Effect of type and severity of partner abuse on women’s health, quality of life and help seeking

Effect of type and severity of intimate partner violence on women’s health and service use: Findings from a primary care trial of women afraid of their partners

From Journal of Interpersonal Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has a major impact on women’s wellbeing. This article describes socio-demographic characteristics, experiences of abuse, health, safety, and use of services in women enrolled in the Women’s Evaluation of Abuse and Violence Care (WEAVE) project. The WEAVE project is the first family practice based trial testing the effect of screening plus intervention for IPV on women’s health and wellbeing. The study explores associations between type and severity of abuse and women’s health, quality of life, and help seeking.

The research finds women who were fearful of partners in the last year, have poor mental health and quality of life, attend health care services frequently, and domestic violence services infrequently. It outlines how health practitioners may need to tailor their care and messages to women’s experiences of type and severity of abuse. Exploration of the extent of abuse may allow practitioners to support women in choosing and accessing IPV-specific services appropriate to their safety needs and readiness to change.

When battered women fight back stereotyping can kick in

But most of all, they fought together’: Judicial attributions for sentences in convicting battered women who kill

From Psychology of Women Quarterly

The topic of domestic abuse remains a controversial issue when it comes to determining punishment for battered women who use violence towards their partner. According to this study battered women who are seen as engaging in mutual violence and shared substance abuse are often regarded negatively and subject to harsher sentences.

The author analyzed the reasoning underlying judges’ sentencing decisions in 26 domestic homicide and abuse cases from 1974-2006 in Canada. She found that a judge’s reliance on each line of reasoning was associated with harsher sentencing. She also identified one judge who demonstrated resistance to these stereotyped portrayals of battered women who fight back. “Judges downgraded acts of previous partner violence by using minimizing descriptions and by emphasizing the mutuality of the violence and of substance abuse,” wrote the author. She asserted that legal systems need to recognize the complex psychological nature of victim mentality and behavior within domestic abuse cases.

Free access to journal articles to celebrate World Social Work Day

To mark World Social Work Day SAGE has opened access to some articles from key titles.

• Enhancement of community preparedness for natural disasters: The role of social work in building social capital for sustainable disaster relief and management

• Battered women, children, and the end of abusive relationships

• Disappointing poverty trends: Is the social investment state to blame?

Examining the impact of the Family Violence Option on women’s efforts to leave welfare

From Research on Social Work Practice

In 1997, while reforming federal welfare programs, the U.S. Congress established the Family Violence Option (FVO) to prevent reforms from adversely affecting those welfare recipients who are domestic violence victims. This research investigated if known domestic violence victims, and in particular those who received an FVO waiver, remained on the welfare rolls longer and worked less than other welfare recipients, as many critics speculated. The study wanted to assess what difference the FVO, in practice, has made on women’s ability to leave welfare and find employment. Using administrative and interview data the findings do not indicate that FVO waivers encourage women to stay on welfare longer. However, the poor outcomes of undocumented victims indicate that some individuals may be slipping through the cracks of a well-intentioned policy.

Women in prison: An issue of blaming the individual for social problems

Experiences of interpersonal violence and criminal legal control: a mixed method analysis

From SAGE Open

Researchers have long claimed that physical abuse and marginalization lead to criminal activity; however, women in prison are taught to overlook socioeconomic issues and blame only themselves for their behaviour.  This study confirms that there is a real connection between the type of abuse experienced by women, marginalization, and whether or not they will turn to drugs and criminal activity to cope with their experiences. The authors contend current psychiatric and popular discourse that portrays female incarceration as the result of poor choices and bad behavior “rather than identifying structural conditions that lead to imprisonment—including changes in laws, racist and sexist legislation, poverty, lack of resources and jobs, and social vulnerability over the course of one’s life.”  This study used surveys and interviews with incarcerated or formerly imprisoned women. Having few or no options because of their marginalized socioeconomic positions, entrenched racial inequality, and repeated episodes of violence, respondents indicated that criminalized activities became survival mechanisms, which led to incarceration. The authors point to institutional change and support systems for victims of abuse as a way to prevent female criminal activity.