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The issue of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) has received an increasing amount of media, political and professional attention during the past 50 years. However, there has been mixed findings regarding the effectiveness of established treatment interventions for convicted IPV perpetrators. Practitioners have observed high attrition rates from community IPV treatment delivered by Probation services. The aim of this research was to contribute to the understanding of treatment compliance and behaviour change within male IPV perpetrators, attending such treatment following court referral. A systematic review and meta-analysis identified correlates and predictors of attrition for convicted IPV perpetrators, who had been court mandated into treatment. An analysis of 22 studies found a similar average rate of non-completion was consistent with the range in existing literature. There was evidence to support independent bivariate associations between some variables and dropout from treatment, for example: age, marital status, education level, level of income, employment status, previous recidivism and severity of IPV. However, due to the heterogeneity across study designs, delivery and evaluation, there was no agreement on how these variables may interact as a model of prediction for treatment attrition. Following these findings, an empirical study, comprising of two parts, was designed to identify predictors of court mandated IPV treatment attrition and to promote treatment compliance of an IPV community intervention. Part one investigated the characteristic differences between IPV treatment completers and dropouts. The sample was made up of 574 men court mandated into IPV treatment. A logistic regression model was developed to identify men that are more at risk of dropping out of treatment. The analysis demonstrated that the model of significant predictor variables could correctly predict the criterion variable of treatment dropout with 75.8% correct classification of cases. Part two evaluated the use of the Personal Aspirations and Concerns Inventory for Offenders (PACI-O; Campbell, Sellen, & McMurran, 2010), which was delivered as a single session pre-treatment intervention to motivate IPV perpetrators to attend a community IPV treatment. The sample consisted of 55 male IPV perpetrators court mandated to the IPV group intervention. Findings showed that participants that completed the PACI-O were 1.4 times more likely to complete the IPV intervention programme than the 574 men within the control sample that did not undertake the PACI-O. Further applications and limitations of the PACI-O were explored. These primary research studies, were followed by a single subject case study of a participant that completed a group IPV intervention but went on to receive a further IPV conviction. The case study highlighted the limitations of group treatment, within a management plan to reduce recidivism and these limitations were explored in relation to the practical implications for child contact matters. The administration of routine risk assessments was brought into question. Hence, a critical appraisal of the Spousal Assault Risk Assessment - Version 3 (Kropp & Hart, 2015) was carried out. This is the licenced risk assessment tool used with Probation service users with IPV convictions in England and Wales. The lack of routine implementation was found which suggested that the use of this risk assessment tool was a "hit and miss" affair and recommendations are made. The conclusion of this thesis details the forensic practice implications of the findings and how they may enhance the effective delivery of IPV treatment within community Probation settings.

This PhD work aimed to better understand how 1) existing and near-future digital technologies are used as tools for abuse and surveillance within the context of intimate partner abuse (IPA), and 2) to design support solutions for survivors. In order to do so, a codesign methodology was adopted alongside IPA survivors and NGO support workers. The first phase of the work aimed to extend existing knowledge of the landscape and problem context through interviews with survivors and support workers, as well as an analysis of online forum data where survivors engage in peer-to-peer support. The results allowed for a better understanding of the different ways in which technology-facilitated abuse is perpetrated, how victims make use of technology within the bounds of an abusive relationship, as well as the gaps in professional and peer advice given to victims regarding digital privacy and security. The second phase consisted of several codesign workshops with survivors and support workers, which focussed on smart home devices and IPA. In the workshops, we collaboratively understood the threats posed by novel smart-home devices, how these devices are used for surveillance and abuse, the support currently available to victims, and, as before, survivors' and support workers' gaps in digital privacy and security knowledge. We also codesigned a series of ideas for improving the support available to victims regarding digital privacy and security management, alongside a series of ideas for improving the interpersonal privacy afforded by smart home devices. The final stage involved developing a support service - in this case, a chatbot - to address the issue of technology-facilitated IPA alongside participants, as well as a co-evaluation of the outcome. The codesigned chatbot is now entirely owned and maintained by one of the largest UK-based charities supporting victims of IPA.

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a public health problem across the globe. Policy and practice vary, but there is a general consensus that IPV significantly and negatively impacts the criminal justice, health and welfare systems. Policy and practice inform how we manage risk, rehabilitate offenders and protect victims; it is therefore important that policy and practice are appropriate and evidence based. This thesis aims to identify motivators and risk factors for ongoing abuse from custody, a previously under researched area, to inform policy and practice in England and Wales. To achieve this aim, the thesis begins by exploring the function of denial, justifying, minimising and blaming in IPV, via a systematic review using narrative synthesis. The findings indicate that while denial etc. can have a self-protective function, it can also represent faulty internal mechanisms that fuel abusive behaviour and a tool that men use instrumentally to achieve goals. A novel empirical study then explores abuse from custody from the perspective of the perpetrator, using semi-structured interviews and phenomenologically informed thematic analysis. Three key themes with 10 sub themes were identified, including disrupted connections, external influences, and internal processes. A third novel piece of work makes use of proxy indicators readily available in custodial data to predict who will be abusive from custody. Using binomial regression, two proxy indicators showed promise as predictors: Risk of Serious Harm to a Known Adult in custody and anti-social conduct in custody. The model explained 23.3% of the variance in abuse from custody, correctly classifying 85.4% of cases, however only 45.45% of abusers were correctly identified. The findings from this body of work expand the knowledge base regarding IPV and abusive behaviour from custody. Together they highlight how policy and practice can be developed to ensure they are evidence based and serving the general public most effectively. Risk management, rehabilitation efforts and victim protection can be enhanced by implementing the findings of this work. Recommendations for further research are also proposed.

This thesis examines the statutory domestic violence perpetrator programme, Building Better Relationships (BBR). The main aims were to explore best practice, the process of change and what men need in helping them to build better relationships. The thesis is situated within a tripartite of concerns. These are: 1) the philosophical assumptions upon which BBR is premised; 2) the 'evidence' upon which this and evaluations of programmes pivot; and 3) the now defunct Transforming Rehabilitation agenda proposed by the Conservative government in 2013. The experiences of men mandated to attend BBR and the practitioners who implemented it were captured via programme reviews, pre-sentence reports, five months of on-site observations, informal discussions, and in-depth interviews. This study found that facilitators were attuned and sensitive to the traumatising but often traumatised men with whom they worked. However, I propose that the principles underpinning BBR and the context in which it is delivered was not necessarily redressing male perpetrators' reasons for violence, and sometimes aggravating the difficulties behind them in ways that were not conducive to better relationships. While BBR proposed an intervention that was holistic and individualised, it did not surmount the shortcomings of its predecessor, the Integrated Domestic Abuse Programme (IDAP). The painful feelings that are unearthed are left largely unaddressed in the pursuit of treatment targets. Managing men and teaching them to (superficially) manage their reactions to domestic conflicts remains the central treatment aim. The study found that facilitators were similarly concerned about the ethics of such practice and acknowledged their limited skills in supporting men with complex needs but were struggling to deliver on their own values given the loosely cognitive behavioural perquisites of the BBR manual. I conclude that abusive men are expected to take responsibility for their behaviour when interventions and practitioners are not response-abled - that is sufficiently enabled to be responsive to them. The limits on practitioners' responsiveness are compounded by the lack of financial investment in them, the silos in which they worked despite the requirements of multi-agency working, and the absence of quality supervision and personal development on offer to them. This thesis highlights the limitations of positing domestic violence perpetrator programmes as the primary response to men's violence against women and underscores the need for more transformative, community-led initiatives that focus on repairing harms, as opposed to criminalising a minority of abusive men - among them those whose capacity to change is probably the most limited - without engaging with gender relations or masculinities more generally.

There has been an increased interest regarding children and domestic violence. Research has sought to highlight the effects on children, and more recently there has been growing recognition that children are not passive witnesses within these situations and are actually victim/survivors in their own right (Sixsmith et al, 2015). This study has sought to contribute to existing knowledge and unearth further insight into children's lives. This has been possible because the study has taken a distinctive approach, by channelling all of the investigation through the lens of home. There has also been additional emphasis on what constitutes resilience and agency in that context, and a concentration on the housing and welfare policy context underpinning the findings. The research was conducted using qualitative interviews. Sixteen professionals from a range of services related to the subject area participated, as well as thirteen adult survivors who had all lived with domestic violence as children. These discussions illuminated the vast discrepancy between the accepted positive facets of home and how it is conversely experienced by children living with domestic violence. Crucially the research has also highlighted that children directly experience coercive control by perpetrators. This insight has then formed a basis of challenge to what resilience looks like and how agency is interpreted. It suggests that a quiet, studious, mature child is not always 'doing alright' but is potentially being frightened and controlled, and that the agency children display may well be an act of necessity in the absence of adult responsibility or intervention. The overall analysis of the policy context has identified a trend towards increased reliance on charitable support and a reduction in choices regarding necessities such as housing and food. The research proposes that there needs to greater awareness of children's direct experiences and appreciation of their status as victim/survivors. It concludes by recognising that further research through the lens of the home will provide further insight into how children's lives are impacted by domestic violence both in the immediate and beyond.

In Victorian Glasgow, marital cruelty was understood by both the civil legal system and broader society to include emotional, psychological, verbal, economic, and physical abuses. In contrast to existing historiography, this thesis rests on the quantitative analysis of records of divorce and separation from the Scottish Court of Session, and newspaper reports of inferior criminal court cases of marital assault. Three databases were designed to manage the plethora of information contained in these records. As the Scottish history of marital breakdown differs significantly from that in England and Wales, by focusing on the Greater Glasgow region, this thesis both benefits from access to a new body of sources to explore marital cruelty and balances the geographical spread of British histories of marital cruelty. Couples from across the class spectrum have been studied together in this research. As such, this thesis has been able to interrogate the variable of class thoroughly. Furthermore, the combination of using Scottish sources and a digital humanities methodology has enabled unprecedented consideration to be paid to non-physical unreasonable behaviours in marriage. Finally, this thesis incorporates the lengthy temporal scope of the Victorian period, a time of significant change in terms of the rights of women in Britain. To explore these themes, this thesis begins by exploring the long-term solutions offered by Scotland's Court of Session - divorce and separation. It subsequently moves chronologically through the trajectory of a cruel marriage. First, there is a thorough investigation of the cruel behaviours reported in civil and criminal legal settings and what a cruel marriage looked like in its totality is considered. From there, it addresses the coping mechanisms sought and deployed by victims of marital cruelty to help them manage the cruelty they faced and prolong the marriage.

Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is a critical social, cultural and legal problem in the UK and worldwide. It is known that disabled people, both men and women, are twice as likely to experience DVA as their non-disabled peers. Since disabled people, including people with learning disabilities, may require care and support, it is likely that social work professionals working with adults will encounter people with learning disabilities who are victims of DVA. However, there is a paucity of empirical research studies in this area, leaving social workers with little to draw upon to inform their practice. Therefore, this thesis aims to explore how social workers practising with adults with learning disabilities understand and respond to DVA in their work. A qualitative research project was undertaken with 15 social workers practising with adults with learning disabilities. Semi-structured interviews, alongside vignette interviews, were utilised to gather data which was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings of the study indicate that social workers view victims with learning disabilities as vulnerable due to their individual life experiences, including how perpetrators responded to their disability. Yet the social workers in the sample did not routinely identify structural issues of oppression and how these impacted each victim's position within abusive relationships. Furthermore, the study suggests that social workers are often the professionals tasked with managing risk in cases of DVA where both the victim and perpetrator have a learning disability. The social workers questioned did not feel confident in this role. The conclusion of this study presents recommendations for social workers to improve their interventions with this service user group, suggesting that social workers should be given more support to manage these cases, including specialist training in the area of DVA to enable them to explore how issues of marginalisation impact the experiences of abuse. Finally, the study recommends that policy development should focus on developing pathways and guidance for working with vulnerable perpetrators, to assist social workers, and other professionals, to more effectively work with perpetrators who have a learning disability.

This exploratory research investigates the reasons for and perpetration of domestic violence and coercive control by women towards their long-term current or former male partners. It identifies several measurable characteristics of the alleged perpetrators, victims, their relationships, and the Judicial System's response to the cases reported. It aims to identify the key variables that play a role in abuse perpetration and the areas for further research. Non-random, consecutive samples of data were retrieved from the prosecution and court case files: of 50 cases in Warsaw and 134 in Lublin, Poland. The areas with a similar number of inhabitants were sampled. A mixed-method was applied to record the information; qualitative data were converted into categorical variables to conduct descriptive and inferential statistics: Chi2 test of association and multiple Z-tests of two proportions with Boneferroni adjustment. The samples were compared with the non-criminal population of Poland for the number of children and the structure of education. Results showed the main themes emerging: economic issues, women empowerment, alcohol, age and age difference between the partners, self-defence and defending children. Many similarities between the criminal samples from both places in the age structure of partners, number of children, patterns of age and income differences, and alcohol use during the perpetration were found, however, the differences in reporting self-defence, and education structure were present. The abuse was mostly bidirectional; a mixture of more than one kind of coercive control tactics and physical abuse; while the reasons related to the use of the family property and monetary resources. The reasons for violence use varied for the women with three and more children depending on whether they enlisted the accomplices or abused alone. The implications of the findings and areas for future research are discussed.

This research study has explored the unique experiences of a group of foreign born domestic violence victims (FBDVVs)1 as they encounter the processes and professionals of the English criminal justice system. These FBDVVs were judged as able to speak English well enough to represent themselves in court without an interpreter by the Witness Care Unit. However, when in the witness box, they faced a number of challenges such as the elevated speech style, the legal language used and the lawyers' lack of recognition of their language limitations. Semi-structured interviews with the FBDVVs and key informants such as ex-Magistrates, charity manager, domestic violence case worker, interpreter and charity volunteers, and court case observations were conducted between October 2013 and December 2016. The study used Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis and Thematic Analysis to explore in depth the FBDVV as well as criminal justice professionals' experiences. The main findings highlighted that basic rights were not explained to the FBDVVs, such as getting an interpreter, applying for special measures and arranging injunctions. The FBDVVs experiences were frightening and humiliating often as a result of the lawyers' behaviour. Lawyers regularly got impatient with the FBDVVs who needed multiple explanations whilst in the witness box. When being questioned the FDVVs were often made to feel embarrassed about their language skills and lawyers rarely assisted these vulnerable women by using clearer or simpler wording. The study concluded that there is a lack of awareness of the existing domestic violence law by criminal justice professionals. The possible measures that could be put in place to protect victims are ignored, leaving victims unprotected at each stage of the criminal justice system.

Hitherto, the empirical evidence-base has been unable to consistently and conclusively build a persuasive case for the intergenerational transmission (IGT) of family violence. Nonetheless, the hypothesis and associated metaphors, 'cycles of violence' and 'violence begets violence', are pervasive in academic, policy, and popular discourses, and inform responses to violence including psycho-educational programmes and refuge provisions. In accordance with Social Learning Theory (e.g. Bandura, 1977; 1985), as the leading explanation of 'transmission', research in the field orientates much of its attention toward the family as 'a major socializing institution' (Black et al, 2010, p.1034). Using methods that facilitate consideration of social ecologies, this present study examines how a cohort of female participants (n=9) construct their accounts of violence within multiple (3-5) generations of their families. Adopting a pluralist qualitative design, alongside in-depth semi-structured interviews (n=15), Genograms (McGoldrick et al, 2008) facilitate an orientation of the family, while Ecomaps (Bronfenbrenner 1979a; 2005) enable a view of systems of influence within and beyond the family. Discourse Analysis (Alldred & Burman, 2005) demonstrates the tensions and symmetries between accounts of violence in multiple generations and the hypothesis of IGT, and details how the hypothesis is reproduced, reformed, and resisted by participants. Analysis shows how drawing on IGT enlists victims of violence into pathologized self-talk, into claims of complicity, and into enculturation discourses which locate them in passive and docile ways. Conversely, it illuminates how participants' accounts challenge IGT, trouble associated assumptions, and demand a reconceptualisation of violence in multiple generations. Importantly, analysis illustrates the socially constructed nature of IGT; the role individual, family, community, and socio-cultural factors play in intergenerational (dis)continuities. This study demonstrates the need to consider precipitating social influences in their fullest sense and to move away from family-centric IGT frameworks in conceptualising, researching and responding to violence in multiple generations.

Many evaluation approaches do not account for temporality and complexity. This thesis is a methodological examination of evaluation techniques based on a case study, which was designed with a dual purpose: first, to evaluate a sexuality education programme with a focus on intimate partner violence (IPV) prevention in Mexico City; and second, to provide empirical data for the thesis. The case study was an evaluation with a longitudinal quasi-experimental design. Data collection methods were semi-structured in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, self-administered questionnaires, and observations of the intervention. I used thematic analysis to examine intervention effects. The methodological exploration used a qualitative observational design based on the case study, exploring questions about the utility of qualitative longitudinal and complex adaptive systems approaches in evaluation and how qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection compare. Evaluation data collected in Mexico served as raw data, and I wrote fieldnotes about the evaluation process. I used framework analysis, applied a complex systems approach, compared data collected through different methods, and identified barriers to high-quality data. In the evaluation, we found evidence that the intervention contributed to changes in beliefs, intentions, and behaviours related to gender, sexuality, and IPV. The methodological analysis showed that repeat interviews illuminated how the intervention influenced relationship trajectories and provided contextualised data about lived experiences. A complex adaptive systems approach helped us examine system-disruptive elements of the intervention. Challenges to data collection included earthquake-related delays, social complexities, the shifting nature of relationship experiences, and variability in motivation to participate in the study. A reflexive discussion of such barriers to high quality data should inform interpretation of research findings. I argue that evaluation methods should be designed to engage with unpredictability, interaction, temporality and change and should centre on building contextualised understanding of pathways to impact. Evaluations should engage stakeholders and beneficiaries to ensure relevant research questions and define what 'meaningful' evidence entails; this will facilitate utilisation of findings.

Post-traumatic growth (PTG) has been documented extensively for trauma survivors; yet research on growth after intimate partner violence (IPV) remains very limited. Survivor experiences of growth post separation and in longer term recovery are unclear. Components linked to well-being after trauma have included retaining rational beliefs, increased levels of self-compassion and engagement with the reflecting aspect of rumination. In a convergent mixed methods design, female IPV survivors (N=11) answered measures on these constructs including the post-traumatic growth inventory (PTGI) and then participated in semi-structured interviews to consider how rumination, beliefs and self-compassion may have related to any reported PTG. Measure outcomes and thematic analysis were analysed separately and then combined to better understand participant growth experiences. Moderate to high levels of growth were reported by the women across both methodologies. Post-trauma changes were paradoxical in PTGI domains of relating to others and with experiences of spirituality. There was a significant negative correlation between growth and rumination where those that reported ruminating less reported more growth. Participants described facing high levels of rumination and distress after separation where their values were altered, abandoned or strengthened. Exposure and to other survivors and new environments proved crucial in PTG development where new scripts and beliefs could be accessed. For these women in later recovery, higher levels of growth was strongly related to lower levels of continued rumination and somewhat related to higher levels of self-compassion. Rumination that continued was distressing and self-compassion was reported to be instrumental in recovery. Approaching IPV survivors in Herman's phase-based trauma recovery model that is open to the possibility of growth, and includes both systemic and feminist understandings, compassionate mindfulness and griefwork has been advocated as supporting recovery.

Despite the growing number of studies into violence against black, minority ethnic (BME) women in the UK, the literature has focused mainly on the experiences of South Asian women in the UK, and to a limited extent, African and Caribbean women. Only one study (Femi-Ajao, 2018), primarily focused on Nigerian women’s experiences of intimate partner violence and abuse. As the UK population is becoming increasingly diverse, to inform policies and intervention strategies research into violence against women needs to include other BME groups. To contribute to this knowledge gap, this study aimed to: 1. explore if, and how, cultural beliefs, norms and practices might contribute to sexual abuse and violence against Nigerian women living in the UK and, 2. examine their experiences of support. To address the aims of this study, in-depth narrative interviews were conducted with twelve women of Nigerian origin, living in the UK. The women were aged between 27 to 46 and all had experienced sexual abuse and violence. Women’s accounts were first analysed thematically then three case studies were selected for a more in-depth analysis using the listening guide method of narrative data analysis. This thesis was guided by feminist theoretical perspectives, placing gender and power at the centre of the explanatory framework to understanding of VAW. Drawing upon black feminist epistemologies, the concept of intersectionality was applied to explore the broader contextual factors that influenced women’s lived experiences of violence. The originality of this study not only lies in its findings but in the critical discussion of findings under the four domains of power relations proposed by Collins and Bilge (2016), structural, cultural, disciplinary and interpersonal. Cultural beliefs, norms and practices: Analysis revealed that structural power relations in some religious settings underlie the practice of “spiritual baths”, which is a possible risk factor for the perpetration of child sexual abuse (CSA). Rape myths resulting from the intersection of gender and power could apply across the life course and may influence Nigerian mothers’ intervention in intrafamilial CSA. The practice of bride price could diminish women’s sexual and reproductive rights in a way that justifies the perpetration of sexual abuse and violence. The accompanying practice of libation posed a barrier to some women’s ability to leave abusive relationships or even move onto other relationships after separation. Analysis further revealed that women who have undergone the practice of FGM could be more likely to experience rejections and a breakdown of intimate relationships. Barriers to help-seeking: This study found that the concept of ‘family and community betrayal’ proposed in this study are significant factors in Nigerian women’s inability to seek help for their experiences of sexual abuse and violence. It was found that Nigerian women who are claiming asylum in the UK on the grounds of sexual abuse and violence experience discrimination resulting from the intersection of gender, race, class and the structural forces within the Home Offices’ processes. Recurrent themes in women’s narratives reveal that the intersection of patriarchal gendered role socialisation and the isolation resulting from their immigration status posed a barrier to help-seeking. Support: Also, as an original contribution to knowledge, two models were proposed. First, a feminist-intersectional model for understanding how Nigerian women might experience sexual abuse and violence in the UK and second, an intersectional model for support. Overall, the findings of this research illustrate the importance of using a feminist-intersectional framework in the explanation of VAW and argue that support provisions take cognisance of the need for intervention to be holistic, flexible, long-term and easily accessible.

Intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) is a global phenomenon that impacts individuals, families and societies in a myriad of ways. Since the work of feminist activists in the 1970s bought this subject to the forefront of public and policy debate, IPVA has largely been regarded as a set of behaviours perpetrated by men against women. There has recently been growing interest in examining less traditional narratives of the topic and one such area is that of women who perpetrate IPVA. In England and Wales, there has been an increase in the number of women convicted of IPVA-related offences and more women than ever are therefore entering criminal justice settings related to this crime. When men are convicted of IPVA-related offences, typically, they can access interventions specifically designed to address these behaviours. However, there are no equivalent programmes for women. It is unclear whether women who perpetrate IPVA have the same treatment needs as male perpetrators and what interventions would benefit them. The first aim of this thesis was to identify the state of knowledge regarding the risk factors for women who perpetrate IPVA and are situated in criminal justice settings. A systematic review revealed a paucity of research conducted in the UK and identified that although some factors are associated with IPVA perpetration (experiencing child abuse, experiencing trauma, substance use, borderline personality traits and attachment issues), methodological shortcomings of the studies reviewed meant it was impossible to say if these were causal risk factors. The second aim of the thesis was to critically examine the dominant theories of IPVA perpetration in relation to both male- and female-perpetrated IPVA in order to uncover any substantive theory of female IPVA perpetration. Although the review found that no single theory could adequately explain female-perpetrated IPVA, two had potential explanatory power (Background Situational model and Contextual Framework). The findings from the reviews informed the third aim of the thesis – to explore the pathways to IPVA perpetration in both women and men through primary qualitative research. In-depth qualitative interviews with 15 women and 14 men currently in prison were undertaken. Thematic Analysis was used to characterise and compare developmental pathways, the function of IPVA and the offence process of IPVA perpetration between women and men. Results of this study suggest that there are more similarities than differences across women and men in prison who have perpetrated IPVA, with both following similar trajectories to IPVA perpetration. Women discussed the impact of their trauma experiences more than men, some displayed a different pattern of insecure attachment and although women tended to report being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder more so than men, both genders displayed trauma symptomology that has been labelled differently throughout their lives. Functions of IPVA perpetration were similar across both women and men (expression of negative emotion, revenge, actions of partners, substance use and self-defence), although women reported unique functions related to a need to take back control in their relationships, an anticipation of violence and problems with managing conflict. The developmental pathway to IPVA perpetration in women is unlikely to be explained by single factor theories. Thus, a ‘contextual maintenance’ theory of IPVA perpetration is proposed to explain IPVA perpetration in both women and men. This has incorporated the impact of trauma and mental health issues as factors that perpetuate IPVA perpetration that has been missing from previous theoretical explanations. An approach to intervention for those who perpetrate IPVA and are situated within criminal justice settings is also proposed, containing eight key components. It is suggested that the key driver in intervention development is not the gender of the person perpetrating IPVA, but individual need and risk factors.

Research with returning prisoners and their partners finds astoundingly high rates of partner violence—as much as tenfold those observed in the general population. Yet very little is known about its nature or etiology in the context of the American experiment in hyper-incarceration. The current project responds to this gap by integrating qualitative narratives with couples-based, longitudinal survey data to understand the nature and etiology of partner violence among former prisoners and their partners. It draws on data from the Multi-site Family Study on Incarceration, Parenting and Partnering to address four aims: 1. Examine patterns in the use of physical violence and controlling behavior by returning prisoners and their partners using latent class analysis and a stratified qualitative case study. 2. Investigate qualitative understandings and experiences of partner violence among returning prisoners and their partners and their perceived connection to experiences of state and structural violence through an inductive qualitative analysis. 3. Test quantitative relationships between individual criminal justice system exposure and later partner violence perpetration using structural equation modeling with couples-based survey data. 4. Examine whether and how local social and material conditions associated with mass incarceration predict partner violence perpetration by men returning from prison using structural equation modeling with couples-based survey data linked to representative data sources on local characteristics. This work reveals dense connections between government-sanctioned violence and acts of 4 violence in private homes and relationships. Applying Bronfenbrenner’s social ecological framework to synthesize results from four empirical inquiries, the study links partner violence to the state violence of criminalization and imprisonment and the structural violence of material deprivation and heightened mortality in hyper-incarcerated communities. The stories told by former prisoners and their partners reveal the coextension of violence and penal authority across carceral, domestic, and street spaces. They highlight how strategies of resistance to authority in one sphere become tools of domination in another and how heteropatriarchal social structures help to reallocate and obscure the harms of incarceration. Quantitative testing of hypotheses generated from qualitative data suggest how childhood criminal justice system exposure and cumulative criminal justice system exposure during adulthood each predict later partner violence perpetration via (distinct) behavioral health problems. Results also identify two different classes of partner violence among returning prisoners and their partners—coercive controlling violence and jealous-only situational violence—that are distinguished by accompanying patterns of controlling behavior (consistent with Johnson’s typology). While the types have different proximal precursors and different apparent consequences for victims, both are predicted by the local adversities associated with geographically concentrated incarceration. Built on the insights of partner violence survivors and survivors of mass incarceration, this work advances a new empirical and theoretical understanding of the relationship between penal authority and violence. It also reveals the workings of gender as an instrument of harm transfer in hyper-incarcerated poor communities of color. It argues that the most pervasive form of violence in America deserves focal attention in scholarly conversations about hyper-incarceration and as part of the urgent policy projects of decarceration and reparation.

The aim of the Thesis is to investigate the influence of gender of victims and offenders on police and professionals dealing with domestic violence and abuse (DVA) in Greece, and the impact that their responses have on victims. This aim was achieved by first conducting a systematic literature review assessing the quality of 26 quantitative papers on police responses. Four or more of the studies identified victim factors as; gender of victim female, cohabiting with an abusive partner, the severity of the injury, and victim under the influence of alcohol or drugs to be associated with the arrest of the perpetrator. Four or more of the studies identified offender factors as; gender of offender male, the severity of the incident, use of weapon and offender under the influence of alcohol or drugs to be also linked to arrest. Overall, it was observed that male offenders were arrested more often than female offenders. Women were more likely to be arrested if they were intoxicated and/or had used a weapon. Evidence from the review showed on average female victims represent 86.2% and male victims represent 17.3% of DVA incident reports to the police. Of these, 63.2% of male offenders and 11.5% of female offenders were arrested. Second, a 30-item questionnaire study of 358 police officers was carried out with eight major police services in Greece. Police officers indicated that female victims usually suffered from severe physical violence/ Grievous bodily harm (GBH) (42.9%) and psychological abuse (26.5%), whereas male victims were most likely to disclose minor physical injuries and verbal abuse (49.4%) and less psychological violence (9.6%). An arrest was the most common response for offenders of both female and male victims (50.6% and 59.8% respectively). Third, a similar 30-item questionnaire study of 327 professionals was carried out with five DVA support organizations in Greece. Professionals also reported female victims suffered mostly from severe physical violence/GBH (32.5% of respondents), whereas male victims were most likely to disclose to the police minor/moderate physical injuries (15%). The next stage of the research investigated the differences in female and male victim experiences after making a report to the Greek police about DVA and whether these experiences differ in the presence or absence of children. A heterosexual victim sample consisting of 75 participants was recruited from five agencies offering counselling and support for DVA victims in Greece. All participants completed a 59-item questionnaire. Comparing 58 female and 17 male victims, with nine similar demographic characteristics; there were 18 significant differences (p<0.001) and 13 trends (p<0.002 to p< 0.05) found for 31 out of 50 questions. Each indicated that more concern was shown for women than men in the police interview, use and availability of weapons, injuries and evidence, arrest, protective orders, information and advice provided, and the police crime report. Only questions related to safeguarding children and witnesses showed no differences. A comparison of questionnaires from 38 female victims with children and 20 female victims with no children determined that the influence of children in the home on police responses was small and mostly related to information, advice, and actions to safeguard the child(ren). Regardless of gender, 42.9% of victims reported that the children were abused as well, and four out of five participants claimed that their children had witnessed partner abuse. The research then investigated differences between female and male victims of DVA in relation to factors that influence whether victims stay or leave the abusive relationship (AR). Responses from 36 female and 18 male DVA victims were compared on a 74-item questionnaire. Female victims appeared more vulnerable than male victims with a significantly higher proportion of them suffering from internal inhibitors of fear, helplessness, self-blame and low self-esteem. Regarding external factors; female victims had significantly fewer financial resources and social support networks with more controlling partners than male victims. Regardless of victim gender, all victims reported that they had suffered from anxiety and depression, lying about injuries, giving up on change and excusing the abuse. The final piece of research explored two groups of adult victims: 34 who remain with their abusive partner (‘high risk’) and 20 who have left their abusive partner (‘low risk’). A logistic regression model indicated that a 9-factor checklist, with a cut-off score of 4 or more, could predict outcome in 88.9% of cases. Risk factors for staying included female gender, unemployment status, not close to parents, not close to friends, stopped seeing friends due to partner, pleased partner to avoid being hurt, physically tried to stop the abuse, belief that partner will change, feelings of staying in or returning to the abusive relationship. Overall, the research found profound differences between the experiences reported by women compared to men for police responses to the victim. Evidence is provided to support the notion that male victims in Greece are discriminated against, as they do not fulfil the gender stereotype expected by police officers. This suggests that more police training is required to ensure gender ‘neutral’ police responses when attending a domestic dispute or responding to a report of DVA.

Background: Child-to-parent violence and abuse (CPVA) is recognised as a form of domestic violence (DV). However, little is known about its prevalence, associations with other types of DV, or how caregivers cope with this behaviour. Aims: The aims of this thesis were to: 1) explore caregivers’ lived experiences and coping responses to CPVA; 2) develop a conceptual model to explain patterns of caregiver coping responses; 3) investigate the occurrence and association between lifetime incidence of CPVA and other types of DV within a UK community sample; and 4) understand family and situational characteristics which influence levels of CPVA and support accessed. Method: In order to investigate aims 1) and 2), a qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis were conducted. Studies were quality appraised using the CASP checklist, and data were extracted and inductively coded. Confidence in review findings was assessed using the GRADE-CERQual approach. Aims 3) and 4) were explored via a cross-sectional anonymous online survey of UK caregivers with a child or young person (CYP) aged six to 24 years old. Participants completed an adapted version of the Child-to-Mother Violence Scale (Edenborough, 2007) and the Composite Abuse Scale (CAS; Hegarty, 2007), a measure of previous intimate partner violence (IPV) victimisation. Before the survey was carried out, the CAS was critiqued in relation to its psychometric properties, and was employed in the current study due to its broad coverage of IPV subtypes that align with UK cross-governmental definitions of DV. Results: 1) The review identified a range of psychological and behavioural coping responses. 2) Coping responses appeared to be mediated by caregivers’ appraisals of CPVA (e.g. how they made sense of the abuse), how it impacted them emotionally and relationally (e.g. level of fear; impact on the family system), and views about the responsiveness of formal and informal support networks. 3) 412 UK caregivers (94% female) completed the online survey; 65% reported at least one lifetime incidence of CPVA, and 21% reported ongoing abuse. Strongest associations were found between history of emotional (rather than physical) IPV victimisation and lifetime experience of CPVA, whilst CYPs previously witnessing or experiencing violence did not predict levels of CPVA. 4) Female participants experiencing at least one occasional lifetime incidence of CPVA generally reported on male CYPs (60%), who were aged 7 to 9 years old when the CPVA started, and 10 to 12 years old when it was worst. CYPs being threatening to other family members (mainly siblings), and longer duration of CPVA were associated with higher levels of CPVA, whilst higher levels of CPVA and antecedents positively predicted level of support accessed. Contrary to the systematic review’s hypotheses, caregivers feeling afraid, normalising the CYP’s behaviours, and endorsing barriers to support seeking were not associated with level of support accessed. Conclusions: The systematic review is the first known synthesis of qualitative evidence concerning CPVA, and identifies testable hypotheses concerning caregiver coping responses. The thesis provides preliminary evidence on the rate of CPVA in a UK community sample, its levels of co-occurrence with IPV and sibling directed aggression, and gaps in service access and provision.

This thesis focuses on the narratives of men who experienced domestic violence and abuse (DVA) in childhood and have been on-road and gang-involved. Narrative interviews were aided by music elicitation. Connell’s (1987, 2005) approach was used to explore the changing ways the participants’ expressed multiple and diverse masculinities. This analytic focus was supported by the application of intersectionality to focus on the impact of race, ethnicity, class on gender performance. The findings illustrated how the participants went through changing constructs of masculinity through the life-course. Initially they inhabited subordinated masculinity at home when experiencing DVA, to emerging protest masculinity on-road. At the point of recovery and desistance both marginalised masculinity and complicit masculinity were identified. The key thematic areas that emerged in the narratives were; masculinity; vulnerability; violence. These threads interlinked throughout and resulted in new understanding of how they interact. Specifically, I expanded Connell’s notion of protest masculinity, to explore how it was implicated with a shadow-self of vulnerable masculinity. I propose that they are in a symbiotic relationship, always co-existing. Violence was ever-present in the participants’ lives, through victimisation of DVA in childhood, to agentic and instrumental use of violence when on-road and gang-involved. The changing relationship to violence both caused and reflected the changes in masculinities through the life-course. I used Anderson’s (1999) ‘code of the street’ to discuss the changing roles of violence from home to on-road. Ultimately this thesis contributes to wider knowledge around gender theory, gender performance, and gender-based-violence. It also adds to an understanding of the way in which children actively, and reflexively, experience domestic violence and abuse in childhood.

Domestic violence (DV) is a problem that continues to blight many victims’ lives and puzzle those agencies offering support in terms of establishing the most effective intervention strategies. Policing DV from a positive action policy framework poses complications for victims’ decision-making around reporting and retracting their complaints of abuse. The work delineated in this thesis examines victims’ decision-making behaviour through the medium of a thematic analysis of initial and retraction statements provided to Greater Manchester Police. It is the first time DV victim statements have been analysed in this manner for the purpose of gaining further insights into understanding their decision-making behaviour. A total of 240 statements, both initial and retraction statements from female victims and male abusers are included in the analysis. In analysing these documents, new insights are gained into reasons pertaining to victims’ decisions to report and leave their abusive relationships as captured in the initial statements. The main themes of the initial statements focus on decisions concerning the reporting and leaving of their abusers. More minor themes (in terms of their frequency of occurrence) highlight victims’ feelings about their abusers, how they manage their safety and the various forms of dissonance that influence and at times impede the decision-making process. The cognitive dissonance theory is used as a theoretical framework from which to understand some of the decisions captured in the data. Subsequent analyses are conducted to establish if there are any differences between the initial statements that do not result in a subsequent retraction statement and those that are retracted. Those victims who do not retract their statements show higher levels of fear, are already separated, and more of these victims are employed compared to the women who retracted their initial statements. The penultimate part of the thesis explores the motivations of victims for retracting their statements. Two main categories were found: external and internal reasons with sub-themes relating to each of the two categories. Finally, suggestions for a content-based statement taking framework are offered and implications for intervention strategies are made based on the findings.

Research shows Adolescent Intimate Partner Abuse (AIPA) is a widespread problem with potential to impact significantly upon wellbeing. This thesis aimed to further the existing body of knowledge from a psychologically orientated perspective. Section one presents a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies exploring young people’s experiences of the intersection between AIPA and new technologies. This followed the seven-step meta-ethnographic approach of Noblit and Hare (1988). Twelve eligible papers were identified that yielded three themes relating to technology as a platform for creating jealousy, and enabling the subsequent monitoring, and control of partners. Production of an overarching theme referring to technology and protection of ‘self-interests’ was enabled. Findings suggest technology represents a motivator and means for carrying out AIPA and that this occurs against a backdrop of adolescent development, including acquisition of gendered roles. Section two presents a descriptive study, employing semi-structured interviews, that set out to explore young people’s experiences of psychological wellbeing in relation to AIPA. Participants were sixteen young people, aged 13 to 17 years, who had encountered self- defined ‘difficulties’ within their relationships. Data gathered were analysed using thematic analysis, resulting in the emergence of three themes that, when viewed as a whole, suggested events surrounding abusive acts cause considerable negative emotional impact of an anxious nature, and technology is regarded as integral to how problems manifest, contributing a significant burden for mental health. Section three is an extended critique of the research paper, considering the role of personal positionality in shaping the research process and concluding that reflexivity in this area is of particular relevance to those working within caring professions and undertaking research. Taken together, the thesis offers insights relevant to practice, policy, and future research, including furthering of theory. Clinical psychologists are well positioned to implement and further these findings within their practice and wider activities.

This research investigated how battered women in a patriarchal Pakistani rural village of Sohan experienced domestic violence in their marriages. The study sought to answer a number of relevant research questions to understand women’s experiences of domestic violence. This research examined the cultural and structural factors that supported the perpetration of domestic violence in the participants’ marriages. It explored factors that shaped participants’ attitudes towards their own victimisation in their husbands’ homes. An in-depth analysis of the risk factors together with an exploration of obstacles and barriers that deterred women from leaving their abusive marriages was presented. It was found that the participants who exercised limited household decision-making autonomy at home became increasingly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation in their marriages. The findings suggested that a woman indoctrinated with subservient qualities was more likely to accept domestic violence in her marriage. It was further demonstrated that religious beliefs and societal expectations dominated the participants’ thinking about marital sex. Denying sexual access and conflict over reproductive rights were most commonly occurring risk factors in the battered women’s accounts. A woman’s financial dependency and patriarchal child custody laws emerged as the most significant deterrents to leaving an abusive marriage.

The thesis investigates family violence against women living in informal settlements in Mumbai, and its associations with mental health. Globally and in India, a third of women experience violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime, an estimate that would be higher if it accounted for other perpetrators within the family. The thesis includes qualitative and quantitative studies. The quantitative study was a survey of 482 women that investigated violence in detail, including its types, perpetrators, and timescales. Symptoms of common mental disorders were assessed with the General Health Questionnaire-12 and levels of self-esteem with the Rosenberg self-esteem questionnaire. Associations were explored through multivariable linear and ordinal logistic regression, adjusted for socio-demographic covariates. The qualitative study included semi-structured individual interviews and focus group discussions with 33 women, exploring narratives of violence, responses, coping, and resilience. Analysis took a Framework approach. The prevalence of violence was high - 44% over a lifetime - but in line with other national surveys. More women reported emotional violence than other forms. In-laws were the main perpetrators of emotional and economic violence, and husbands of physical and sexual violence. Emotional violence showed the strongest positive association with symptoms of common mental disorders and lower self-esteem. In the qualitative study, women described patterns of violence that often included the marital family as perpetrators. Responses to violence included feelings, thoughts, and behaviours ranging between active and passive. Women described a ceiling of tolerance that influenced their responses to violence and was informed by their context and previous experiences. The thesis adds to the current literature by exploring violence in detail and combining survey data with women’s narratives. It highlights the need to further investigate family violence and emotional violence, particularly in other South Asian settings where patterns of patrilocal residence and joint families are common.

Discourses specific to South Asian women's experiences of marriage tend to primarily focus on arranged marriages (Pande 2016, 2014), and especially its coupling with forced marriage (Siddiqui 2003b) and honour based violence (Siddiqui 2011). Black Feminists have highlighted how this coupling is not binary and that there exists a complexity in women's experiences across the spectrum of arranged and forced marriage (Anitha and Gill 2009, Gill and Hamed 2016) and where forced marriage is situated within the "Continuum of Violence" (Siddiqui 2013). This thesis looks beyond arranged and forced marriage by examining South Asian women's transgressions of social norms of marriage by choosing their own partners together with their experiences of intimate partner and familial violence. A qualitative research approach used Black Feminist Standpoint Epistemology employing intersectional analysis to give voice to South Asian women's experiences and an insight into the workings of gendered control at the intersections of gender, age, poverty, religion, education, citizenship and culture. The study involved detailed narrative/interviews with fifteen women who had chosen their own partners and experienced domestic violence. A thematic analysis determined key themes; women's experiences of concurrent familial and intimate partner violence; women's agency and the absence of fathers in their lives. Choosing a partner becomes the very barrier to leaving that violent relationship. In what I term the "see-saw of power", women's responses consisted of resistance and resilience to power from multiple perpetrators, in different situations. Women cited familial violence, over intimate partner violence, as the biggest site of trauma which for some women resulted in the rejection of their heritage. This all points to a spiral of survival, rather than a continuum of violence, where the women's responses of resilience and resistance to familial and intimate partner violence centres on their survival and that of their children. Black Feminist Standpoint Epistemological approach demonstrated the complexity of women's experiences of choosing their own partners and the need for more qualitative studies in this subject area.

This thesis is based on a body of published work which critically examines the major influences on the development of domestic violence perpetrator programmes in the UK. The thesis explores how a series of evolving theoretical frameworks, social policy, and organisational contexts have influenced approaches to practice with perpetrators, and how programme effectiveness has been variously determined and assessed. The origins of the papers and the linking narrative developed from a sense of professional dissatisfaction that several important themes concerning programmes and the potential for them to engage more effectively with perpetrators have frequently been overlooked or marginalised in the research literature. These themes concern the wider social contexts in which perpetrator programmes in the UK emerged, the explanations for men's violence and abuse which have variously prevailed, and the practices adopted in programmes as a consequence. They note the extent to which various protagonists including feminist activists, social policy professionals, academic researchers and probation and social work managers have often conceptualised perpetrator programmes as abstract entities. Consequently, this thesis addresses a number of important and original themes. It addresses and emphasises the importance of relationships between programme practitioner and participant, significantly acknowledging the emotional impact upon practitioners of undertaking complex work in an innovative and demanding area. It takes into account the significance of the wider social, structural and cultural circumstances in which programmes function. It also examines the neglected question of what desisting from domestic abuse might actually entail as well the rewards and challenges involved. It explores how men who have perpetrated violence and abuse might better be enabled to desist from this behaviour and live more positive lives and discusses the implications for programmes and for practice.

This thesis investigates domestic abuse in the changing socio-economic and political context of post-war Scotland. Assault on wives was a common yet under-reported crime and contemporary surveys failed to capture its true extent. Knowledge about domestic abuse comes mainly from women's aid sources dating from the 1970s. As most abused women did not contact WA services, this thesis gives voice to women who did not seek outside help over the longer post-war period and provides new insights into their reasons for this. Twenty-six oral history narratives describing domestic abuse and criminal justice and social welfare agency responses between circa 1945 and 1992 were analysed using a newlydesigned feminist theoretical framework. Continuity and change are evident in women's experiences and in agency responses. Extensive life histories reveal the resilience of patriarchal discourses and practices throughout the period with domestic abuse retaining its longstanding function of reinforcing traditional gender roles. By the 1980s, there is evidence of a shift towards public patriarchy with new legislation advancing women's social equality, improved career prospects and higher earnings. However, there is less evidence of a parallel shift away from private patriarchy as deeper, constitutive gender rules remained resistant to change. In the new socio-economic environment of the 1980s, domestic abuse retained its core function whilst evolving into new non-violent, coercive forms which extended control into women's public lives. Criminal justice and social welfare agencies remained working patriarchies, often unwilling to intervene in marital relations and hostile to abused women. This thesis highlights the close interplay of personal and contextual factors influencing women's experiences and reporting decisions and shows that domestic abuse contributed to a patriarchal equilibrium in Scotland into the 1990s. This thesis thus makes a distinctive contribution to our understanding of the reasons for the persistence and adaptability of domestic abuse in late-twentieth-century Scotland.

This thesis is a feminist critique of Scotland's investigation and prosecution of domestic abuse through the lens of tackling domestic abuse as a gendered offence. It tells two stories: Scotland's policy and legislative response to this issue and the experience of female victims who report domestic abuse to the police. The apparent sweep of progress on the public stage is juxtaposed with the private struggle of individuals who continue to face barriers to justice. Drawing on in-depth interviews with women who have experienced domestic abuse and those who support them, the data identifies a number of enduring challenges. The data from these interviews is contextualised within a 40-year perspective of Scotland's policy, legal, social and academic responses to victims of gender violence in general, and domestic abuse in particular. The web of public and private priorities is examined in a temporal analysis which highlights multiple misalignments, a complex hierarchy of timescales and identifies obstacles to effective justice. Recognising the consequences of these tensions and the traumatic impact on victims highlights the ways in which aspects of the justice response could be reconfigured to provide them with greater agency. This thesis argues that legislative change has limited potential until structural inequalities are addressed, the full implications of the public and private dimensions of domestic abuse are understood, and appropriate procedural justice is consistently delivered.

This thesis investigates young women's experiences of domestic violence and abuse within teenage heterosexual relationships and the role of education in understanding these experiences. Domestic violence and abuse has often been defined and located as an adult issue. However, there is increasing awareness that young people experience greater levels of violence and abuse in their relationships, from as young as thirteen (Barter et al 2009); with comparable deleterious effects as for older women. This research focuses on young women (all under the age of nineteen) who were at school when they experienced violence and abuse in their romantic relationships. The research utilises a theoretical framework which draws on insights from feminist post-structural approaches to gender and sexuality. It does so in order to explore the discourses available to young women with which to make sense of their experience of relationships in a context of violence and abuse. It also seeks to explore the young women's experience of education, both formal and informal; the role it played, and the role it could have played. There is a dearth of empirical research that has explored, in depth, young women's experiences of violence and abuse, and subsequently, little is known about the ways in which they understand and make sense of their experiences. This research adopted a feminist narrative approach to the interviewing in order to allow the young women participating in the research to give voice to their experiences of violence and abuse in the context of their education. The discourses the young women drew on in order to narrate and explain their experiences reflect dominant heteronormative discourses of love. Their 'stories' were supported by narratives which were infused by popular culture - these were hierarchically gendered in nature and appeared to perpetuate inequality in a way which simultaneously allowed violence and abuse to remain hidden amongst dominant 'practices of love' (Donovan & Hester, 2015). From my analysis this included experiences of pregnancy and motherhood which were weaponised and bound up with gendered power relationships and complex experiences of love. The research presented here will argue that these young women's narratives were at times incoherent, as they worked to find ways to understand their experiences in an apparently limited and confining heteronormative framework. This 'identity work' is recognised as part of their attempts to reproduce, resist and rupture discourse, and goes some way in explaining the contradictory and fragmentary nature of these stories. A particularly pertinent focus of the research was the focus on education, and the fact that these young women's experiences were explored within their broader educational context (and both in terms of informal and formal educational arrangements). This educational exploration was also important because of the means in which it has allowed for an understanding of the ways education has frustrated their understandings rather than used as a space to challenge their experiences and disrupt confining discourses, however, it also highlighted the ways in which education might be able to transform young people's experiences, understandings and their constructions of relationships.

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is estimated to affect at least 1 in 3 women, making it the most common form of violence perpetrated against women. While there is ample research studying IPV, there have been relatively few studies of patterns of risk over time and even less that have investigated the longitudinal relationship between IPV and community- or structural-level factors. Objectives: (1) Systematically summarise the longitudinal risk and protective factors for IPV against women; and, using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) in the United Kingdom, evaluate: (2) the measurement and prevalence of IPV; (3) the dynamic relationship between objective and perceived measures of neighbourhood environments, and (4) the effect of long term exposure to neighbourhood-level deprivation on the risk of experiencing IPV among women. Method: This thesis used a variety of quantitative methods, including: a systematic, meta- analytic review; psychometric analysis; trajectory analysis; and marginal structural models using inverse probability weighting. I reviewed all available prospective-longitudinal studies of at least one risk or protective factor for IPV against women. My remaining empirical work used ALSPAC data from mothers and their children enrolled from birth between 1991-1992. When enrolled children were aged 21, they responded to a novel 8-item scale of physical, psychological, and sexual IPV experiences. Additionally, 18 years of data on neighbourhood environments, including the Indices of Multiple Deprivation, and family-level characteristics were available. Results: Few prospective-longitudinal studies on IPV against women have been conducted outside the United States or that investigated any community- or structural-level risk or protective factors. Among women participating in ALSPAC for 21 years, 32% had experienced IPV between ages 18-21 alone, with variations in their exposure to neighbourhood-level deprivation over the study period - demonstrating the need for further etiological study using appropriate longitudinal methods. Accounting for time- varying socioeconomic characteristics and sample attrition, I found that long-term exposure to more versus less deprived neighbourhoods over the first 18 years of life was associated with experiencing more frequent IPV and a higher risk of experiencing any IPV in early adulthood among participating women. Conclusions: This thesis synthesised, for the first time, the longitudinal literature on the risk and protective factors for IPV against women and contributed both methodologically and substantively to a major evidence gap identified: the association between neighbourhood-level deprivation and IPV. My findings demonstrate that long-term neighbourhood disadvantages predict women's increased risk of experiencing IPV and the value of longitudinal epidemiologic methods in advancing our understanding of IPV and its potential causes.

Domestic abuse (DA) perpetrated by female partners against male partners has been a subject of dispute amongst scholars, with disagreements regarding both the existence of male victimization and the nature as well as the severity of such abuse. The current qualitative study explored the experiences of six Cypriot male victims who reported that they experienced abuse at the hands of their female partners. The research employed semi-structured interviews that facilitated the exploration of the participants' experiences of different types of abuse, the impacts of the abuse, as well as their experiences of seeking and receiving support. Given the importance of cultural understandings on issues such as gender roles, DA and victimization, the study also considered the men's cultural background and thus, also explored their experiences of being male victims of a particular culture. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) guided the analysis and illustrated that the participants' experiences of abuse had a damaging impact on their sense of masculinity and on their psychological wellbeing. All participants reflected on their feelings of embarrassment and shame that were linked to being males that were abused by their female partners, as well as their fear of being judged, mocked and perceived as 'faulty' men. In terms of culture, all the men reflected on the patriarchal views that some cultures hold on to, and argued that these views made their experiences of male victimization worse. Participants also explained that they were fearful of not being believed, which acted as a barrier to seeking support. Most importantly, several participants reported that they were re-victimized by services that are in place for domestic abuse victims. The findings of this study offer significant insights into the experience of male victimization in order to increase awareness and understanding of DA against men and enhanced support services.

Previous research has predominantly focused on physical aspects of crimes that impact the reliability and accuracy of eyewitness testimony, such as the influence of proximity and visibility. There is a lack of research examining whether combinations of individual differences impact on how witnesses interpret and recall the events of a crime. This could have potential implications for the reliability of any subsequent eyewitness testimonies that are used during criminal investigations. Previous research has identified differences in relation to variables such as gender, age, and ethnicity on eyewitness accuracy and confidence, when examined individually. Additionally, some alternative research has identified that gender can impact on punitive judgements. The current thesis explores combinations of individual differences (gender, age, personality) and their impact on eyewitness accuracy, confidence, and punitive judgements in one thesis, as these are all inherent in any eyewitness. If eyewitnesses are perceived as being overly accurate or overly inaccurate and their testimonies do not support this perception, this could have negative consequences for the Criminal Justice System as unreliable evidence may be used in court proceedings and be subject to a jury's interpretation. This thesis aimed to explore how individual differences (gender, age, personality) impacted on eyewitness accuracy, confidence, and punitive judgements of domestic violence. To explore this, 590 participants comprising of 232 male and 358 female participants aged between 18 - 70 years (M = 33.10, SD = 13.27) were shown mock video footage depicting domestic violence scenarios comprising different condition combinations of clarity and perpetrator gender. Participants were subsequently questioned about their recall, confidence, and perceptions of the footage. Substudies then examined; a) overall accuracy and how this was impacted by the different conditions, b) relationships between accuracy and eyewitness confidence across the different conditions, c) how condition, accuracy and confidence influenced punitive judgements regarding the footage, and d) how individual differences facilitated the relationships between the various measures. The findings revealed that age and personality significantly impacted the accuracy of participants; however, this was not the case for gender, clarity, and perpetrator gender. Additionally, the results demonstrated that there was a significant positive correlation between accuracy and confidence, as well as significant correlations between accuracy and confidence and factors such as age and personality. It was also indicated that participant gender, personality, clarity, and perpetrator gender impacted on participant responses to punitive judgements. The findings also showed that accuracy and confidence ratings impacted on the responses and punitive judgements. To conclude, this research examined how individual differences impacted upon accuracy, confidence, and punitive judgements, as well as looking at these components in combination with each other. This was to gain a better understanding of how witnesses of domestic violence may perceive and interpret the incident. The findings showed participants had a positive bias towards female victims of domestic violence compared with male victims in relation to punitive judgements. This research provided evidence to suggest that examining individual differences in combination with crime scene factors can allow for a better understanding of how witnesses interpret domestic violence and how individual factors and personal attributes may influence this. Therefore, from this research it is suggested that by examining the individual differences of witnesses and understanding the prejudices that may be linked to the incident witnessed, greater insight may be provided into flaws in eyewitness testimony.

Primarily understood as a manifestation of violence against women and girls (VAWG), 'honour'-based violence (HBV) is the collective term for abuse that is perpetrated against victims because they are believed to have done something to bring shame upon their family or community. With antecedents in the forced marriage policy debates of the late-1990s, HBV has been a policy concern in Britain for almost two decades. Although now recognised as a 'topical and persistent issue' (Eshareturi et al., 2014: 369), discourse on HBV is characterised by a paucity of local and national-level data, little empirical research on the subject, and confusion around its conceptual framework. Compounding this are media and policy responses, which have consistently viewed HBV as something intrinsic to South Asian and Middle-Eastern Muslim communities. Failing to acknowledge that VAWG is a universal affliction, this 'lens of cultural essentialism' (Gill, 2014a: 1) creates racial tensions and anxieties by positioning HBV as the preserve of the 'other'. Whilst it is clear that all these issues present potential problems for service provision, very few studies have examined empirically what this means for practice. In seeking to strengthen knowledge in this area, the current research is an exploratory study into how professionals working in roles connected with domestic violence and abuse describe, explain, and respond to HBV. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 21 participants (11 third-sector employees, eight representatives from local authorities, one family lawyer and one former police officer), this research moves existing discussion beyond the conceptual realm to illuminate the everyday challenges and complexities that come with working in an area defined by contention and uncertainty. This thesis makes a number of recommendations for theory, policy and practice. It calls for more dynamic interpretations of HBV, which move beyond the patriarchy/culture discourses omnipresent in current literature to recognise how honour intersects with ideas of power and hierarchy. In terms of policy, the thesis argues that HBV cannot be effectively addressed within a framework of domestic violence and abuse. To this end, the thesis suggests that HBV needs to be reconceptualised as an overlapping, though separate, form of abuse. This way, the specific characteristics that make HBV complex, such as collective perpetration, can be made clear, instead of being obscured by a framework that is, in practice, designed to address abuse within the dyad. To help counter the harmful racialised stereotypes of HBV, this thesis recommends regular, rigorous and mandatory training for practitioners, particularly those working on the frontline. The thesis also advocates for a more holistic response to HBV, a key part of which involves working with families and communities to challenge not only the offending behaviour, but the norms and ideals that uphold and reproduce this.

This thesis explores the relationships between socio-economic change and violences against women (VsAW) in postwar rural Guatemala, and how this violence is understood, experienced and resisted by women living in the Northern Transversal Strip (FTN) region. Research was conducted utilizing a feminist qualitative methodological approach, drawing on ten months of fieldwork, including semistructured interviews with predominantly indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ women community leaders and social and legal service providers, as well as participant observation in community development and women’s forums. Empirically, the project highlights aspects of continuity and change in a post-conflict context, linking VsAW not only to the historical and social context in which it occurs, but also to rural life and postwar development. In the context of postwar economic transformation, violent crime remains problematic. Research has drawn attention to high reports of VsAW, yet tends to concentrate on urban spaces; little attention afforded to how such violence manifests in rural communities, where many of the shocks of the postwar development model are most acutely felt. In aiming to address this empirical lacuna, this study asks, how can we understand VsAW in rural Guatemala in contemporary times? To what extent are VsAW a legacy of the past, and to what extent are they linked to contemporary political economic change? How does this shape resistance? The research, informed by feminist historical materialist, decolonial and feminist geographical literature, found that VsAW was framed in relation to the political economic, social and environmental impacts of development in rural communities and coloniality, particularly in relation to the palm-oil sector. Theoretically, the project illustrates how shifting from a “continuum of violence” to a matrix approach can illustrate the interrelated social, political and economic dynamics that shape not only the ways in which VAWF occurs, but also how it is resisted by women community leaders.

The high profile Troubled Families Programme introduced in 2010 by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government combines social policy and criminal justice concerns about families who are both 'troubled' and 'troublesome'. It advocates the provision of intensive family interventions by a dedicated keyworker, a model developed by New Labour as part of their wider assault on anti-social behaviour. Critical academics have raised concerns about intensive family intervention strategies as being oppressive, discriminatory and stigmatising, widening the net of social control and further penalising vulnerable groups. Yet contrary evidence from service evaluations suggests that this approach offers a more effective model in supporting excluded families, which families appreciate. This thesis therefore explores the practice of family intervention services, families' experiences of the problems they face and the impact of the support they receive. It draws upon interview data generated within a commissioned evaluation of Families Working Together, Lincolnshire County Council's service for delivery of the Troubled Families Programme. Interviews were conducted with all 14 key workers and their two line managers, and with individuals from 12 of the families supported by the service. Follow up interviews were conducted with the 10 key workers, one line manager and nine families who were available when contacted. Following a process of inductive coding and analysis for the service evaluation, initial themes emerged about the importance of care and relationships. It is argued that an intersectional ethics of care perspective provides a valuable conceptual, methodological and epistemological framework for evaluating the policies and practices of family intervention services. Care ethicists have articulated the core values by which we can judge the adequacy and integrity of 'care' and these are applied here as a strategy for evaluating 'troubled families' interventions. By integrating an explicitly intersectional perspective within care ethics, which builds upon its political, feminist orientations, the uneven distribution of access to social relations of care is highlighted. The reconceptualisation of 'troubled' families as families experiencing a matrix of multiple intersecting social relations of disadvantage and exclusion reveals the unique experience of each family, which is emotional traumatic and renders change difficult. Integrating care ethics into family support necessitates attentiveness to the complexity of families' needs, and the provision of advocacy services and material resources to mitigate the impact of intersecting disadvantages. Families who experience family interventions delivered within the principles of care are more receptive to the support provided whilst care-less interventions seem to entrench rather than address their needs. Underlying neoliberal tendencies in the Troubled Families Programme and threaten the care-full relationships and contextualised responses to family problems underpinning best practice in family interventions. Care ethics must therefore also inform policy agendas in order to generate social justice for disadvantaged families.

Adolescence is a period of development when young people begin to prepare for transition from childhood into adulthood creating an increased focus on future potential and aspirations. A systematic review of the international literature was conducted, exploring the relationship between adolescent outcomes and two key areas of future perception studies, future orientation and possible selves. 18 articles were identified and subsequently organised by grouping in relation to school, home and personal factors. Research was conducted cross-culturally and often focussed on at-risk populations related to ethnicity, however only two studies extended to the UK population. A number of quantitative studies suggest a relationship exists between adolescent future orientation and a variety of positive outcomes, as well as acting as a protective factor against negative outcomes, e.g. risk-taking behaviours. Participants’ perspectives were rarely explored through qualitative research, with only two papers included. Limitations include methodological design, leading to calls for more robust research in this area. The empirical paper (Chapter 2) adopted a qualitative design and explored the future perceptions of children of imprisoned parents. This population have been referred to as ‘silent victims’ in the literature and are suggested to be at risk of multiple negative outcomes, including disruption to relationships, stigmatisation and increased risk of engaging in socially undesirable behaviours. The current study gathered the future perspectives of children of imprisoned parents, as well as their resilience factors including sources of strength and support from their past and present experiences. Five participants, aged 9-12 years were interviewed using semi-structured interviews and a ‘life path’ drawing activity. Deductive thematic analysis identified six overall themes: experience of having a parent in prison, social support, individual coping strategies, beliefs about the future, strategies to reach future goals and potential barriers to reaching future goals. Implications for practice were discussed in light of the heterogeneous nature of the findings and concluded that professionals should consider a bespoke approach to intervention, ensuring children are kept at the forefront of decision-making. Calls for future research included further qualitative studies to explore how children of imprisoned parents construct their own identities, which could be triangulated with data such as the voice of siblings and wider family members.

Despite the criminal nature of intimate partner violence, scholars infrequently apply general theories of crime to understanding its causes (Dixon, Archer, & Graham-Kevan, 2012). Indeed, some scholars reject the notion that the causes of intimate partner violence align with the causes of general crime and violence (Dobash, Dobash, Wilson, & Daly, 1992). A second area of contention is whether male and female violence can be explained within the same theoretical framework (Dutton & Nicholls, 2005). In this thesis I argue that as a type of criminal behaviour, understanding the causes of intimate partner violence from a criminological perspective is a valid and necessary research endeavour. Further, guided by the principles of the theoretical framework of this thesis, I submit that both male and female intimate partner violence can be explained within the same general theory of crime. This thesis applies situational action theory, a general theory of crime that places morality at the centre of its explanatory framework, to the understanding and explanation of intimate partner violence. This thesis concentrates on the roles of personal morality and provocation in intimate partner violence perpetration. Partner conflict is defined as the experience of provocation, while friction sensitivity and low partner cohesion are included as key factors leading to partner conflict. Specifically, this thesis examines whether the strength of personal morality influences whether individuals respond to provocation with violence against a partner. To address the aims of the research, this thesis uses data from the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study, a study designed to test situational action theory. Participants are a representative sample of males and females between 24 and 25 years of age. Path analyses using a multiple-group method revealed that high friction sensitivity and low partner cohesion contributed to increased partner violence perpetration by influencing the level of partner conflict. Morality had a significant moderating effect on the path between partner conflict and partner violence perpetration. Namely, individuals with weak morality, and who frequently engaged in partner conflict, were significantly more likely to perpetrate acts of partner violence than individuals with strong morality who engaged in frequent conflict with a partner. These findings were replicated across males and females. The findings of this research illustrate the importance of morality in the explanation of partner violence, and provide evidence that both male and female partner violence can be explained within the framework of situational action theory.

While there is extensive research on adult conceptualisations of mental illness, as well as on children’s understanding of physical health and illness, research on children’s conceptualisations of mental illness is limited. The primary aim of this thesis is to provide a detailed account of children’s and adolescents’ conceptualisations of depression. In the first study, individual semi-structured interviews with primary school pupils (N=105) from two age groups (mean ages: 8.9 and 11.8 years) were conducted, with the use of depression and control vignettes, to elicit children’s depression concepts, help-seeking intentions and desired social distance. Children’s depression conceptualisations were organised according to the common-sense model of illness representations (CSM). Quantitative content analysis was performed to allow for descriptive analysis; in turn, inferential statistics were used to examine age, gender and self-reported direct and indirect experience differences. Children differentiated between depression and control vignettes, however did not spontaneously label depression or recognised the mental health nature of difficulties. Children provided a wide variety of possible causes that reflected common risk factors for depression, primarily referring to interpersonal factors. Children considered negative consequences of untreated depression, and identified that depressed characters need help. They suggested numerous sources of help, which were mainly informal. Children considered depression to be curable and would seek help primarily from parents if depressed. Older children showed more sophisticated conceptualisations of depression. No substantial gender or experience differences were found. Subsequently, a single session school-based mental health literacy intervention on adolescent depression, adapted from an intervention created by NHS mental health professionals, was developed, using the mental health literacy and CSM frameworks. The second study consists of a pilot evaluation of the intervention, using a controlled before and after design, to examine the effect of the intervention on young people’s depression literacy, help-seeking and help-providing intentions as well as social distance. Young people’s depression literacy was measured by the Adolescent Concepts of Depression Questionnaire (ACDQ), developed for the purposes of this study. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to indicate the factor structure of the ACDQ, which was in turn used to examine participants’ baseline depression literacy and the effect of age, gender, current depressive symptomatology and direct/ indirect experience with depression and other mental illness (Study 2a). In turn, the effectiveness of the intervention is presented (Study 2b). 339 adolescents (mean age: 13.4 years, 168 female) were allocated to either the intervention (N=171) or a control group (N=168), and completed the ACDQ one week before and following the intervention. Mixed results were found for gender, depressive symptoms and experience differences. Mixed ANOVA was conducted between time and group; the results show that the intervention was effective in informing young people’s depression literacy (ACDQ total score), and specifically in young people’s knowledge of treatment options for depression (treatment subscale), perceived curability of depression (curability subscale), symptom recognition, help-seeking and help-providing intentions. No significant improvements were found for social distance, perceived helpfulness of sources of help, and two of the ACDQ subscales. The contribution of this thesis lies upon the detailed examination of children and adolescent depression conceptualisations, adding to the limited evidence base, especially in children’s mental health literacy. The pilot evaluation of the intervention is promising, and upon re-evaluation could be standardised and implemented in Scottish schools. Implications for clinical practice and mental health literacy are also discussed.

Family Group Conferencing (FGC) is a family led decision-making approach where practical plans are made by the family to keep children safe and improve their quality of life. FGC has attracted worldwide interest from policymakers, researchers and practitioners for its potential to: involve families in the decision-making process in child and families social work; keeping children safe within a culture of co-operation between the state and families. There is significant empirical research about the impact of the FGC process on families, and its immediate outcomes but less is known about outcomes in the longer-term. This thesis reports on the findings of a retrospective qualitative study, which sought to understand the contribution FGC makes to longer-term outcomes for looked after children at risk of being accommodated, and their families. Eleven FGC examples were studied across five local government areas in Scotland. Each example includes the perspective of different stakeholders in the process including: looked after children, their parents and extended family (n=32), and professionals (n=28) involved with them. Criteria for case selection included: the child and family had originally been referred to FGC service because the family social worker considered the child was at risk of being accommodated; the stages of FGC had been achieved and a family meeting had taken place at least one year prior to the data being collected; the age of the child who was the focus of the meeting was over eight years old wherever possible; and the core family members were prepared to be involved in the study. Individual, joint or group interviews were conducted to provide multidimensional perspectives of the FGC phenomena. FGC service documents (n=94) were also analysed, providing data of social activity that occurred prior to the study. This study challenges current outcome focused paradigms, arguing for a more complex and nuanced understanding of outcomes in child welfare, where the child and family, alongside professionals, are valued in the identification and measurement of outcomes. Evidence from this study highlights the need to accept two sets of outcomes when considering FGC contribution: personal and professional. The identification of outcomes in this manner supports three interconnected issues argued throughout the thesis in relation to contribution. Firstly, process matters to the service user and his/her experience of the service and opinion of outcomes. Secondly, what professionals do and how they do it is important to the outcomes of families requiring support - relationships and practice are therefore central concerns in understanding how and why families achieve (or not) longer-term outcomes. Finally, who defines outcomes and to what purpose is significant when conceptualising outcomes. The study draws on empowerment, recognition and partnership theories to better understand FGCs contribution to longer-term outcomes for children and families. The study found the FGC process contributed towards building service users' capacities to reflect on their own and acknowledge others' experiences and situations. Feelings of increased confidence, self-respect and self-esteem, derived from the FGC process, contributed towards improved social relations and a sense of control over their own lives. This increased capacity can support family members to manage future crises and conflict if they arise. FGC offers professional and service users an opportunity to reframe unhelpful attitudes towards each other. In the longer term this can contribute towards families reduced need for social work services and/or improved working relationships between social work and families. This study has significance for all professionals working with looked after children and their families; contributes to the theoretical knowledge applied in social work practice; and is applicable when considering the implementation and impact of child welfare policy in Scotland and internationally.

Aims: To explore: (i) how young people make sense of relationships, (ii) the arguments young people draw upon to make sense of healthy and unhealthy relationships, (iii) what characteristics young people use to identify intimate partner violence, and (iv) the significance of gender and sexual orientation to this sense making. Method. Following ethical approval, age- and gender-stratified focus groups were conducted with 53 young people (aged 15-24; 26 females and 27 males) in Northern England. Four researcher-generated vignettes, suggestive but not conclusive of IPV, were used to facilitate focus group discussions. Each vignette described identical behaviour but the gender and sexual orientation of the protagonists was changed (i.e. Heterosexual Female target, Heterosexual Male target, Lesbian Female target, Gay Male target). Discussions were transcribed and analysed using Discursive Psychology (Wetherell & Edley, 1997; 1999). Findings. Young people drew on three implicit 'social contracts' to make sense of relationships: (1) Love and Happiness, (2) Trust and Fidelity, and (3) Duty and Obligation. These social contracts referred to constellations of assumed common-sense, non-articulated agreements about how relationships 'work'. This thesis outlines these social contracts, what they tell us about young people's sense making of IPV and explores how social contracts were modified and caveated by characteristics such as gender and sexual orientation of the vignette protagonist. Implications. Findings highlight four main topics to consider for Relationship and Sex Education going forward: (1) tensions in sense making of IPV and relationships between a dominant Heteronormative Frame and universal, genderless constructions; (2) need for broader portrayals of victims and perpetrators beyond the traditional victim-perpetrator framework; (3) considerations of consent and rights to privacy in young people's digital lives; and (4) avenues for drawing on the Duty and Obligation contract in relation to adult/professional support of young people experiencing serious IPV, and/or IPV in same-sex relationships.

Domestic violence, as we know from existing literature, is an ancient and global phenomenon (United Nations Report, 1970-90, 1991; World Health Organisation, 2005; Kaur & Garg, 2008). However, in Saudi Arabia, the problem of domestic violence only came under the spotlight about a decade ago, after a famous TV presenter, publicly came forward when her husband brutally abused her (Vallis, 2004). At the time, she was considered quite the rebel as she broke the socio-cultural taboo of Saudi women suffering violence in silence. What followed was a storm of discussion and debate about domestic violence against women in Saudi Arabia, and in its wake, domestic violence finally found its way in Saudi vocabulary. However, despite the increasing awareness, there is still a limited and insufficient studies on domestic violence in Saudi Arabia (Fikree and Bhatti 1999; Haj-Yahia 2002; Yount 2005; Al-Atrushi et al 2013). Consequently, this research seeks to shed light on how educated Saudi women view domestic violence in Saudi Arabia as a socio-cultural problem, which is characterized by a unique family culture, informed by distinctive traditions of gender differentiation and corresponding gendered power structures, including the practice of male guardianship, both in the public and private spheres. To explore this problem in depth, thirty well-educated Saudi women were asked to participate in a qualitative study that employed phenomenology to ascertain their thoughts and feelings on domestic violence. To collect this data, the semi-structured interview method was determined to the most effective for coding and thematising data, thus allowing for both inductive and deductive analysis, and providing scope to focus on interpretations and its links between social contexts. This study illuminates some of the ways that Saudi culture, which is strict, conservative and orthodox, is influenced by the misuse of religion, family socialisation practices, patriarchy and societal attitudes to contribute to a fairly unique experience and phenomenon of domestic violence. Saudi society actively encourages traditional gender roles, resulting in inequality between men and women. Consequently, Saudi women are deprived of their rights through citizenship, especially by the practice of male guardianship, which leaves them confined to the private sphere, without autonomy and dependent on males, thus giving men unlimited space to commit acts of domestic violence against women whilst women are confined to spaces and have limited avenues to vocalize their suffering. The study also draws attention to the positive steps that the Saudi government has taken within the last ten years to give women more autonomy, who would then be able to free themselves from domestic violence. The empowerment of Saudi women has been a gradual and systematic process, including increased academic and professional opportunities and involvement in the decision-making process on a state level. Moreover, Saudi women are now actively fighting for their rights, especially the right to be a full citizen without dependency on the male. The findings in this research have the potential to bring further positive changes to the status of women in Saudi Arabia. Firstly, it establishes the need for continued and further in-depth investigation of domestic violence in Saudi Arabia. Secondly, it can help inform and guide the activists and campaigners for women's rights and equality in Saudi Arabia. Lastly, it can aid policy- and decision-makers to develop effective strategies to address domestic violence.

This is a qualitative study exploring the needs of women when residing in a refuge. In the context of the United Kingdom, women's refuges are a specialist provision that provide temporary accommodation for women escaping domestic violence and abuse (DVA). Recent literature that looks at the needs of women who reside in refuges is limited. However, considering these needs is important at a time when austerity measures have resulted in funding cuts to the DVA sector, which have had a direct impact on refuge service provision. This study contributes to the literature on women's refuge services, as they are the most likely specialist DVA service to be accessed, and are consequently in high demand. In this study, 35 participants took part in total. Within two research phases 32 residents across 6 refuges and 3 focus groups answered the first research question: What are the self-articulated needs of women in a refuge? Within the first phase a thematic analysis of the data from the first two focus groups identified six key themes: Accessing a refuge, Loss, To feel safe, Support, To move on, and To feel valued. Within the second research phase, a further focus group was conducted, the analysis of which is presented without decontextualising the content into themes, as it was felt to be important to represent the narrative structure of the documented accounts. The analysis of the material is presented by providing summaries demonstrating examples of the physical and emotional journeys that three women took to get to a refuge, and their subsequent needs upon arrival. In the third phase of the study, three semi-structured interviews were conducted with refuge staff members to answer the second research question: What do workers in a refuge setting perceive to be the needs of the residents? Thematic analysis of each interview identified 11 main themes, of which two themes per staff member were discussed. The final phase of the analysis process involved comparing and contrasting the salient findings that appeared similar or dissimilar across the data. Key emerging issues related to research question one identified the unexpected outcome addressing the needs of children and the helplessness felt by the mothers. Other issues discussed were the emotional challenges that accessing a refuge brought in terms of preparation, isolation, and location along with the importance of relational support in service delivery. In relation to research question two, key issues highlighted include the engagement of residents in support interventions and the impact that financial cuts have had on refuges. From a counselling psychology perspective, implications are identified for research and professional practice across a range of roles, from refuge personnel and funding commissioners to services that work alongside refuges, such as housing associations, local governments, and mental health professionals.

Based on 13 months of fieldwork in households, communities, police stations, courts and the prison in Freetown, this thesis extends the classic model of gender complementarity by demonstrating how competing gender ideologies of household, community and state impact on partnerships in urban Sierra Leone that are interlaced with friction and violence. I utilise the metaphor of 'teeth and tongue', to show how love and violence can be coconstitutive. Within various relationship forms, violence is perceived as part of a functional partnership, however, carefully differentiated according to a moral economy of relationships. Legitimated or 'acceptable' violence is constitutive of affection and love, whereas transgressive or 'unacceptable' violence is reported to household, community or the police. The thesis argues that to households and communities, violence constitutes a relationship between people which must be cooperatively mediated to maintain social bonds. For state institutions, violence is an act executed by individuals. Here, punishment and imprisonment ruptures relationships and dissolves social bonds. The thesis is set against the post-conflict and post-TRC watershed where laws were passed to rebuild the state, and to prevent rape, teenage pregnancy and domestic violence. It shows that these laws were inspired by human rights and development discourses but led to the criminalising of young people's sexual behaviour. By raising the age for sexual consent from 14 to 18, boys now receive prison sentences of up to 15 years for sleeping with underage girlfriends. The thesis explores how rigid laws rub against contingent social categories and how the criminalisation of sexual relationships clashes with normalisations of violence in speech, acts and relationships. It uncovers that these tensions are based upon different ideals of gender relations and gendered perceptions of violence. The thesis thus offers an ethnographic critique of concepts like love and violence that are often used by academics in ways that fail to capture the vernacular resonances and connotations of the terms in West African popular culture and social life. Based on the framework of competing gender ideologies, the thesis fosters new understandings of the anthropology of violence, love and law.

This research study aims to explore how the intimate partner domestic abuser (IPDA) is constructed through available discourses by different professionals working within contemporary western society. In addition to this, it aims to explore how different constructions of the IPDA, by these professionals, influence the criminal, legal and therapeutic interventions that are utilised by them. A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis was conducted on a sample of six interview transcripts of different professionals working with IPDAs. The professionals that took part within this study included: a forensic psychologist, a police officer, a criminal law solicitor, a social worker, a family law QC and a domestic abuse programme facilitator. The analysis generated three major discursive themes in relation to the object of the IPDA. These included: Power, control and criminality, psychological vulnerabilities (internal and external) and the volatile relationship. Professionals struggled within available discourses, particularly when utilising criminal/ legal and psychological discourses to construct the IPDA. Professionals often adopted criminal/legal discourses to explain the use of interventions that focused on safeguarding and containment. By positioning the IPDA as ‘bad’ they were seen to have choice and responsibility for their actions, meaning they could be held accountable for them. However, professionals would often utilise a psychological discourse when introducing therapeutic interventions. Within this construction, the IPDA was positioned as ‘unknowing’ and ‘vulnerable’, which meant they could be seen as lacking control over their behaviours. The behaviours were often seen as separate to the core person and the use of more compassionate and less punitive interventions was described. Ideas for future research and developments within Counselling Psychology are discussed. These include more focus on social and contextual factors when working with IPDAs’ and developing a greater awareness of how language can impact individual’s experiences. Domestic abuse is a complex phenomenon which presents a unique challenge to professionals working in a variety of different settings, including health and wellbeing as well as legal and criminal agencies. It is a phenomenon that is prevalent throughout society and is not limited to one class, gender, sexuality or culture. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported in 2017 that an estimated 1.9 million adults aged between 16 and 59, living in England, had experienced domestic abuse between March 2016 and March 2017. Over this period, the police recorded 1.1 million domestic abuse related incidents and crimes, and found that domestic abuse and violence accounted for 32% of violent crimes reported to the police in the UK. However, the ONS estimated that 79% of victims of domestic abuse will not report the abuse to the police. It is also estimated that 1.2 million victims of domestic abuse are women whilst 713,000 are men, and the most common form of domestic abuse is that of partner abuse. Furthermore, 16 to 19 year olds were found to be the age group that were most likely to say that they had experienced domestic abuse. The ONS (2017) also found that 63% of people who access support from independent domestic violence advisors (IDVAs) had children living in their households at the time they were receiving the support. With domestic abuse permeating all areas of society the costs to the UK economy is substantial. Walby (2004) conducted an analysis to determine estimates of the overall costs to the UK as a result of domestic abuse and violence. She estimated that in total the UK spends £22.869 billion a year on services relating to the management, prevention and rehabilitation of those impacted by or perpetrating domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is estimated to cost the criminal justice system £1.017 billion, with £0.49 billion being spent by the police. It is estimated to cost £1.396 billion in relation to health care, with £1.22 billion being spent on treating physical injuries and £0.176 billion being spent on mental health related injuries. Furthermore, social services spent £0.228 billion in the year 2001, emergency housing for victims is estimated to cost £0.158 billion and civil legal costs amount to £0. 312 billion a year. The economic output lost to domestic abuse is estimated at £2.67 billion. This study adopts a social constructionist framework and has a particular interest in exploring how language is used to construct the intimate partner domestic abuser (IPDA) by professionals in contemporary western society. Throughout this research, I have chosen to identify the abusive party as an IPDA rather than make use of the more commonly used ‘perpetrator’. Given the nature of the research methodology, Foucauldian discourse analysis, I wanted to ensure that I made use of a term that was as neutral as possible. Although I acknowledge that it is very difficult, near impossible, to create neutral terminology, I felt that the use of IPDA abated many of the underlying inferences and connotations that come with the term ‘perpetrator’. For example, ‘perpetrator’ can be associated with criminality and criminality is often constructed as a male attribute. This awareness of bias within language is particularly relevant to Counselling Psychologists as we are often based in the community and are responsible for supporting both recipients and abusers with their mental wellbeing. These constructions have far reaching implications for our research and practice, and the therapeutic alliance that we form with IPDAs as well as recipients of abuse. This chapter will begin by exploring definitions of domestic abuse and violence and how it is understood within the current literature. It will then look at how the IPDA is understood in the current literature and will briefly look at cultural and historical understandings of domestic abuse and violence and the implications that these understandings have for policy and politics. Current interventions for IPDAs will then be reviewed and the theories behind each intervention will be discussed. Finally, this chapter will conduct a review of the empirical literature in this area and will present the current aims for this research study.

Background and aims: Intimate partner violence (IPV) has emerged as a serious public health issue that demands global action. While practitioners and researchers in the violence field have long argued that gender-related norms are fundamentally linked to IPV, there is little theoretical understanding of exactly how norms affect violence in practice. Moreover, while norms are central to feminist accounts of violence, there has been little effort to apply social norms theory to the realities of partner violence. This thesis aims to address these gaps by investigating empirically how social norms affect partner violence, using Tanzania as a case study. Methods: In particular, this study employs a qualitative methodology and uses two sources of data – focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews – to generate data on how local people in an urban community in Mwanza, Tanzania describe norms linked to IPV. While the interview guides are structured to probe elements of social norm theory, the questions are open-­‐ended to encourage participants to speak to their own understandings of IPV. Similarly, whereas the study primarily uses social norms theory to interpret its findings, it draws on other bodies of social science theory, such as gender theory, to fully account for how norms perpetuate IPV, as revealed by the data. Findings and conclusion: The study concludes that whereas traditional norms theory offers insights useful for identifying normative influence, it is inadequate for understanding the role of gender norms in catalysing and sustaining IPV. To fill this gap, the study unites disparate bodies of scholarship into a coherent framework for articulating how gender norms affect IPV in low-­‐income countries contextually similar to Tanzania. Because such a framework is embedded in empirical realities, it also has utility for donors and programmers wishing to employ it to design and evaluate programmes aimed at transforming gender discriminatory norms that sustain IPV in similar settings.

Evidence suggests that for some families home visiting support can be effective for enabling parents in adverse situations to cope with their emotional well-being and other issues. However the circumstances in which home visiting is effective are less well understood. The administrative data from one home visiting organisation, Home-Start, was analysed to identify how the nature of support, adverse family situations and the interrelationship between them were related to changes in parental emotional well-being. The effects of adverse situations were explored by looking at individual risk factors, multiple risks, levels of need and life events that occur during support. Variables describing the average rate at which parental emotional well-being improves over the course of support were developed. Multiple linear regression models were then used to explore the relationships between the nature of support and the family's situation and that rate of improvement. Several aspects of the way support was provided were related to faster improvements; including more frequent visits, and support being provided by paid workers. Longer individual visits were associated with families improving more slowly. These different aspects of support affected families in different adverse situations differently. Paid worker support was particularly related to faster improvements in families with domestic abuse, disabled parents and multiple risks. However volunteer support seemed just as effective for families with disabled children and large families. Overall the family's situation was only very weakly associated with the rate at which emotional well-being improved. Though effects were small, families with more malleable risks were more likely to improve more quickly: Domestic abuse was associated with faster improvements whereas large family sizes, disabled parents and parental mental health problems were associated with slower improvements. Bereavements occurring during the course of support also slow down the rate of improvement.

Both women and men suffer from domestic violence around the world. While domestic violence against women has received considerable research attention, domestic violence against men has been under-studied, especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The limited data available from the National Family Safety Registry of Saudi Arabia and the National Society for Human Rights suggest that female perpetrated domestic violence has been increasing in Saudi Arabia. Existing studies further indicate that the Saudi women, especially those with higher levels of education, are becoming increasingly frustrated with the prevalence of the guardianship system in Saudi Arabia. This research therefore aims to understand the reasons for why women commit violence against men in Saudi Arabia and to study the role of patriarchy (guardianship, polygamy) and female emancipation (for education and employment) in the rise of the female-perpetrated domestic violence in Saudi Arabia. In so doing, the dissertation also examines the explanatory value of the existing theoretical accounts (liberation and self-defence theories). The dissertation employs a qualitative research method, using the data obtained through the semi-structured interviews conducted at the Riyadh Prison for Women (Saudi Arabia) with 30 women who were incarcerated for committing violence against their guardians. A thematic analysis is used to analyse the obtained data. It is shown that participants in this study committed their offence due to a number of reasons such as frustrations with living under the guardian system, prevention from education and employment, abuse and mistreatment, and self-defence. Furthermore, the study find that liberation theory can be used to explain some aspects of participant's use of violence, however, the term 'liberation' itself needs to be understood differently in the Saudi context.

Gender-based violence (GBV) against women and girls is pervasive in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana, where one in three females has experienced violence of some kind. This gendered violence stems from multiple factors across the individual, relational, community and societal levels and are associated with many negative health consequences and developmental issues for women and girls. It is suggested that strategic development communication can serve as a tool to empower groups and individuals, and provide alternatives to cultural norms and practices that promulgate gender unequal power relationships. However, lack of gender perspectives poses challenges to the implementation of effective communication strategies and programme activities. This study examines the role of development communication in addressing GBV against women and girls in Northern Ghana through the operations of three case study non-governmental organisations, and a , review of certain print and broadcast media and government activities. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods and a multiple case study approach to achieve its objectives. Data was gathered using focus group discussions, key informant interviews, communication mapping and diagramming techniques, questionnaires, direct observation and document review. The study found evidence of the usage of communication strategies including both media and social oriented methods and tools by the three NGOs in addressing GBV in northern Ghana. However, most communication activities ignored the important role of social change in facilitating community action against GBV. Raising awareness about GBV alone is not enough to tackle the root causes and gender unequal power relationships underpinning GBV against women and girls at multiple levels. Moreover, these communication interventions by NGOs were ad hoc, unsustainable and heavily reliant on the availability of funding thereby limiting a long-term approach and reducing the effectiveness of GBV interventions in Northern Ghana. Policies must be reviewed and implemented to address gender and communication in the fight against GBV and gender inequality in Ghana. Communication strategies must challenge the trend to trivialise gender reportage in the media; with a focus on influencing the general public towards non-acceptance of gender norms practices which perpetuate GBV against women, yet are firmly entrenched in cultural and religious dogmas. In summary, modes of communication and messages must be targeted to the appropriate audience, e.g. radio or community meetings for rural women who need to better understand their human rights, socio-economic empowerment and where to seek redress when abused.

This qualitative study aimed to examine and critically explore women’s accounts as to how their abusive partner’s interest in sport (team combat sports in particular) impacted on the domestic violence and abuse they endured. The study was underpinned by feminist standpoint epistemology and Lacanian theory. Values aligning with feminist standpoint epistemology, such as the nature and balance of power, were central to this research which had at its core the voices of marginalised women. At the stages of analysis and discussion the Lacanian model of the Real, the Symbolic and the Imaginary were used to explore the women’s accounts. This model has afforded new insights into this culturally sensitive topic by removing the focus from the women who sustained abuse to the nature of the abuse they endured. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with nine women who were accessing women’s support services. The women spoke of the abuse they had endured during the course of a heterosexual, intimate relationship. Thematic analysis provided new perspectives regarding the interplay between sport fanaticism and domestic violence and abuse. This thesis extends existing research which has sought to interrogate the association between domestic violence and sporting events (mainly team combat sports). The significance of this study is that it confers deeper, richer understandings regarding the nature of domestic violence and abuse. It reveals how the perpetrators of abuse use violence and/or coercive and controlling behaviours around their sporting interests as a means of asserting power and subjugating their partners. The study is important in that it discloses how the perpetrators perceived some sports, especially football, as preserve which promoted male supremacy. It suggests avenues for further research and reflects upon the cultural significance of sport and team combat sport in particular. The study concludes by suggesting two key points which emerge from this study which underscore the pernicious, chronic and shifting nature of DVA and highlight the need for vigilance in responding to the cultural resources liable to be exploited by perpetrators of abuse.