. This paper will examine the pertinent legal standards that the forensic social worker must be aware of and the essential areas of inquiry in the evaluation of spousal abuse cases. The following two papers will examine the other two major types of cases referred from immigration lawyers: asylum and criminal and “hardship” immigration cases. The final paper in the series will examine the forensic social worker's presentation of the case as expert testimony in immigration court and highlight winning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In a 2017 article for the comedy website Cracked, Christopher Daed argues that "Die Hard and Home Alone are the EXACT same movie." Daed was not the first to make this connection: a cursory search reveals frequent comparison on social media. Very little scholarship, however, has seriously engaged with this pairing. In this paper, I examine how both Die Hard (1988) and Home Alone (1990) use narratives of redemptive violence to define idealized American masculinity. Both films portray families ruptured by influences both foreign (the imposition of foreign culture) and domestic (maternal neglect) that are restored by their protagonists' defense of Christmas, family, and by extent, old-fashioned American values. I situate both Die Hard and Home Alone within the canon of American Christmas films, arguing that their enduring, linked popularity is indicative of a rejection of the perceived weakness and femininity associated with many other Christmas narratives. I focus in particular on the films' oft-overlooked treatment of religion: Christmas, after all, is a religious holiday, and its relationship to American identity cannot be separated from the ubiquity of Christianity in American life. I argue that both Kevin McCallister's church attendance and his violent defense of his home align him with John McClane as all-American defenders of Christmas and the family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) is higher among Veterans than civilians. The Veteran Health Administration's IPV Assistance Program has been key in rolling out a universal screening tool within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to help identify Veterans who experience IPV; however, treatment options beyond safety planning, resources, and referrals are limited, and those that exist are primarily individual interventions, which may not be preferred or feasible in all settings. This paper describes the development and initial implementation of a new virtual group intervention, the "Windows" program, for women Veterans who have experienced or are experiencing IPV. Windows is based around an eight-week trauma-informed, recovery-oriented therapeutic group curriculum. The group's structure and implementation prioritize group members' safety and the ability to flexibly respond to members' needs. Initial observations and feedback from the first three participants are included, with the goal of informing future directions for the development of services for this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trauma- and violence-informed care (TVIC) has become an important lens to guide health and social services. TVIC emphasizes service providers' understanding of trauma and its impact, including structural aspects of victimization. Emotionally and physically safe environments, service user opportunities for choice, collaboration and connection, and the use of strengths-based and capacity-building approaches are prioritized. The majority of writing on TVIC has focused on its application to services for survivors of trauma and abuse. In this paper, we argue that a modified trauma-and violence-informed lens has the potential to improve our work with men who perpetrate violence in interpersonal relationships, and even more importantly, that without such a lens, we are likely to miss very important opportunities to act in ways that enhance the safety of potential victims of abuse. Using examples drawn from practice, we explore specific examples of how applying TVIC principles may increase service providers' ability to recognize and respond to potentially dangerous situations, thereby improving services to perpetrators and enhancing safety for potential victims of abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite high costs of domestic violence (DV) to survivors and witnesses, widely used treatments do not consistently reduce violence perpetration. Although research has only begun to examine third wave treatments targeting DV, components such as mindfulness demonstrate preliminary support for reducing underlying symptomatology, including trauma symptoms, personality disorder features, emotion dysregulation, and substance use. This paper provides a brief review of mindfulness interventions for individuals referred for DV treatment, with a focus on the population most often referred for DV treatment – cisgender heterosexual men. Databases were searched for studies of adults in therapies that targeted DV and included component of mindfulness and skills training. Six studies of five treatments targeting DV met criteria for inclusion. Preliminary results support potential utility of DV treatments that incorporate mindfulness – with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy interventions currently having the most evidence. Common elements of the treatments included a focus on clients' individual values; motivation/engagement strategies; addressing avoidance of emotions; managing urges/impulses; understanding relationships between cognitions, emotions, and behaviors; and reinforcement of adaptive behaviors. Despite the early stages of the literature, the largely positive results of the mindfulness treatments examined in this review suggest an initial foundation for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional actors in urban areas in Latvia are increasingly concerned about reducing violence on multiple scales and temporalities. Imagining such achievements, however, often too easily focuses on the aesthetics of security and infrastructure in public space that obscure the social causes of violence and effects this has on unequal development and social marginalization. Drawing on fieldwork on practices of domestic violence prevention in three Latvian urban areas during the autumn and winter of 2019, this paper examines how the geographical imagination of where violence resides connects violence prevention and spatial development as projects of European modernisation in post-Soviet space. We identify four spatial fields most often associated with violence: (1) neighbourhoods and infrastructural elements, (2) dark and isolated spaces, (3) spaces associated with intoxication, and (4) private spaces. We analyse the most common individual and institutional strategies for violence prevention in each of these fields, noting the logics of dispossession, surveillance, and connectivity behind them. We show how gendered practices and disciplining are emphasised on an individual level, while spatial fixes to violence in public space often focus on men's violence against men. All in all, we show how violence prevention figures in imagining living in 'European' spatial and institutional infrastructural regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) largely presents a narrative of men as perpetrators and women as victims. This allows little attention to be paid to men as victims of IPV. Much less effort is made to understand how men's experiences of IPV impact perceptions of their masculine subjectivities and how they respond to victimisation. Through in-depth narrative interviews, this paper reflects on the experiences of some African men and their reactions to personal conditions of abuse. The paper argues that, within the dynamic gendered environment in South Africa, where violence against women is prevalent, some victimised men associate true manliness with men's respect for women and non-violence tendencies. The African men under discussion mobilise this ideal to construct an alternative identity, maintaining their sense of being honourable, even when the hegemonic order sees them otherwise due to their non-violent beliefs/actions. This article presents a critical yet nuanced contribution to our understanding of the dynamics of domestic violence in the South African context. It shows how some African men may respond to the challenges of their victimised identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asylum-seeking women's liminal citizenship in home countries is a contributing factor to their irregular migration. In this paper, we examine how conditions of gendered citizenship, specifically family violence, exert additional pressures on women to undertake irregular journeys. In examining the narratives of refugee and asylum-seeking women from Iran and Afghanistan, women spoke of multiple instances of family violence in home countries, in addition to the more traditionally understood factors of insecurity associated with irregular migration, such as conflict, torture and war. Using the concept of lived citizenship to examine women's experiences, we contribute to the nexus of knowledge on global mobility, gender and family violence. These findings are important to ensure women who seek asylum have supports and services tailored to them that address these issues within the broader family violence schema in affluent host nations, including within the Australian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the application of ethical thinking from the perspective of someone with the dual role of social worker and PhD researcher. The focus of the research was family secrets and their influence upon child-to-parent violence and abuse (CPVA). The participants were children and their parents, who, at the time of the research, were experiencing family violence and abuse. This paper was developed from a conversation between Lee-Ann and Louise. Lee-Ann was Louise's PhD supervisor and was therefore involved in supporting Louise in gaining ethics approval, as well as holding continued reflexive conversations about the ethical questions and dilemmas that arose throughout this study. This paper has shown the importance of hearing the voices of children within research about CPVA. Children can offer a rich layer of information that is seldom heard. It also shows that there may be a different lens through which ethics can be considered during research, not only the purely objective or academic, but also from a practitioner-researcher in a social care setting position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Domestic violence and abuse has been recognised as an international public health problem. However, the pervasiveness of the problem is unknown due in part to underreporting, especially among women from ethnic minority populations. In relation to this group, this review seeks to explore: (1) the barriers to disclosure; (2) the facilitators of help-seeking; and (3) self-perceived impacts of domestic violence. Design: We systematically identified published qualitative studies conducted among women from ethnic minority populations in the UK. Data analysis was completed using thematic analysis approach. Result: 562 papers were identified and eight papers from four studies conducted among women from ethnic minority populations in the UK met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Barriers to disclosure include: Immigration status, community influences, problems with language and interpretation, and unsupportive attitudes of staff within mainstream services. Facilitators of help-seeking were: escalation of abuse and safety of children. Self-perceived impact of abuse includes: shame, denial, loss of identity and lack of choice. Conclusion: There is an on-going need for staff from domestic violence services to be aware of the complexities within which women from ethnic minority populations experience domestic violence and abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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