An advocacy intervention program for women with abusive partners: Initial evaluation

Experimentally tested the hypotheses that (1) battered women are in need of numerous community resources upon exit from a domestic violence shelter, (2) working with advocates increases women's effectiveness in obtaining needed resources and social support, and (3) success in obtaining resources and social support increases women's levels of life satisfaction and decreases their risk of further abuse. The initial findings of a short-term intervention project designed to provide postshelter advocacy services to women with abusive partners are presented. One-hundred forty-one battered women were interviewed immediately upon their exit from a domestic violence shelter as well as 10 weeks thereafter. Half the sample was randomly assigned to receive the services of trained advocates who assisted them in accessing needed community resources. Women who worked with advocates reported being more effective in accessing resources and had higher levels of social support and overall quality of life postintervention. Although all women reported some decrease in postshelter abuse, there were no differences between those with and those without advocates, and abuse continued to be a problem for many women.     

A multiple case study of rape victim advocates' self-care routines: the influence of organizational context

This study assumes that rape victim advocates who provide community outreach services to victimized women must adjust to a heightened awareness of sexual violence to do their jobs. Using qualitative methodology, this multiple case study explored rape victim advocates' strategies for incorporating repeated exposure to sexual assault into their daily lives as well as ways that organizations can support such endeavors. Findings suggest that advocates' self-care routines draw upon various personal resources (i.e., cognitive, physical, social, spiritual, verbal), and serve 2 roles for coping with rape-related pain: (a) cathartic releasing of traumatic material, and (b) improving capacity to integrate the traumatic material into one's life. Additionally, over 20 organizational characteristics that workers perceive to be supportive (e.g., weekly meetings, flexible hours) were identified. Nonparametric and categorical statistical analyses were used to analyze the relationship between organizational support and self-care routines, finding that advocates working in organizations with higher levels of support utilize more strategies that are integrative in nature. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Coercion in Intimate Partner Violence: Toward a New Conceptualization

For decades, battered women’s advocates have placed coercive control squarely at the center of their analysis of intimate partner violence. Yet, little work has been done to conceptualize and measure the key construct of coercive control. In this article, we apply French and Raven’s social power model to a conceptualization of coercive control in intimate partner violence relationships. Central elements of the model include: social ecology; setting the stage; coercion involving a demand and a credible threat for noncompliance; surveillance; delivery of threatened consequences; and the victim’s behavioral and emotional response to coercion. These elements occur in spiraling and overlapping sequences to establish an overall situation of coercive control. The implications of this model for theory and practice are discussed.     

The provision of advocacy services to women leaving abusive partners: An examination of short-term effects

Examined the short-term impact of providing advocacy services to women leaving battered women's shelters. The study employed a true longitudinal experimental design. Women in the advocacy condition received intensive one-on-one services with trained paraprofessional advocates. Advocates assisted women in accessing needed community resources. Women in the control condition received no additional postshelter services. Findings corroborated earlier research suggesting that battered women lack many resources necessary for independent living and that working with advocates produced greater effectiveness in accessing needed resources. Ongoing research will examine the long-term impact on life satisfaction, future victimization, and living arrangements.     

Rorschachs of Women Who Commit Homicide

For a majority of the women who kill, the victim is a family member; the most frequent is a spouse, and the woman is very frequently a battered woman. Clinical reports on battered women suggest a set of psychological symptoms that develops out of spousal abuse (i.e., pervasive anxiety, hyperalertness, impaired memory and concentration, a narrowed focus on signs of danger, constricted affect, development of chronic psychophysiological illnesses, and pervasive feelings of hopelessness and helplessness). Psychological tests have not been systematically used to assess or document these psychological symptoms. The present study employed the Rorschach to assess the psychological functioning of 28 battered women who killed their battering spouses. The Rorschach records displayed cognitive constriction, a lack of internal resources for problem solving, an ambitensive and passive problem-solving style, intense and poorly modulated affect, poor scanning of the stimulus field, and unconventional reality testing. The Rorschach protocols of this group showed strong similarities to those of veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. Common psychological effects of the experience of inescapable violence are suggested.     

Battered women in the criminal justice system: An analysis of gender stereotypes

Battered women charged with killing their abusers present a dilemma to the criminal justice system. Myths and stereo-types about women and battered women play a prominent role in the courtroom presentation of both defense and prosecution cases. While the prosecution may attempt to discredit the defendant for not living up to the standard of a ‘good woman’, the defense counters with an equally distorted portrayal of the defendant as ultra-feminine: the passive, helpless victim. Ten court cases of battered women charged with the death of their partners form the basis for a gender analysis of the social construction of the trial setting. This analysis includes the structure of the trial, the language of the trial interchange, the participants in the process, and the role the defendant played in her own defense.     

Myths and stereotypes of actors involved in domestic violence: Implications for domestic violence culpability attributions

Stereotypes exist about actors involved in domestic violence, particularly women of color. It has been suggested that Black women are more aggressive and accustomed to violence than White women. Moreover, victim resistance, marital status, and perceiver’s sex have all been found to influence perceptions of domestic violence culpability. Since the 1970s, when domestic violence was acknowledged as a social problem, researchers have examined how the lay person’s perceptions of battered women and their batterers are influenced by extralegal factors. Although research on perceptions of domestic violence when White women and men are involved has increased dramatically in recent years, there is a dearth of research on perceptions of such violence when women and men of color are participants. The available findings on the influence of stereotypical notions concerning victims and batterers upon perceptions of domestic violence are examined. This review will provide the available evidence and suggest research areas where information is needed to more fully address the needs of people of color in understanding their own victimization and how actors in the legal system can guard against biased responding.     

Battered women venerating a vicious Virgin: Reconsidering Marianismo at a Bolivian pilgrimage shrine

Scholarly literature on domestic violence in Latin America often relates it to machismo and marianismo. Within this gender paradigm, women are understood to embrace the values of the Virgin Mary as a passive submissive role model. However, these studies omit facts relating to the actual role of the Virgin in daily practices. This article investigates whether women indeed view Mary as encouraging them to passively accept gender-related suffering by relating Bolivian women's experiences of domestic violence to their daily interpretations of the Virgin of Urkupiña in Quillacollo, Bolivia. We have found that the influences of religious syncretism have been largely ignored. In daily religious experiences of battered women the Virgin of Urkupiña's association with Pachamama is of great importance. We argue that women do not accept their situation in a marianistic way. Rather, rage is a central concept in their religious experiences. As their economical, social and physical means are limited, women draw on spiritual powers, among which is the Virgin of Urkupiña. The Virgin of Urkupiña is not only venerated for her capacity to endure suffering, but also as a powerful goddess of vengeance.     

Gender and victimization by intimates

Recent data demonstrate that, although gender has an impact upon the experience of being a victim of an intimate's violence, there is no particular personality pattern that leads one to become a victim. Rather, women--who are socialized to adapt and submit, and who are likely to become victims of men's sexual violence or physical abuse--may not develop adequate self-protection skills as children, especially if they come from childhood homes in which females are victimized, leading to a later vulnerability to physical and sexual abuse. Men, however, socialized to express anger and aggression in an outward manner, learn to model the abuse witnessed or experienced in childhood and often learn that women are the "appropriate" recipients of this violence. Social learning theories of modeling and aggression are used to explain how such personality patterns develop, and the theory of learned helplessness is used to explain battered women's coping responses to their partners' abusive behavior. The extreme situation, in which a battered woman kills her partner in self-defense, is analyzed in order to understand women victims' sense of desperation and entrapment in severely abusive relationships and the extent to which their behaviors are in reaction to the abuse perpetrated by the mate.     

Battered Women

SUMMARY

This review of research findings on woman battering reveals how research has played a major role in changing social policy and challenging common myths and stereotypes. The earliest literature contained the ideas of a few psychotherapists who viewed woman battering as a rare phenomenon that involved masochistic women and sadistic men, which led to the myth of psychopathology as the mediating factor. Research following the birth of the battered women's movement destroyed this and some subsequent myths. It led to changes in medical practitioners' attitudes toward battered women patients and law enforcement's reaction to battering victims and their abusers. It also revealed important facts about the courts' handling of abusers and their victims and about violent relationships that result in homicide. The myth that children living in violent households are unharmed has been soundly discredited, yet despite these findings, many battered women continue to face serious difficulties when they attempt to divorce their abusers and obtain custody of their children. Other myths have been exposed by researchers on the basis of their findings. However, once ideas gain popular public acceptance, they tend to continue to exert influence. Nevertheless, positive changes have occurred in the entire spectrum of medical, legal, and social services with which battered women must interface. The research findings reviewed here help highlight current needs and suggest future directions.     

Applying Social Cognitive Career Theory to the Empowerment of Battered Women

Despite increasing attention to the problem of domestic violence and its multifaceted consequences, the career development needs of battered women have only sporadically been addressed in the vocational psychology literature. In this article, the scope and consequences of domestic violence are reviewed, highlighting effects on women's career and educational well‐being. Social cognitive career theory (SCCT; R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1994) is described and applied to the experiences of women living in domestic violence situations. A framework for empowering battered women and using SCCT to promote their career development and attainment is provided, along with recommendations for future research.     

Emotional Reactions of Rape Victim Advocates: A Multiple Case Study of Anger and Fear

This research explores the emotional reactions of a rarely studied group of women who work closely with survivors of sexual violence: rape victim advocates. Women who assist rape victims in obtaining medical, criminal justice, and mental health services were interviewed about their experiences, and qualitative analysis was used to delineate the situational context of the advocates' emotional reactions. Results indicate that respondents experienced anger and fear in response to both individual (e.g., a perpetrator's menacing glare) and environmental (e.g., community denial of a problem) cues. Additionally, some experienced rape victim advocates perceived their emotional reactions to be an important part of their work with rape victims. These findings suggest that intense emotional reactions, previously conceptualized within a vicarious trauma framework, may at times serve as resources for women working with rape survivors.     

Collaborating on Family Safety

Summary

The problems of child maltreatment and violence against women have traditionally been viewed and treated as two distinct issues. In response to these two forms of family violence, two separate service systems with different approaches to prevention, treatment and intervention have developed. This article outlines sources of conflicts between child protection workers and battered women's advocates, and elaborates on these conflicts using child protection workers' and battered women's advocates' own words elicited in a series of focus groups. Models of cross-system collaboration in the United States are then described, and recommendations are made for practice and policy which support collaboration across systems.     

Religion and the Recovery of Addicted Women

Personal interviews were conducted with 102 African-American and Anglo-American women in Texas coastal communities to determine the involvement of religious organizations in women's initiation and maintenance of recovery from drug addiction, the extent of women's help-seeking for recovery, and women's spiritual needs. Means, frequencies, chi squares, Pearson's correlations, and one-way ANOVAs were used to describe the data. Religious organizations helped about one-third of the women to begin or stay in recovery, primarily through counseling or ministering to spiritual needs. Only one-fourth of the women had sought help from churches. The predominant spiritual needs were forgiveness, love, and understanding. Implications for research and outreach are given.     

A comparison between strategies used on prisoners of war and battered wives

Comparisons were made between strategies used on prisoners of war (POWs) and battered wives to determine whether battering tactics are gender specific and thus a result of sexism, or whether battering is a reflection of societal violence. Similarities found between strategies used by captors and batterers were (a) psychological abuse within the context of violence; (b) the use of emotional dependency based on intermittent reinforcement; and (c) isolation from the victim's support system resulting in validation of assailant's beliefs and behavior. Both captors and batterers were successful in destroying the individual's self-identity, as well as eliciting and controlling certain kinds of behavior, when the victim remained isolated from a democratic setting. Differences in the experiences of POWs and battered wives center around the type of a hierarchical structure. In the case of battered wives, a patriarchal family legitimates male domination over women; therefore, the violence occurs within a sexist context.     

For HE tells me so: Techniques of neutralization applied to Christian domestic discipline

ABSTRACT

Christian Domestic Discipline (CDD) advocates wifely submission and male dominance through religiously justified punishment. Using publicly available anonymous testimonials and websites devoted to CDD this research examines how male heads of household, their female partners and the CDD community use techniques of neutralization to rationalize this practice. Our research shows how techniques of neutralization draw upon larger cultural norms, disseminated through organizations, and used in relationships to maintain hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity. In so doing we emphasize how the recreation of gender inequality is accomplished in relations of domination and subordination at the macro, meso, and micro levels of analysis. We find that hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity as a cultural ideal is embedded in institutions, in this case religion, promulgated by religious organizations (CDD and churches) and used as a resource in interaction in the formation of an identity as Christian that centers on the idea that men are in power and have control over women.     

Shelter workers' perceptions of battered women

Research suggests that battered women vary in their perceptions about battering, and women holding certain causal explanations to external and stable causes are more likely to state that they want to leave the abusive situation than women holding internal and unstable attributions (Frieze, 1979). The present study addressed the impact of battered women's causal explanations for the violence in their lives on shelter workers' perceptions of their clients. The results partially confirmed the hypothesis that shelter workers would react more positively to battered women who attributed their battering to stable and external causes than battered women who attributed their battering to unstable and internal causes. The implications of the findings for counseling battered women are discussed.     

Blame, shame, and community: justice responses to violence against women

Justice processing for crimes against women is reviewed. The data reveal conviction rates for partner violence and rape by known acquaintances are miniscule; mandatory arrest, protection orders, and diversion programs inadequately deter rebattering; few losses are compensated; and the adversarial justice process is retraumatizing, exacerbating survivor's self-blame. To better address crimes against women, several nations and tribal communities use communitarian approaches, forms of restorative justice. The offense is framed to include the perpetrator, victim, and community. The process forgoes incarceration to have family, peers, and advocates design perpetrator rehabilitation, victim restoration, and social reintegration of both victim and perpetrator. Evaluations suggest communitarian justice may increase victim satisfaction, raise the social costs of offending, multiply social control and support resources, and open a new avenue to targeted prevention.     

Storytelling in Liberal Religious Advocacy

Previous research suggests liberal religious advocates often find it necessary to use broadly accessible technical or moral language to communicate with policymakers and public audiences, yet this conformity to secular speech norms diminishes the distinctiveness of their religious voices. Communicating through storytelling offers them one way of overcoming this dilemma. This is demonstrated by examining liberal religious advocacy during recent healthcare reform debates in the United States, using data from interviews and public communications by advocates. By embedding stories within religiopolitical performances that highlight their religious identities, advocates convey policy‐relevant information without relying on explicitly religious language that may be inaccessible or unpersuasive to diverse audiences. They also deploy storytelling strategically, bearing witness to injustices experienced firsthand, secondhand, from the pews, and from the past, depending on the context. These findings have implications for ongoing debates about religious citizens’ capacity to communicate across lines of difference in the public sphere.