Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 249-258
Author(s):  
Heather Douglas
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Child Protection Workers ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Legal Responses

This final chapter affirms the importance of listening to women’s experiences when considering how legal responses to intimate partner violence might be improved to make women safe. The chapter reviews key themes identified in the book, including abusers’ use of the legal system to continue abuse and the role of child protection workers, police, lawyers, and judges in facilitating that abuse. It highlights a common and continuing failure of those who work in the legal system to recognize the significance of nonphysical abuse, to persistently misunderstand the dynamics of separation and ultimately, to fail to prioritize safety. This chapter makes recommendations for law and policy reform toward making the legal system safer.

Interacting With the Child Protection Service

2021 ◽  
pp. 90-119
Author(s):  
Heather Douglas
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Intergenerational Trauma ◽  
Protection System ◽  
Child Protection Services ◽  
Child Protection Workers ◽  
Child Protection Service ◽  
Seeking Help

This chapter focuses on the women’s interaction with child protection workers and he child protection system in the context of intimate partner violence (IPV). Many women who have experienced IPV have contact with child protection services (CPS); some contact CPS seeking help, and others are investigated by CPS as a result of IPV and complaints made about their mothering. Three key themes are explored in this chapter. Women felt they were held to account by CPS workers for their ex-partner’s IPV. A number of women reported that their partners made malicious allegations to CPS about them, leading to lengthy and stressful investigations that resulted in no concerns being found about their mothering. Some women’s experiences highlighted the complex experience of IPV, intergenerational trauma, and CPS involvement.

Women, Intimate Partner Violence, and the Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Douglas
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Family Court ◽  
Child Protection Services ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
The Law ◽  
Legal Processes

This book explores how women from diverse backgrounds interact with the law in response to intimate partner violence, over time. Every year, millions of women globally turn to law to help them live lives free and safe from violence. Women engage with child protection services and police. They apply for civil protection orders and family court orders to help them manage their children’s contact with a violent father, and take special visa pathways to avoid deportation following separation from an abuser. Women are often compelled to interact with law, through their abuser’s myriad legal applications against them. While separation may seem like a solution, it often accelerates legal engagement, providing new opportunities for continued abuse. Countless women who have experienced intimate partner violence are enmeshed in overlapping, complex, and often inconsistent legal processes. They have both fleeting and longer-term connections with legal system actors. Their stories demonstrate how abusers harness multiple aspects of the legal process, and its actors, to continue their abuse. They also highlight the regular failure of legal processes and actors to comprehend the significance of nonphysical abuse. Women show how legal system actors’ common expectation that separation is a single event, rather than a process, has implications for their connections with law and the outcomes they achieve. From time to time, the women in this study attained the safety and closure they sought from law, sometimes in circular and unexpected ways, but their narratives demonstrate the level of endurance, tenacity, and time this often required.

Childhood Witnessing of Intimate Partner Violence: The Role of Social Support

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Owen ◽  
M. Thompson ◽  
M. Mitchell ◽  
S. Kennebrew ◽  
A. Paranjape ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Intimate Partner

Intimate Partner Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: Indirect Effects Through Negative and Positive Emotion Dysregulation

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110063
Author(s):  
Lauren E. Simpson ◽  
Alexa M. Raudales ◽  
Miranda E. Reyes ◽  
Tami P. Sullivan ◽  
Nicole H. Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Symptom Severity ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Positive Emotion ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Difficulties In Emotion Regulation

Women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) are at heightened risk for developing posttraumatic stress (PTS). Emotion dysregulation has been linked to both IPV and PTS, separately, however, unknown is the role of emotion dysregulation in the relation of IPV to PTS among women who experience IPV. Moreover, existing investigations in this area have been limited in their focus on negative emotion dysregulation. Extending prior research, this study investigated whether physical, sexual, and psychological IPV were indirectly associated with PTS symptom severity through negative and positive emotion dysregulation. Participants were 354 women who reported a history of IPV recruited from Amazon’s MTurk platform ( Mage = 36.52, 79.9% white). Participants completed self-report measures assessing physical (Conflict Tactics Scale), sexual (Sexual Experiences Scale), and psychological (Psychological Maltreatment of Women) IPV; negative (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale) and positive (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Positive) emotion dysregulation; and PTS symptom severity (PTSD Checklist for DSM-5) via an online survey. Pearson’s correlation coefficients examined intercorrelations among the primary study variables. Indirect effect analyses were conducted to determine if negative and positive emotion dysregulation explained the relations between physical, sexual, and psychological IPV and PTS symptom severity. Physical, sexual, and psychological IPV were significantly positively associated with both negative and positive emotion dysregulation as well as PTS symptom severity, with the exception that psychological IPV was not significantly associated with positive emotion dysregulation. Moreover, negative and positive emotion dysregulation accounted for the relationships between all three IPV types and PTS symptom severity, with the exception of positive emotion dysregulation and psychological IPV. Our findings provide support for the potential underlying role of both negative and positive emotion dysregulation in the associations of IPV types to PTS symptom severity. Negative and positive emotion dysregulation may be important factors to integrate into interventions for PTS among women who experience IPV.

‘Not bullet proof’: The complex choice not to seek a civil protection order for intimate partner violence

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-195
Author(s):  
Jill Theresa Messing ◽  
Meredith E Bagwell-Gray ◽  
Allison Ward-Lasher ◽  
Alesha Durfee
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
System Resource ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Protection Order

Protection orders (POs) are one legal system resource available to survivors of intimate partner violence. Many survivors choose not to obtain a PO, yet prior research has not examined the perspectives of these survivors. This study examined the open-ended survey responses ( n = 308) regarding the choice not to obtain a PO by survivors residing in emergency shelters in the United States. Content analysis indicated that many survivors made deliberate decisions to not seek safety through this venue. Survivors indicated that a PO may increase their partner’s violence, identified substantial barriers, evaluated a PO as unnecessary, preferred alternative strategies, were dealing with complex partner dynamics, and chose to protect their loved ones by not seeking a PO. Women with marginalized identities, in particular, indicated that there are multiple costs to seeking interventions within the legal system. Structural changes are needed within the legal system to facilitate access to justice for survivors.

scholarly journals Intimate Partner Violence and the Role of Child Maltreatment and Neighborhood Violence: A Retrospective Study of African American and US Caribbean Black Women

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 2245
Author(s):  
Krim K. Lacey ◽  
Hira R. Shahid ◽  
Rohan D. Jeremiah
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Violence Exposure ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Moderating Effects

Background: Research suggests that intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with childhood maltreatment and violence exposure within the neighborhood context. This study examined the role of child maltreatment and violence exposure on intimate partner violence, with the moderating effects of mental disorders (IPV) among US Black women. Methods: Data from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL), the largest and most complete sample on the mental health of US Blacks, and the first representative sample of Caribbean Blacks residing in the United States was used to address the study objectives. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test of independence, t-test, and logistic regression procedures were used to analyze the data. Results: Bivariate results indicate an association between child abuse and intimate partner victimization among US Black women. Witnessing violence as a child as well as neighborhood violence exposure was also related to IPV but shown to differ between African American and Caribbean Black women. Multivariate findings confirmed the influence of mental disorders and social conditions on US Black women’s risk for IPV. Moderating effects of child maltreatment and mental disorders in association with adult IPV were not found. Conclusions: The study addressed the short and long-term impact of child maltreatment and the contribution to the cycle of intimate violence among US Black women including African American and Caribbean Blacks. The study suggests the need for prevention and intervention efforts to improve structural conditions for at-risk populations and communities predisposed to violence and other negative outcomes. Possibilities for future research are also discussed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document