Search

The COVID‐19 outbreak led to widespread disruption and stress to people's lives. Concern about the escalation of domestic violence (DV) rates and related mental health issues soon emerged following the implementation of strategies aimed at curbing the spread of the virus. This perspective paper presents an overview of the issues, argues for greater recognition of the link between DV against women and serious emotional distress, and the need for greater awareness and knowledge about DV among mental health professionals. While we acknowledge that men also experience DV, their rates are much lower than for women and in this paper our focus is on women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To synthesize the best available evidence on the relationship between the social determinants of health and health outcomes among adults during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Introduction: COVID‐19 has created widespread global transmission. Rapid increase in individuals infected with COVID‐19 prompted significant public health responses from governments globally. However, the social and economic impact on communities may leave some individuals more susceptible to the detrimental effects. Methods: A three‐step search strategy was used to find published and unpublished papers. Databases searched included: MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, and Google Scholar. All identified citations were uploaded into Endnote X9, with duplicates removed. Methodological quality of eligible papers was assessed by two reviewers, with meta‐synthesis conducted in accordance with JBI methodology. Results: Fifteen papers were included. Three synthesized‐conclusions were established (a) Vulnerable populations groups, particularly those from a racial minority and those with low incomes, are more susceptible and have been disproportionately affected by COVID‐19 including mortality; (b) Gender inequalities and family violence have been exacerbated by COVID‐19, leading to diminished wellbeing among women; and (c) COVID‐19 is exacerbating existing social determinants of health through loss of employment/income, disparities in social class leading to lack of access to health care, housing instability, homelessness, and difficulties in physical distancing. Conclusion: Reflection on social and health policies implemented are necessary to ensure that the COVID‐19 pandemic does not exacerbate health inequalities into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic violence involves the abuse, whether emotional, physical, sexual and/or economic, of one or more family (or ex-family) members by another family member within the home or wider domestic context. It is typically associated with increasing entrapment, injury, medical complaints, psycho-social problems and (sometimes) unsuccessful help-seeking. Research evidence demonstrates that domestic abuse is prolific, prolonged, impacts physically, emotionally and economically upon women and children in particular, over the long-term including well after they are ‘safe’ from the perpetrator. Furthermore, such abuse is widespread and happens all over the world. The findings reported here are from an observational population survey conducted in one British city to assess awareness of domestic violence. While there appears to be a broadly held and well-informed definition of what actions constitute domestic violence and why it occurs, there are striking differences in perspective concerning public awareness of the frequency of domestic violence and knowledge of its importance as a safety issue indicating that it is still not seen generally as a serious social problem. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anti-smacking lobby concentrates on persuading parents not to smack and persuading the government to prohibit smacking by law. There is much evidence that smacking children is unnecessary and dangerous, and yet smacking continues to be widely practised and accepted in Britain. Our literature review found two underlying reasons for this contradiction: beliefs that children are ‘human becomings’ rather than full human beings and support for ‘parents’ rights' over children's human rights. We suggest that the anti-smacking lobby's important work will have limited effect until it tackles these two issues, and make comparisons with debates on domestic violence against women to illustrate our argument. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Any questions concerning the I Area i Prize for New Research in Geography should be addressed to: Dr Phil Emmerson, Managing Editor: Academic Publications, Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR. The author builds the scene of contingent camps through textured methods and detailed narrative. and Anya Lawrence (University of Birmingham) for 'Six simple steps towards making GEES fieldwork more accessible and inclusive' ( I Area i [3], 54, pp. 52-59). Rosie Hampton (University of Glasgow) for 'Towards an agenda for oral history and geography: (Re)locating emotion in family narratives of domestic abuse in 1970s East Kilbride' ( I Area i [2], 54, pp. 468-475). [Extracted from the article]

This paper sets out a research agenda for oral history in/and geography, with a particular focus on emotional historical geographies. With three families' relocation from inner‐city Glasgow to the new town of East Kilbride as the empirical backdrop, I argue that oral history methodology is uniquely well placed to capture both the emotionality and spatiality of historical narratives. Whilst previous reviews across geography and oral history theory have considered important emotional markers such as tone of voice, the expression of feeling and body language, I intervene by focusing on different narrative strategies employed throughout the interview and argue that the geographical remit of an interviewee's memories is inseparable from their emotional brevity. The focus of the paper is therefore threefold. Firstly, I consider the subjective temporalities and spatialities that oral history narrators employ when seeking composure, considering how they might "re‐place" their narratives (and thus themselves) in the interview setting. Secondly, I argue that how interviewees might "re‐place" themselves is inextricable, and as such so is any emotional reading of the interview, from the inter‐subjective relationship produced by such an encounter. Finally, I explore the implications of this methodology for carefully elaborating on the intersection between the intimate geographies of the home, and geographies of violence. How the interviewees witnessed domestic abuse among their families was moulded by the context of their relocation. Moreover, the inter‐subjective relationship, an analysis of which I argue is crucial to the findings of the paper, was also distinctly moulded by that same family context – as I was conducting these interviews with members of my own family. This paper establishes the merits of using oral history methodology to explore the emotionality and spatiality of historical‐geographical narratives. Using the new town of East Kilbride in the 1970s as a case study, I set out an emerging research agenda for the interaction between oral history theory and emotional historical geographies ‐ which in turn reveals new avenues for exploring the intimate geographies of domestic abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generic accounts of pervasive cases of exploitation and abuse against migrant domestic workers in the Middle East exist in the extant literature. However, very little is known about the breadth, depth and gendered nature of abuses experienced by female migrants from especially the sub‐Saharan African region. Abuses of the rights of sub‐Saharan Africans are under‐represented and under‐theorised. This paper interrogates the question what is the nature, extent and severity of exploitation and abuse against female Ghanaian domestic workers in the Middle East? Using data from mixed‐methods research, this paper adopts the framework of structural, symbolic and interpersonal violence to examine the range of abuses against domestic workers and the context within which these abuses take place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic violence is a prevalent public health concern, affecting millions worldwide. The presence of domestic violence affecting women and couples experiencing homelessness both continue to be underreported areas of clinical work and commissioning within the sector. This paper explores the difficulties of trying to house and contain unhoused couples with reference to the psychoanalytic ideas of attachment and the claustro‐agoraphobic dilemma. The paper argues that more wrap‐around support, such as temporary alternative housing options, are required to manage instances of domestic abuse and instances of attachment anxiety. Flexible options are also required to account for the likelihood that a couple may return to the streets when perpetrators are evicted based upon the implementation of blanket policies. The paper also attempts to offer some nuance into the complexities of relational dynamics, which are amplified by two unhoused minds coming into intimate contact with one another in front of a professional audience. The paper concludes with drawing attention to the lack of therapeutic support and lack of appetite to commission this to enable couples to explore the roles each partner can play when enmeshed in destructive forms of relating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family violence is becoming increasingly visible in Australia, with many state and federal governments taking on more responsibility to address family violence and its impacts on those affected. Current efforts are focused on practice frameworks, identifying and responding to risk factors, and social justice frameworks including legislating against family violence in a range of jurisdictions and addressing more broadly the structural and cultural forces that perpetuate violence and further oppress those victimised. Family violence is not unique to Australia, with prevalence rates internationally suggesting family violence occurs irrespective of country, race, age, culture, effectiveness of social policies or socioeconomic status. This paper explores relevant foundational concepts of Bowen family systems theory (BFST) as it relates to family violence and explores opportunities to evolve practice in this area. BFST offers a unique contribution towards addressing family violence, particularly in relation to the public health challenge of addressing family polyvictimisation. The paper also explores how BFST conceptualises family violence and the role of the professional in working with the family as a single emotional unit. The unique focus of BFST on observing and defining self within the emotional family unit through observation of the underlying multigenerational emotional patterns of functioning provides unique opportunities to evolve and develop both the capacity of clinicians and responses to families who are navigating the serious and challenging impacts of family violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper overviews Bowen family systems theory and its approach to family therapy. It aims to introduce this influential approach and a sample of developments in theory and practice since Bowen's first publications of his research and theory. This paper is the second edition of a 1999 article with the same title (Brown, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 20, 94 and 1999) and, 25 years later, offers new insights from the original author's ongoing research into the theory. This new edition is in collaboration with a second author and Bowen theory scholar, bringing fresh perspectives on the theory's applicability to family therapy practice. The core concepts are presented briefly, and a case example with a parent and symptomatic adolescent demonstrates how theory informs the role of the therapist and the therapeutic work. Examples of criticisms of Bowen theory are also discussed, including the misinterpretation around the idea of emotion in Bowen theory that is communicated in Gottman's training. Differentiation of self is clarified as the integration of emotion and intellect rather than privileging one over another, which affords the opportunity for individuals to avoid being governed by the invisible strings of sensitivities in relationships and instead be themselves in good emotional contact with the other person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a four‐year qualitative study that examines changes to legal processes related to the response to domestic violence in Seattle that began before and continued through the COVID‐19 pandemic, to examine a series of crisis temporalities that were exacerbated by the pandemic and associated lockdowns. In reflecting on the crisis temporalities that mark this research project, I underscore how such crises can also create conditions that lead to long overdue social change. In this case, the modernisation of a court system that for too‐long served as an obstacle to survivors' legal protection and facilitated abusers' ability to engage in slow violence during Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO) hearings. This paper thus highlights the 'temporal affordances' of longitudinal research that enable analysis to better understand the factors that motivate transition over time, particularly those in traditional institutions like the legal system. This paper draws on a four‐year qualitative study that examines changes to legal processes related to the response to domestic violence in Seattle that began before and continued through the COVID‐19 pandemic, to examine a series of crisis temporalities that were exacerbated by the pandemic and associated lockdowns. In reflecting on the crisis temporalities that mark this research project, I underscore how such crises can also create conditions that lead to long overdue social change. This paper thus highlights the 'temporal affordances' of longitudinal research that enable analysis to better understand the factors that motivate transition over time, particularly those in traditional institutions like the legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people are more likely to seek help about abusive relationships from friends, rather than adults or professionals, irrespective of gender, age or ethnic group. However, friends may be unequipped to deal with relationship problems and unable to provide adequate emotional or practical support. The aim of this paper is to explore how young people would support friends if they were seeking help or shared experiences of abuse. Qualitative findings drawn from a larger UK mixed‐methods study are used to explicate this. Data was gathered using 16 focus groups and one interview with girls, young women and non‐binary young people aged 13 to 24 years. Thematic analysis provided six themes pertaining to supporting friends and help‐seeking around relationship abuse. Findings showed young people recommended supporting friends in a non‐judgemental way to keep conversations open and help them recognise unhealthy behaviours. However, young people confirmed this is a difficult topic and many would feel fearful, helpless and under pressure. Conversations illustrated the need for more awareness of non‐physical abuse and resources specifically aimed at young people to enable them to help friends and know where and when to seek professional support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID‐19 brings increased risk to the mental health of asylum seekers and refugees in Australia on temporary visas. Rapid government changes due to the COVID‐19 pandemic are resulting in significant and sustained hardship on this already vulnerable group. This discursive paper is both an explainer and a resource for mental health nurses and health professionals with scope of practice in primary care and emergency departments responding to this population. The aim of this paper is to alert clinicians to the drivers of mental and suicide related distress and to provide recommendations as to how to therapeutically engage and support this group. Drivers include complex intersections between legal uncertainty, economic, social and mental health stress as drivers of entrapment, acute mental distress and suicidal ideation. Information about the COVID‐19 related factors as drivers contributing to worsening states of distress may help guide clinicians to consider protective factors designed to mitigate the onset or worsening of mental distress, plus aid in the development of health policy and service‐delivery arrangements of support and therapeutic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past five years, geographers' engagement in legal observation and/or intervention has begun to gain momentum, with a particular emphasis on the courtroom. Courtrooms are positioned as epicentres of law(yering) in‐action, yet their pre‐eminence should not deflect from efforts to build a more inclusionary geography of law attendant to other, less high‐profile and official, spaces of law. In this paper, I elaborate on this argument by interrogating a client consultation competition (CCC) that I co‐organised on domestic violence law with staff and students from a higher education institution in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The paper hones in specifically on the political interface that the CCC event fashioned between myself, the student competitors, and the state. Drawing on participant observation and audio‐recordings of the event, in addition to post‐competition focus groups I held with students, the paper demonstrates the value of cross‐pollinating social geographic work on events and encounter with legal‐oriented scholarship in the discipline on spaces and actors of law. Chased within the political, their fusing together permits researchers to widen their horizons beyond the court event and to think creatively about other legal infrastructures in which law and legal practice comes to be known and operationalised. The paper therefore asks that geographers committed to fostering justice not only step inside the courtroom, but also venture into spaces where its future prospects are born. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child and family social workers routinely make professional judgements involving significant legal and moral questions (e.g. whether a child has been abused) and more 'everyday' issues (e.g. will the child be re‐referred again if we close the case now?) Yet the world is capricious, and we rarely know with certainty what is going to happen in future or the likely impact of our different choices. Given the consequences of their judgements and decisions, it is imperative that social workers are provided with the best possible support. This paper reports a proof‐of‐concept study of a set of interventions to improve the judgemental accuracy of social workers: (i) a survey to identify respondents with above‐average existing abilities, (ii) training sessions on cognitive debiasing and (iii) structured group working and (iv) three methods for aggregating individual judgements. Findings indicate that it is possible to measure the accuracy of social work judgements in relation to case‐study materials and retrospective questions, while the feedback about the training was largely positive. Any future studies should aim to recruit a more diverse set of respondents, test judgemental accuracy in relation to prospective judgements and explore what types of questions would be most helpful for real‐world decision‐making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses and estimates the costs of domestic violence using a life satisfaction approach. It draws on a British cross-sectional data set that includes individual self-reported life satisfaction, household income and experienced domestic violence. The paper estimates the costs of domestic violence as the compensating variation of domestic violence resulting from estimating a life satisfaction regression equation. Some attempts to deal with the problem of self-selection into abusive relationships and to account for the endogeneity of household income are discussed and implemented. The results suggest that domestic violence is costed very highly by its victims, with estimates ranging from £27,000 to over £70,000. Hence this paper contributes to the literature on valuing non-marketable goods and discusses the usefulness of a life satisfaction approach when estimating the costs of domestic violence. It claims that, despite its shortcomings, a life satisfaction approach allows for a valuation of domestic violence and answers questions often not answered by other valuation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the effects of money transfers sent by relatives or acquaintances, better known as remittances, on intimate partner violence (IPV) against married women living in Mexico. Using three waves of a national state‐based representative survey specialized in violence against women, and state‐fixed effects regression models, the results show that receiving remittances increases the likelihood of IPV by 6%. We document several mechanisms for this detrimental effect of receiving remittances on IPV. Among these mechanisms, we find that receiving remittances is positively correlated to men's alcohol consumption, a factor associated with IPV, and that receiving remittances is negatively correlated to the probability of men being employed, suggesting that men exert violence against women to compensate for the lack of income with remittances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence against women (VAW) worsened globally during the Covid‐19 pandemic lockdowns. For example, a woman in France was killed every 3 days during lockdown. At the same time in South Africa, a woman was killed every 3 h. This paper presents and analyzes the risk factors that have worsened during the Covid‐19 pandemic lockdowns and the subsequent economic consequences of mitigation policies. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (a) to conduct a critical review of international extant literature regarding government policies related to VAW since the beginning of the worldwide Covid‐19 pandemic lockdowns that began in early 2020, and (b) to suggest opportunities for nurses to influence health policy development and social norms related to VAW. Thematic synthesis of the findings present interventions that helped to mitigate VAW during Covid‐19 and is followed by a discussion of findings in relation to social determinants of health and human rights. A gender‐based policy approach that focuses on the human right to be free of all forms of violence must be a leading strategy as governments reallocate resources and rebuild economies in the wake of this pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every society deploys narratives concerning the phenomenon of domestic abuse which serve to downplay and normalise it. Drawing on qualitative research with survivors in Malaysia, and working from a feminist postcolonial framework, this paper explores how the notion of demonic possession is used by survivors and perpetrators as a metaphor for domestic abuse, and a narrative to make sense of and excuse it. The idea of demonic possession has utility because of its close fit both with perpetrators' behaviour and the symptoms experienced by survivors with trauma. The research focuses on the intimate dynamics of abuse, including coercive control and intimate captivity, and the pivotal role of possession and trauma in the successful exertion of control and in extending the damaging effects of abuse. We argue that demonic possession reflects another way in which globally endemic practices of domestic abuse are justified and explained; it provides a means for perpetrators to evade responsibility for abuse, and a way in which the pernicious effects of both abuse and trauma on survivors, their families, and wider society are sometimes dismissed. The paper highlights the significance of culturally sensitive approaches to domestic violence and trauma as a counterpoint to western‐centric understandings. It also stresses the need for locally generated approaches to awareness raising and support services in Malaysia and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in out‐of‐home care has more than doubled in the past decade. Research into the experiences of parents who have had their children removed is an emerging area; though very few of these studies are specific to Indigenous children and families. This paper presents a participatory research study that explored the experiences of a group of Aboriginal Australian parents who have had their children removed by child protection authorities in one Australian state, New South Wales. This paper highlights the challenges for Indigenous families navigating the child protection system, specifically the ongoing experience of feeling powerless following the removal of their children, and in creating environments that maintain quality relationships with their children. The paper then offers suggestions for supporting families in light of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on how immigrant women experience and negotiate their everyday life with children prior to and after leaving a violent partner. Twenty‐three women staying at domestic violence and abuse shelters with their children were interviewed about their experiences with assistance services and their everyday life with their children. At the time of the interviews, most of the women were legally separated or divorced and were either living in or in touch daily with shelters. In this paper, we look at some of the challenges that women face when exposed to violence in a relationship that involves children. Being exposed to violence from a partner raises a number of economic, practical, and emotional concerns, both prior to and after leaving. For the mothers in our study, maintaining a regular routine is key to making the children feel safe in an unpredictable setting. For many, economic dependence on the partner is replaced with economic dependence on assistance services after leaving the partner. Services must recognize that providing help to mothers who have left a violent partner constitutes more than just practical support but is crucial for mothers' ability to re‐establish a predictable everyday life with their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which discusses several articles in the issue on topics including how custody evaluators, investigators and the courts should understand and respond to cases where children are resisting contact with a parent; and female victims of domestic violence.

This paper reports an Australian project designed to simultaneously explore and capacity build professional practice when working at the intersection of parental mental health and/or problematic substance use and domestic violence (DV). Data from this paper are derived from two main sources: observations and ethnographic notes obtained during 28 Community of Practice (CoP) meetings and semi‐structured interviews with 28 CoP participants. Participants were front‐line workers from a range of government and non‐government organizations providing services to families experiencing DV across three Australian states who participated in The STACY Project: Safe and Together Addressing ComplexitY. Thematic analysis was employed to examine the research questions: How do professionals and organizations understand and respond to families experiencing DV, parental mental health difficulties and problematic substance use issues? How did practitioners report participation in the STACY Project reorienting professional practice with families experiencing DV, parental mental health difficulties, and substance misuse issues? This paper reports workers' exploration of practice implications. The research found that 'domestic violence blind' practice has become entrenched at the intersections of child protection, substance misuse and mental health problems, but a shared framework could bring practitioners from diverse sectors together to generate new ways of working with these complex problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Introduction Setting Participants Design Results Conclusions To understand the motivations of champions who worked to bring about system and practice change that supported routine screening for intimate partner violence (IPV) in two rural emergency departments (EDs).Practice changes are required to achieve routine and effective identification and response to IPV. Nurses play a significant role in affecting such practice change. This paper identifies the motivations of champions in the ED setting who successfully brought about such change.The EDs of two Level 5 tertiary hospitals within a rural Local Health District (LHD) of New South Wales, Australia.Twenty‐three individuals who identified as champions and worked to introduce routine IPV screening in two rural hospital EDs.Qualitative longitudinal semi‐structured interviews employing a process of constant comparison and an interpretive framework to analyse data thematically. Interviews were carried out between June and August 2017 and again between July and August 2019.Over the period of the study, routine screening was established, and screening rates steadily increased from a low baseline to a significantly higher rate. Three aspects of champion motivation emerged from the analysis: formation of an identity as a champion, making a difference to a significant social justice issue and providing quality and community‐relevant care.This study is the first study to report on champions and their motivation as they supported IPV practice change in the ED. The findings highlight the capacity for innovation in rural health services, with important implications for other settings looking to translate similar programs. Understanding motivating factors may assist in improved utilisation and support for champions. This is vital if champions are to bring about required practice change within their service and ensure the needs of individuals experiencing IPV are effectively met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The safety of practitioners working in the area of domestic abuse is a current subject of research and practice concern, as services endeavour to better understand constantly evolving tactics of violence and abuse and respond appropriately. This paper reports on a subset of findings from a practice‐led research project focussed on capacity‐building workers and their organizations to address domestic abuse, which highlighted the ongoing concerns expressed by practitioners—particularly female practitioners—about their own physical, emotional, and professional safety. Ethnographic notes were taken of Community of Practice discussions in four regions of New South Wales, Australia, involving 69 senior health practitioners from a range of service streams: specialist domestic abuse, mental health, substance use, and child protection. Themes identified through thematic analysis included the following: a tailored approach to practising safely; attending to physical safety; threats to professional identity; promoting emotional well‐being; documentation to support worker safety; and attending to cultural safety. These themes are encapsulated in the practitioner question: Who's got my back?—highlighting the importance of legislation, policy, and practices that provide an environment in which safety and support are embedded in a culture of care at every organizational level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we adopt a Southern feminist epistemology to critically appraise the ways in which media discourse on gendered organizing during the Indian COVID‐19‐induced migrant crisis resists or reinforces hegemonic caste hierarchies. To contextualize this work, we briefly historicize scholarship on feminist organizing around land rights, hunger, and violence, while noting the politics of contagion and pollution narratives plaguing the pandemic discourse in India. After conducting a qualitative content analysis (QCA) followed by a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of media discourses across three tiers (international, national, and local), we found that international and national tiers of discourse largely deployed a savarna gaze that worked to 1) Reinforce brahminical and technocratic pandemic narratives and 2) Delegitimize Dalit marginal organizing feminist work and Dalit sensibilities through seven overlapping metrics of erasure. On the other hand, local tier of discourse confronted the savarna gaze, amplified voices of Dalit and Muslim women by centering their narratives of resistance, and tackled the exacerbation of casteist oppression under the pandemic in the service of emancipation. Local discourses also highlight how marginal organizing during the first pandemic lockdown involved provision of essential resources and services (food, medical care, security) for mostly Dalit and Muslim migrant workers, and women intersectionally facing domestic violence and savarna violence. Despite the brahmininal structural oppression, Dalit feminist praxis' emblematic resistance of oppressive structures, during and beyond times of crisis, constitutes what we call the work of deep care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual and intimate partner violence (SIV) continues to be a public health crisis, particularly among girls and women. Traditional and critical qualitative methodologies are often used to study SIV. This paper offers another methodology not traditionally used in family science, testimonio, as a critical, qualitative option. Testimonio is a methodology rooted in Indigenous, Latinx, and Chicano/a feminista studies, deployed in various fields, that centers the stories of marginalized members of society as they are rooted in systemic inequalities, including racism, (cis)sexism, and heteronormativity. A scoping review of the use of testimonio in family science and violence research was conducted and yielded minimal research. Given the dearth of research found through the review, recommendations for using testimonio in family science SIV research are offered along with examples from the authors' research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Excessive alcohol use is associated with non‐communicable diseases and social problems, such as work absence, financial problems and family violence. Expenditure and expenditure shares on alcohol are valuable measures to monitor financial activities on this risk behaviour. The aim of this paper is to report trends in alcohol expenditure in Australia over the last two decades. Methods: Data are from six waves of Australian Household Expenditure Surveys from 1984 to 2015–2016. We explored trends of alcohol expenditure among Australians and in different socio‐demographic groups in the last 30 years. We further examined changes of expenditure on different on‐ and off‐premises beverages over time. Results: Absolute alcohol expenditure has remained the same between the 1980s and 2016, after accounting for inflation. However, a declining trend in relative alcohol expenditure as a proportion of total household expenditure was found across nearly all demographic groups (e.g., sex, age, employment, household income), except for women aged 45–54, who showed an increasing trend of alcohol expenditure after 1998–1999. Discussion and Conclusions: The current study shows declines in relative alcohol expenditure, which may reflect declines in alcohol's relative importance within the elements of the person's lifestyle they need to pay for and/or increased awareness of alcohol's health and social harms. Further longitudinal analysis should explore additional predictors of household expenditure on alcohol. Results suggest that current bi‐annual indexation increases in alcohol tax should account for increases in income to ensure the effectiveness of pricing. Moreover, attention is needed to address drinking among middle‐aged females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescent relational violence has significant and pervasive impacts for young people's current and future relationships. It is known that there is a cross‐over between adolescent family violence and other offending behaviour, meaning there is a need for youth justice systems to recognise and respond to these forms of violence. This paper outlines a pilot intervention, the KIND Program, run in Youth Justice South Australia, and aimed at intervening with adolescent family and dating violence. KIND aims to provide tailored systemic intervention to young people and their support network, reducing violence while increasing connection and strength within relationships. The pilot of KIND ran for seven months in 2017, and had eight families participating in the program. Participation in, feedback from, and impact of the program suggest that participation was worthwhile and useful for young people and their families. The KIND Program would benefit from a more extensive pilot period to explore the outcomes of this form of intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Gøsta Esping‐Andersen, using decommodification as a basis, classified advanced capitalist countries into liberal, conservative‐corporatist, and social‐democratic welfare regimes. Subsequently, Ann Shola Orloff deemed his approach gender blind, and dimensions such as access to paid work and the capacity to form and maintain an autonomous household were added to the existing variables of state–market relations, stratification and social citizenship rights. Based on Orloff's theoretical propositions, this paper develops the decommodification measures to classify middle‐income countries (MICs). The paper classifies MICs into five clusters based on hierarchical cluster analysis using variables such as GDP per capita, female labour force participation, availability, duration and wage replacement levels and providers of maternity leave benefits and availability of childcare services, legislation on sexual harassment, marital rape and domestic violence, protection orders, the availability of legal aid for civil and criminal matters and the proportion of seats held by women in parliaments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I reflect on my experiences conducting legal geographic research within a Central Pennsylvania courtroom. This research builds on my former professional experience as a legal advocate where I worked for five years providing advocacy services to over 800 survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. I discuss how I incorporated two common advocacy practices – accompaniment and institutional advocacy – into my research praxis as a means to fulfil my commitment to conduct activist research as a feminist legal geographer. I argue that the advocacy skills I learned outside of academia helped me navigate the tensions of studying power with legal actors in the privileged space of the courtroom. This paper contributes to recent interest in the methodological practices that legal geographers utilise within courtroom spaces, while also encouraging legal geographers to consider what knowledge and skills – beyond academic methodologies and methods – might serve to support activist research within spaces of power. In this paper, I reflect on my experiences conducting legal geographic research within a Central Pennsylvania courtroom. I argue that the advocacy skills I learned outside of academia helped me navigate the tensions of studying power with legal actors in the privileged space of the courtroom. This paper contributes to recent interest in the methodological practices that legal geographers utilise within courtroom spaces, while also encouraging legal geographers to consider what knowledge and skills – beyond academic methodologies and methods – might serve to support activist research within spaces of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses several documents on the need to understand the complexities of child abuse. The first paper of this study addresses the prevention of child maltreatment. It describes the development and implementation of the Early Intervention Program in a multicultural, inner city, community setting with high rates of child protection registrations. The program included the identification of vulnerable parents during the antenatal period, the development of specialist non-stigmatizing clinics for parents and the creation of a consultation service for generic workers. The second paper discusses the ecological approach to child abuse. In the paper, the author provides a valuable examination of how the approach has enhanced popular understanding of child abuse at both theoretical and practical levels. Meanwhile, the third paper explores custody and access disputes that lead to false allegations of child abuse. The authors draw upon their study of the management of child abuse allegations made in the midst of custody and access disputes, within the Australian legal system. And the final paper discusses the plight of children who were conscripted soldiers and became involved in armed conflict.

Our work with children whose rights have been violated, with their families devastated by family violence and where the majority have been left out of the sociocultural systems and experiencing serious economic and educational difficulties, has taken us to our professional limit. The solitary and individual work, in the dim light of the office, left us without tools. As therapists, we can say that it has been necessary to break with our own mental schemes and to take a leap into the territory, the terrain itself. The learned university theories were questioned, forcing us to include a more humanising and less judgmental look at the work. A psychology of the trench was born for us. This paper articulates a work process that required something more than specific training in our subject matter. It summoned us as human beings capable of hosting suffering. From this starting point, and with an open mind and heart to go through its stages, this process is presented as a journey with advances and setbacks in its intervention modalities, systematising programs in permanent construction. Systematising practices is not an easy task. Familias Cuidando (Caring Families) and Adoptar es Posible (To Adopt is Possible) are the developmental spaces of our trench practices, practices that aim to accompany children, adolescents, and their families through the system of promotion and comprehensive protection of their rights. From Vicente López, a district in the province of Buenos Aires, our psycho‐socio‐educational and legal approach tries to be a link within collaborative and supportive practices; establishing ties, networks, and dialogues to strengthen the new paradigm aiming to support listening to the voice of children and adolescents; rescuing their childhoods, resignifying the different family models, and accompanying the construction of a life project for each one, in which we all fit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the growing body of geographical literature on carceral spaces and carcerality to explore alternatives sites of incarceration in everyday life and also to look beyond the state as a carceral actor and agent. In particular, it focuses on "unfreedom" and the punitive elements of UK immigration controls from the perspective of those who have left violent domestic situations and in doing so have been forced to apply for leave to remain in the country. The paper highlights the ways in which, in enacting the spatial violence of immigration policies and controls, everyday actors, such as sales assistants and landlords, become agents in the "continuum of unfreedoms." The discussion, therefore, seeks to define carcerality beyond the institution as not only linked to institutional carceralities but as existing in and of itself in and around us in everyday life. In particular, it is argued that from a feminist perspective there is a need to better understand these everyday carceralities in the process of seeking asylum, as women are less likely to be incarcerated in state institutions. The paper also demonstrates the complex roles of non and quasi‐state actors in shaping the "unfreedoms" of everyday life for those seeking leave to remain in the UK as a result of domestic violence. This paper draws on the growing body of geographical literature on carceral spaces and carcerality to explore alternatives sites of incarceration in everyday life and also to look beyond the state as a carceral actor and agent. In particular, it focuses on "unfreedom" and the punitive elements of UK immigration controls from the perspective of those who have left violent domestic situations and in doing so have been forced to apply for leave to remain in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disasters including public health crises like the COVID‐19 pandemic are known to increase instances of family violence against women, children, and other diverse populations. This paper discusses and provides evidence of disaster‐related vulnerability of and violence towards specific groups of people. We argue that the COVID‐19 pandemic presents the 'perfect storm' for family violence, where a set of rare circumstances combine, resulting in a significant aggravation of the resulting event. Given the mental health implications of family violence, mental health professionals need to be aware of this issue during the pandemic and ready to assist with the development of strategies to overcome the situation where possible. To provide protection and prevent violence, there is a need to include at‐risk groups in disaster response and community planning. Such a plan could involve gender and disaster working groups at the local community, state, and national levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The routine of the dental profession exposes dentists not only to medical challenges but also to ethical and legal ones. Compared to other physicians, dentists are more likely to encounter children who are victims of domestic violence. This reality exposes them to legal liability due to the reporting obligations and the risk of misdiagnosing injuries. This paper aims to examine the importance of dentists in diagnosing injuries to children caused by domestic violence and the inherent dangers of failing to make such a diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, like other developed countries, there has been an increase in reports to child protection services about children experiencing domestic violence. While there is research on the importance of the skills and knowledge of the child protection workforce for this growing problem, little is available about practitioner attitudes and beliefs. This paper presents findings on research undertaken in New South Wales, which is the most populated state in Australia. The research considered the attitudes and beliefs of the statutory child protection workforce about domestic violence. It relied on a large‐scale survey of 1041 child protection practitioners. In order to compare the attitudes and beliefs of child protection workforce with those of the general community, the survey replicated questions from the Australian National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Surveys. Overall, the attitudes and beliefs of the workforce more closely reflected contemporary theory and evidence about domestic violence than those of the community. The research also examined variations in the attitudes and beliefs of the child protection workforce according to practitioner characteristics, finding variations by gender. The implications for the fields of child protection and social work are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper exploits a policy change in Illinois that altered monthly nutritional assistance benefits dates to estimate the impact of in‐kind benefit receipt on domestic violence. We find that issuing SNAP benefits on days other than the first of the month increases domestic crimes. On average, we find the shifting benefit dates increases domestic abuse by 6.9 percent and child maltreatment by 30.0 percent. We posit that these effects are driven by increases in opportunities for conflict or changes in drug use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an overview of the article published in the Volume 13: 75 to 79, 2004 issue of Child Abuse Review. One article presents a detailed comparison of the Climbié and Colwell Inquiries highlights the social circumstances of the families depicted in these reports and notes the extent of change in the 30 years which separate them. It identifies the challenges encountered by practitioners who work with shifting family structures in the current context of cultural diversity. The paper also emphasizes the lack of trust both between agencies and in the inquiry process itself, both of which were apparent in the evidence to the Climbié Inquiry. An article by Goldthorpe provides a wide-ranging discussion of the legal implications of the Green Paper's key proposals for systems for flagging and tracking children. It identifies some of the barriers which impede the transfer of information between professionals and notes the law's lack of clarity in this area. The last two papers in this issue report the perspectives of parents and children. One article explores parents' views of child protection social work.The other paper describes a study of calls made by children to ChildLine Scotland over a period of a year; the research included more detailed qualitative analysis of calls made during a 2-week period.

For most of United States history, the police did not intervene in domestic violence. To redress for this history, police departments began implementing mandatory arrest policies in the 1980s. These policies require police to arrest in cases of domestic violence when injuries are present, regardless of victim consent. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research conducted in central Pennsylvania, including participant observation in a domestic violence unit of a police department and interviews with police officers, this paper examines how mandatory arrest policies extend the spatial reach of the state into private space and intimate relationships. Specifically, I argue that the policing of domestic violence positions police officers as neoliberal subjects responsible for mediating abusive relationships on behalf of the state. This paper contributes to geographic research on policing in the private sphere, while also offering a detailed accounting of the mechanics of police practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents an overview of papers featured in the special issue of "Child Abuse Review," in 2001, concerning culture and child protection. The first paper by Welbourne introduces some of the literature and ideas at the national and international level in determining what is appropriate and inappropriate care and what supports the needs of children and families from state services in minority as well as mainstream cultures. The paper by Chan and colleagues presents a study of the understandings by professionals of abuse in Singapore. The need to provide some middle ground between absolutist and culturally relative concepts of abuse is made in the paper by Koromoa, Lynch and Kinnair. They distinguish between traditional culture practices that enhance the cultural identity of children and those that cause harm. The paper by Webb and colleagues is the only paper to describe individual cases and where children were not well served by child protection services. The final paper of the issue is a brief communication by Jordan on the problems of providing both initial and ongoing protective services in a private facility served by foreign nationals. Private services may not be so aware of child protection issues and also the commercial nature of the relationship between the paying parent and the service provider may make child abuse identification more difficult.

Only limited attention has been drawn to children's narrative practice of negotiating cultural ideas about who they are and what they can do. This paper focuses on children living in families where adults have psychosocial problems and analyses how they negotiate different family‐related and/or societal master narratives about their identity and agency. Twenty‐two children, 6–17 years old, have been interviewed about themselves and their lives. The findings suggest three master narratives as central in children's telling: the story of the child as problem bearer, the story of the child as inheritor of psychosocial problems and the story of the child as an unknowledgeable object. The analysis shows that children negotiate these master narratives by positioning and repositioning themselves and others in, and through, their telling. The core contribution of the study is the notion that children's problem descriptions contain important information about both material and discursive aspects of the problematic situation. Through listening to children's stories, social work practitioners and researchers can deepen their understanding of how the individual child relates to, and negotiates, wider cultural ideas about identity and agency. This knowledge is relevant in the pursuit of matching support with the child's needs and perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including issues related to maternal protectiveness, report on the methodology of Domestic Abuse Recovering Together (DART) and safeguarding mothers and children from domestic violence.

The decision to report domestic violence is often conditional on whether victims were satisfied with their prior treatment by the criminal justice system. One issue in reporting victimization is that victims of domestic violence may also be involved with the system as offenders. The current paper systematically reviews research on this overlap, finding that most research supports that victims who also have criminal backgrounds are significantly less likely to report subsequent experiences of domestic violence, and are less likely and able to seek out social services, particularly when they report prior negative experiences. The paper then identifies theoretical and policy‐based implications of the review findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young children's experience of trauma is associated with a wide range of adverse events and circumstances, including abuse and neglect, domestic violence, loss of a parent, and community violence. Policymakers and practitioners are increasingly aware that trauma during the first few years of life is especially widespread, and there is growing interest in new ways to support these young children and their families. Many young children who experience trauma attend early care and education (ECE) programs, and these settings offer important opportunities to promote their well‐being. This paper examines strategies currently being implemented in ECE to address early childhood trauma. The paper first examines research on how trauma affects young children's development, ECE environments, and society. We then describe the unique needs of young, traumatized children and features of trauma‐informed care that can address their needs, along with emerging interventions and supports that can be incorporated into or linked with ECE settings as part of a trauma‐informed approach. We conclude with a discussion of future directions for ECE and trauma research, policy, and practice, bearing in mind both the promise of new approaches and a limited evidence base to date. Highlights: Trauma is most common in early childhood, affecting between half and two‐thirds of all children in the United States.Early care and education (ECE) serves a large number of traumatized children and can offer critical supports to promote the recovery and well‐being of young children and their families.This article provides examples of trauma‐informed initiatives and practices currently in use in ECE and describes their level of evidence.Recommendations for future research, policy, and practice include additional research to expand the limited evidence base and utilization of existing policies to promote trauma‐informed care in ECE settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews 26 reports into deaths and serious abuse of children in families who were subject to the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) rule. Our analysis illustrates vulnerabilities caused by exclusionary policies, exacerbating social deprivation and isolation experienced by the children and families and making it more difficult for professionals to respond in ways which safeguarded children's welfare. Drawing upon a social model for protecting children that requires recognition of the social determinants of harm and the economic, social and cultural barriers faced by families, we examine the experiences of children and families with NRPF who were the subject of a serious case review, and the responses of agencies responsible for safeguarding child welfare. We conclude with recommendations for practices aimed at promoting the rights and well‐being of children and families subject to NRPF rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health issue across the globe due to its associations with health and wellbeing, especially among mothers and children. These associations are often more pronounced following separation or divorce, which can compromise safety given that women and children are at heightened risk during these transitions. Thus, it is critical to understand the implications of coparenting in the context of IPV. In this paper, we first discuss the literature on IPV broadly. In particular, we discuss the differences between two types of violence: coercive controlling violence (i.e., violence that occurs in the context of systematic control) and situational couple violence (i.e., violence that occurs without a pattern of control). We then link it to parenting and coparenting processes as they relate to separation and divorce. In this section, we focus heavily on the ways in which the legal system affects family dynamics as divorces make their way through the courts. Special attention is paid to the ways in which IPV affects child custody decisions and the safety of those decisions given empirical evidence suggesting that raising allegations of IPV often does not help achieve favorable court outcomes. We conclude with recommendations to guide family court practitioners based upon this substantial literature. Such recommendations center on the development and implementation of empirically‐derived assessment tools as well as systematic training of legal professionals. Key points for the family court community: Conceptualizing intimate partner violence (IPV) as discrete incidents of physical violence without considering context (e.g., coercive control vs. situational conflict) and chronicity underestimates the risks and harms associated with the insidious, daily nature of coercive control.When rigorously distinguished by a context of coercive control, different types of IPV are found to relate to different dynamics and outcomes. For example, coercive controlling violence (CCV) is predominantly perpetrated by men versus women and tends to be more frequent, severe, and injurious whereas situational couple violence (SCV) tends to be more gender symmetric (i.e., perpetrated by both men and women).Separation and divorce do not always end IPV, especially when children are involved, and separation from an abusive partner is often a lengthy, nonlinear process (e.g., multiple separations) that can vary by IPV type.Bringing allegations of IPV into divorce cases does not always result in greater protection, especially as it relates to parenting agreements.Children provide abusers with an ongoing link to their former partners, a link that is often reinforced when judges, parenting plan evaluators, and other family court professionals prioritize joint parenting arrangements. This coparental link leaves mothers and children vulnerable to ongoing intrusion and raises concerns about how to ensure safety if children are to maintain relationships with both parents.Translating empirical evidence about different types of IPV (e.g., that SCV is more common in the general public and tends to be less severe) to conclude that most IPV in family courts is SCV and therefore not of concern for parenting decisions is an inappropriate and potentially dangerous misuse of research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family violence is a multifaceted issue encompassing various harmful behaviors within familial relationships. This paper explores the definitional problems presented in this special issue on family violence and its impact on parenting and coparenting. By examining the shifts and expansions of concepts related to family violence over time, we highlight the transformative turns in this special issue that have helped us to clarify our understanding of family violence. We explore the transformative expansions of family violence by situating this exploration within a "concept creep" analysis. We make a note of the underlying assumptions associated with these concepts. Through an analysis of concept creep, we elucidate how the expansions and redefinition of violence‐related terms have influenced our understanding of family violence. By differentiating family violence, intimate partner violence, and maltreatment, we emphasize the necessity of unpacking these terms to avoid oversimplification or overlooking certain forms of violence that may go unnoticed under narrow definitions. The authors further highlight the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to address the complexities of family violence and its impact on parenting and coparenting. By acknowledging and responding to expansions of concepts in family violence, we can strive to protect and support children in these challenging circumstances, ultimately promoting their well‐being and creating safer family environments. Key points for the family court community: Family violence is a hypernym for various forms of violence and abuse that can impact intimate relationships.Concept creep provides a framework for understanding family violence concepts' horizontal and vertical expansions over time and its impact on parenting and coparenting.Due to the complexity of family violence, a systematic approach must thoroughly screen, assess and intervene to ensure the safety and well‐being of all family members.An ecological approach to family violence emphasizes the various interrelated levels that impact and influence the consequences of violence within families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic, policymakers and news reports warned that restrictions on individual mobility and commercial activity could lead to a surge in domestic violence (DV). Some initial studies found evidence of greater DV incidence during the pandemic, but findings were inconsistent across locations and DV measures. This paper focuses on a single major city, Los Angeles (LA), to study the impact of the initial pandemic shutdown. We use three DV measures from police data (911 calls, crime incidents and arrests) as well as two measures from non‐police administrative sources (the county DV hotline and hospital records). We find an increase in DV calls to the police and calls to the hotline. However, we find that DV crimes recorded by police and hospital visits by female assault (and DV) victims decreased significantly, suggesting that the increase in calls came from higher reporting rates. The decrease in DV crimes is not attributable to reductions in policing intensity, as the arrest rate for DV crimes was higher during the shutdown. We conclude that the initial LA shutdown increased the rates at which people contacted authorities about DV, but decreased the overall incidence of physical DV crimes in the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]