Forging Community Links to Address Abuse in Lesbian Relationships

Abstract

This study is a comprehensive review of lesbian domestic abuse in the psychological, sociological, legal, and social work literature. Planning intervention and prevention strategies is discussed in light of what is known and what remains to be known. A strong argument is made to turn attention away from the elusive tasks of documenting prevalence and incidence characteristics, and forge the community links needed to develop effective intervention and prevention strategies.     

Maternal attitudes towards pre-natal substance abuse,medical care,and treatment in a historically disadvantaged South African community

This study explored maternal substance abuse and the access to pre-natal medical care and treatment for substance abuse during pregnancy. Respondent mothers (n?=?102; mean age?=?27.8 years, SD?=?10.9 years) were from Mitchell’s Plain, a historically disadvantaged South African community. The mothers completed a mixed methods interview on the context and influences of their substance abuse during their pregnancy. Findings suggest that these mothers adopt the drug taking behaviour in their social environment. Women with prior histories of substance abuse were active consumers and dependent on drugs while childbearing. These findings may be important for possible intervention strategies among this particular group of vulnerable women.     

Teacher-instigated in-school interpersonal violence: Types and prevalence in South African public schools

The study examined types and prevalence of interpersonal violence in South African schools. Data on in-school interpersonal violence by the South African Council of Teachers (SACE) were analysed. The sample consisted of 1 184 teachers (rural = 32.6%, urban = 59.8%, peri-urban = 7.6%). Following logistic regression analyses, results indicated male teachers were the majority offenders. Furthermore, results showed that female teachers and learners were over nine times more likely to be victims of all types of violence, as compared to males. Findings support a social role theory perspective of gendered aggression in which males are likely to resort to physical violence, while females may engage in verbal violence.     

What harm can it do?: A discussion of the potential for harm inherent in psychodynamic work

Abstract

This paper examines some of the ethical issues raised by the nature of psychodynamic work. It suggests that both the aims and the process of psychodynamic therapy raise ethical issues which we cannot responsibly ignore, but that if the work is to be effective it cannot be made wholly safe. That, however, does not absolve us from the requirement for taking care, and for thinking about what we are doing and what we are risking.     

Couple Therapy and Addictions

Abstract

Therapies for alcoholism, substance abuse, and other addictions traditionally focus on characteristics of individuals such as behaviors, thoughts, and emotions. These kinds of programs tend to target problems inside the abusing person rather than a relational system. Treatments that are more recent locate the problems within systems of people. Regardless of the locus or cause of the abuse or addiction, seen as arising from disease processes, systemic dynamics, or other mechanisms that lead to unfortunate habits and behaviors, utilizing the individual's partner or family in therapy has become an important part of successful treatment. This article reviews models of couple treatment for alcoholics and substance abusers in terms of initiation into treatment, primary treatment, and relapse prevention.     

Do You See What I See? The Influence of Gender Stereotypes on Student and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Perceptions of Violent Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Relationships

ABSTRACT

Forty-one men and 67 women undergraduate students, as well as 35 men and 27 women Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers, rated the abusiveness of intimate partner violence (IPV) vignettes portraying each possible gender combination of victim and perpetrator (Harris &; Cook, 1994 Harris, R. J. and Cook, C. A. 1994. Attributions about spouse abuse: It matters who the batterers and victims are. Sex Roles, 30: 553–565. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Rating differences according to victim and perpetrator gender, occupation (student or RCMP officer), and participant gender were anticipated. Analyses found that student and RCMP ratings of abuse severity were both highest for the male-female scenario. However, the RCMP considered the female-male, male-male, and female-female scenarios to be more abusive than did the students. Our findings suggest that, while the RCMP appeared to be more sensitive to male and same-sex victims than students, both groups remain somewhat biased.     

Parental Hostility and Depression as Predictors of Young Children's Aggression and Conduct Problems

Parental hostility and parental depression are associated with childhood behavior problems, but these have been studied independently in the literature. This study examined the relationships between parental hostility and depression and childhood aggression and conduct problems. Parental hostility was hypothesized to predict children's current and future (two months later) aggression and conduct problems. Participants were primary caregivers of children 0 to 10 years of age. Results indicate that hostility is a better predictor of present and future childhood aggression and conduct problems than depression. Implications of this finding for preventing and treating childhood aggression and conduct problems are discussed.     

Therapeutic Implications of Religious-Related Emotional Abuse

Religion can play a positive role in preventing all types of abuse. Consequently, it is often difficult to believe that religion or a particular manner of religious awareness can also be conducive to the degradation and humiliation of individuals, and that it can be maneuvered to justify abusive behavior. In this article we discuss the emotional repercussions of religious-related abuse in the family, an aspect that is rarely documented in the field of psychotherapy, but has many negative consequences. Religious-oriented emotional abuse is traceable to several levels of human functioning: the individual's internal level of experiencing themselves, the interpersonal and systemic levels, where the individual enters relationships, as well as within the framework of the individual's relationship with God.     

Pupil Physical Abuse by Teachers

Abstract

Corporal punishment is one of the most controversial disciplinary practices currently being used in school settings despite the vulnerability that it creates for students to be physically abused. Some cultures continue to believe that corporal punishment is a useful tool for teaching children to be respectful, honest, and productive members of society. The present study attempted to discern the nature and extent of corporal punishment used by teachers in the secondary schools located in six provinces of Zimbabwe between 1990 and 1997, as well as what actions were taken against these teachers. The results of the present study suggest that the majority of the perpetrators were male, had received official training for their position, and were sanctioned with a fine.     

Health Outcomes by Closeness of Sexual Abuse Perpetrator: A Test of Betrayal Trauma Theory

Summary

In this chapter, practicing attorney Brooks Cooper illuminates how the legal tradition of applying different standards to the ad-missibility of expert and lay opinions as evidence in litigation complicates delayed-discovery sexual abuse cases. Admissibility standards have long been a source of controversy, and recent developments in law, such as the pre-trial evidentiary hearings that invoke the “gatekeeper” function of the judge under the standard enunciated in Daubert v. Mer-rell-Dow Pharmaceuticals, have become a favored strategy by the defense in an effort to bar delayed memory testimony by characterizing it as the product of unreliable science. To overcome this litigation hurdle, Mr. Cooper contextualizes the present controversy in the history of scientific evidence admissibility, tracing emerging trends in judicial opinion on scientific evidence from expert witnesses from the 1923 case Frye v. United States through the present, and offers strategies and techniques to maintain admissibility of the evidence before and during all phases of the trial.