Myths about myths? A commentary on Thomas (2020) and the question of jury rape myth acceptance

This commentary responds to claims that research by Cheryl Thomas ‘shows’ no problem with rape myths in English and Welsh juries. We critique the claim on the basis of ambiguous survey design, a false distinction between ‘real’ jurors and other research participants, the conflation of attitudes in relation to abstract versus applied rape myths, and misleading interpretation of the data. Ultimately, we call for a balanced appraisal of individual studies by contextualising them against the wider literature.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Thomas (2020) argued that her research showed rape myths do not influence juries.</li><br /><li>We critique Thomas’ claim because the research was not designed to ask about influence on juries, there are several methodological limitations, and the data actually reveal ambivalence about rape myths on the part of many jurors.</li></ul>

Drawing upon the evidence to develop a multiagency risk assessment and risk management framework for domestic violence

Domestic violence poses a threat to the health, safety and wellbeing of women internationally and is associated with a range of physical injuries, chronic mental and physical health issues and death. In recognition of the serious consequences and to guide the allocation of resources, multiple countries have invested in efforts to measure domestic violence risk. This study aimed to determine whether there was an existing validated risk assessment tool with an actuarial element, or a common set of evidence-based risk factors that could be implemented in Victoria, Australia. A tool was sought which would effectively predict risk of severity, lethality and re-assault and support risk management strategies. The tool needed to be suitable for administration by a variety of professionals. Through an audit and analysis of existing tools, the study found an absence of universal standards or guidance for weighting actuarial tools and clear insight into how risk assessments currently inform risk management practice and multidisciplinary responses. However, the literature provides clarity around the key evidence-based risk factors that most commonly form a validated tool for adult victim survivors. The evidence was less definitive in terms of assessing risk of lethality and re-assault for children and young people.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>There has been considerable investment in approaches to measure domestic violence risk.</li><br /><li>Some consistency exists in terms of evidence-based risk factors across existing risk assessment tools.</li><br /><li>There is an absence of universal standards for weighting actuarial tools as well as guidance to inform a response by a broad range of professionals.</li></ul>

Digital technologies and the violent surveillance of nonbinary gender

The enforcement of the gender binary is a root cause of gender-based violence (GBV) for trans people. Disrupting GBV requires that we ensure that ‘gender’ is not presumed synonymous with White cisgender womanhood. Transfeminists suggest that attaining gender equity requires confronting all forms of oppression that police people and their bodies, including White supremacy, colonialism and capitalism (Silva and Ornat, 2016; Simpkins, 2016). Part of this project, we argue, includes confronting the structures of GBV embedded within digital technologies that are increasingly part of our everyday lives. Informed by transfeminist theory (Koyama, 2003; Stryker and Bettcher, 2016; Simpkins, 2016; Weerawardhana, 2018), we interrogate the ways in which digital technologies naturalise and reinforce GBV against bodies marked as divergent. We examine the subtler ways that digital technology can fortify binary gender as a mechanism of power and control. We highlight how gendered forms of data violence cannot be disentangled from digital technologies that surveil, police or punish on the basis of race, nationhood and citizenship, particularly in relation to predictive policing practices. We conclude with recommendations to guide technological development to reduce the violence enacted upon trans people and those whose gender presentations transgress society’s normative criteria for what constitutes a compliant (read: appropriately gendered) citizen.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Violence against trans people is inherently gender-based.</li><br /><li>A root cause of gender-based violence against trans people is the strict reinforcement of the gender binary.</li><br /><li>Digital technology and predictive policing can fortify binary gender as a mechanism of power and control.</li><br /><li>Designers of digital technologies and the policymakers regulating surveillance capitalism must interrogate the ways in which their work upholds the gender binary and gender-based violence against trans people.</li></ul>

Gender- and power sensitivity, securitisation and social peace: rethinking protection for children exposed to post-separation violence

This article offers a rethinking of protection based on synthesised data from Finland and Sweden on children’s and mothers’ experiences of post-separation stalking, and social workers’ case reports on children risking exposure to gender-based violence after separation. Drawing on critical childhood studies and a feminist approach to violence and security, we ask how children’s everyday lives can be incorporated in a rethinking of protection for children in post-separation contexts. Departing from identified limitations in protective solutions for children, we propose three ways of rethinking the issue of protection: (1) protection as gender- and power sensitivity, (2) protection as securitising the here and now, and (3) protection as social peace. Our findings call for some changes in professional practices, social policy and legislation.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Protective solutions to the problem of gender-based violence in post separation are limited, if existing at all, for exposed children.</li><br /><li>Orientation towards adults and therapy desecuritise childhoods and children’s social peace.</li></ul>

Knowledge translation activity of a domestic violence research network: a scoping survey

Introduction: Research networks undertake work collaboratively on complex areas of research. Few studies examine how these networks develop their knowledge translation activity. Focusing on a domestic violence research network (DVRN), the aim of this study was to answer the question: What is the shared understanding of knowledge translation and activity in a domestic violence research network?Methods: A sample of DVRN members undertook an anonymous online survey about their knowledge translation activity.Results: Completed by 49 of a potential 65 DVRN members (75% completion rate), findings suggested members use multiple knowledge translation definitions, and that different stages of the research process engage people with lived-experience and policymakers undertaking lower levels of engagement than practitioners. Innovative engagement mechanisms to communicate research findings were limited, and knowledge translation barriers included budget, time, capacity, limitation of models, organisational emphasis and support. Finally, there was inadequate knowledge translation evaluation.Conclusion: Overcoming knowledge translation barriers is essential to ensure meaningful collaboration particularly with survivors who are often the missing voice of knowledge translation. Future studies could determine what impact, if any, increasing engagement of survivors and policymakers during all stages of the research process has on knowledge translation.<br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>This study has identified the need for meaningful collaboration with survivors and policymakers during all stages of the research process.</li><br /><li>Innovative engagement mechanisms are essential to engage end-users.</li><br /><li>A focus on evaluation of knowledge translation strategies is warranted.</li></ul>

Legal change and legal inertia: understanding and contextualising Scottish cases in which women kill their abusers

Significant legal and policy change related to domestic abuse has been evident in Scotland over the last 40 years. Despite this, no change has occurred in relation to cases in which women kill their abusers. This article maps the significant changes which have occurred in Scotland in relation to domestic abuse, linking these to the development of the Scottish women’s movement and related feminist activism. This landscape is contrasted with the inertia which has become apparent in relation to cases in which women kill their abusers. A detailed examination of the Scottish landscape is presented which includes in-depth qualitative analysis of 62 cases of this type.Although the problems inherent to effecting change for women who kill their abusers are recognised, this article proposes several practical changes which could be implemented to bridge the knowledge gap which has emerged in Scotland. This call to action comes at the time when the Scottish Law Commission are considering homicide and defences to murder, making it a crucial time to consider the Scottish landscape in relation to this aspect of domestic abuse.<br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>There exists demarcation in Scotland between responses to domestic abuse generally and responses to cases in which women kill following domestic abuse.</li><br /><li>The issue of women killing their abusers must be included in formal policy dialogues surrounding domestic abuse.</li><br /><li>Any legal changes implemented must recognise the reality of cases of this type.</li></ul>

Violence against women in India: an integrative review

Violence against women (VAW) is a prevalent social problem within and outside of the home. This is particularly the case for women living in societies that promote patriarchal ideologies, such as India. Using content analysis and an integrative review approach, this study focuses on the following goals: 1) to examine the state and nature of the recent research available on VAW in India, 2) to understand the significant predictors and outcomes of such violence, 3) to synthesise and document the policy and prevention recommendations by scholars, and 4) analyse the barriers that justify or promote such behaviour and stall prevention efforts. The study criteria include articles published between 2014 and 2018, in English, those articles that have undergone original research in peer-reviewed journals and focused on VAW in India. A total of 49 studies were included and the results indicate that much of the research is quantitative in nature, demographic and familial factors were often identified as predictors of VAW in India, and VAW was often related to health-related outcomes. Further, various policy recommendations and barriers were identified by scholars examining VAW in India.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Research on VAW in India is often quantitative, cross-sectional, non-comparative in nature and limited to investigations of domestic violence, overlooking other types of research methods and violence women experience.</li><br /><li>Considering policy recommendations and barriers to address VAW in India, empowerment alone cannot result in long-lasting changes, gender-bias norms must evolve to address the issue of VAW in India.</li><br /><li>Future research on VAW in India should examine the experiences of such violence against vulnerable and marginalised populations such as sex workers, and sexual, religious and ethnic minorities.</li></ul>

Youth intimate partner violence: barriers and bridges during the ending process

A substantial body of existing research offers valuable knowledge about how victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) manage to leave abusive partners. To date, however, such studies have focused on adult women. The present article focuses on abusive youth relationships and how they end, adopting an intersectional approach to place analytic focus on youth, gender and sexuality as societal positions. The data consist of in-depth ‘teller-focused’ interviews with 18 IPV victims aged 17–23 in Sweden. The theory-driven analysis brings to the fore a multilevel Ending Process presenting ‘barriers’ and ‘bridges’ on three levels: the societal, the social and the individual. Societal norms, social arenas and individual factors are all shown to affect youth victimisation as well as the relationship ending process. Gender norms seem to be key in understanding IPV among young women, as they appear to present a challenge to ending abusive relationships. It is important to acknowledge violence in youth intimate relationships and to consider the whole of a young person’s experience of IPV. Researchers, practitioners and policymakers need to be sensitive to how different societal positions interact and affect youth victimisation and young people’s ability to end abusive relationships.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>It is important to acknowledge violence in youth intimate relationships and to consider how the experience of IPV may vary according to young people’s societal positions.</li><br /><li>Societal norms, social arenas and individual factors are all important aspects in understanding youth victimisation of IPV, as well as the relationship ending process.</li><br /><li>Gender norms seem to be key in understanding IPV among young women, as they appear to present a challenge to ending abusive relationships.</li></ul>

Tech-facilitated violence: thinking structurally and intersectionally

Technologically-facilitated violence (TFV) can take many shapes and forms, In this thought piece, we reflect on TFV from structural and intersectional perspectives, examining how these might change our understanding of TFV, with particular attention to gender-based TFV. We are motivated to engage in this reflection for two main reasons. First, traditional understandings of violence, including gender-based violence, tend to prioritise physical acts (whether in word or in application), contributing to a trivialisation of the kinds of harms effected through digitised communications networks (Dunn, 2021). Second, if TFV is understood primarily in terms of individual interpersonal acts, our ability to understand how intersecting oppressions such as sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, colonialism affect the likelihood of being targeted and the experience of violence will be compromised. As Black feminist and critical race scholars such as Crenshaw (1991), Hill Collins (2017), and Jiwani, Berman and Cameron (2010) have ably demonstrated, individualistic single axis accounts of violence outside of technologised contexts have resulted in exclusionary and dangerous outcomes that selectively harm members of equality-seeking communities. The result of these individualised understandings of violence is that structural oppressions are ‘erased, trivialised, or contained within categories that evacuate the violation of [structural] violence’ (Jiwani, 2006, xi–xii). Among other effects, such erasure risks rendering invisible opportunities to intervene with respect to violence not carried out by individuals, often resulting in ‘remedies’ that emphasise interventions by the state against individual actors (for example, through criminal law), powers that already disproportionately target members of equality-seeking communities, and misses the potential need to intervene on capitalistic corporate systems and behaviours. In both cases, the prospect of achieving justice recedes.<br /><br />Key message<br /><ul><li>Essential to understand TFV through structural and intersectional lenses to better ensure just policy approaches and support mechanisms for all.</li></ul>