Does the transtheoretical model predict attrition in domestic violence treatment programs?

Attrition in intervention programs for domestically violent men is considered to be a serious and enduring problem. Researchers have found a number of sociodemographic variables that partially explain this phenomenon; however, models based on these variables have a limited predictive power. Scott (2004) argues that a firm theoretical base is needed in future investigations of the problem and suggests the use of the transtheoretical model of behavior change (TTM), which was found to predict dropout with accuracy in other areas of behavioral change. This study investigated the relationship between four TTM constructs (Stages of Change, Decisional Balance, Self-Efficacy, and Processes of Change) and premature termination with a sample of Canadian French-speaking men (N = 302) in five domestic violence treatment programs. Contrary to the initial hypotheses, the TTM constructs did not predict dropout. Discussion investigates how social desirability bias affects results being obtained by current TTM measures and whether more motivation to change at intake necessarily relates to involvement in treatment for longer periods of time.     

Chinks in Gender?

This comment argues that differences between clinical and normal populations, between clinical data and sociological data, and differences in social class and cultural settings should be taken into account in order to understand the varying psychological dynamics behind self representations. Research from the Nordic countries indicates that young women's relationships with their mothers and fathers are becoming more similar. The daughters appreciate their mothers' ability to combine independent lives of their own with care for children and family, and fathers are to a higher degree than before perceived as warm and caring figures. This may imply that the gender-differentiated psychological roles of the mother and the father in the heterosexual nuclear family are becoming less distinct. If chinks undermine not only the merged attachment but also gender as such, this question arises: What ways and to what extent are the new psychological dispositions Susie Orbach describes actually gendered?     

Gender symmetry in dating intimate partner violence: does similar behavior imply similar constructs?

The present study examined the extent to which there is gender symmetry in the topography and experience of dating intimate partner violence (IPV). Self-report data were collected from 450 undergraduate men and women at a large Southeastern university. Perpetration and victimization rates were examined, as were context, function, and experience of fear. Results support the view that dating IPV is generally symmetrical at a topographical level, although significantly more women than men reported perpetration of severe physical assault. However, gender asymmetries were found in the context, function, and experience of fear. These findings suggest that gender-sensitive approaches are crucial to the understanding of dating IPV.     

Children’s protective strategies in the context of exposure to domestic violence

The purpose of this study was to explore children’s accounts of exposure to domestic violence and the strategies they used to protect themselves from such adversity. Convenience sampling included youth (N = 29), ages 7–16, who received mental health services at a rural victim-service provider. Child self-report measures were used to assess exposure and protective strategies. Children were most often exposed to verbal and physical abuse of mother, inter-parental disagreements, and the abuser’s destruction of property. Participants used a variety of strategies to escape, understand, safety plan, protect, and intervene among these types of abuse.     

Participation for children exposed to domestic violence? Social workers' approaches and children's strategies

This article explores social workers' approaches to children exposed to domestic violence and children's strategies in encounters with these professionals in the context of family law proceedings. Investigator approaches as well as child strategies are reconstructed from children's narratives. Furthermore, possible links between the social worker's approach described by a particular child, and the child's own strategies are outlined. Participation can offer children validation of their experiences and support their recovery after exposure to violence. However, it is suggested that it seems to be a challenging task for social workers to both validate children's experiences of violence and simultaneously offer them participation in the investigation process.     

Where Is Gender in Agenda Setting?

Abstract

Why do some issues surge to the forefront of our attention while others languish in obscurity? Feminist scholars have explored the emergence of issues such as rape, battering, no-fault divorce, pay equity, and other women's issues on the public agenda. Despite a burgeoning body of literature on feminist social movements within history, political science, and sociology over the last twenty-five years, scholars of agenda setting, public policy, and American politics more generally have largely ignored this work. Not surprisingly, this research cannot be simply added in to the dominant agenda setting theoretical paradigm; rather, the findings disrupt conventional understandings. This essay critiques two canonical works, Kingdon's Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies(1995) and Baumgartner and Jones's Agendas and Instability in American Politics(1993), and discusses exemplary feminist research. It argues that if we want to know how norms change we need to broaden our scope beyond political elites and interest groups to include social movements and newly politicized grassroots activists. We must see change as produced by networks of insiders and outsiders rather than exclusively caused by elites in formal positions. Feminist scholarship also takes seriously the discursive and emotional aspects of politics rather than utilizing a narrow pluralist framework. Moreover, it recognizes the important yet neglected role of law as both an arena and a discourse.     

The use of ‘empowerment’ among organisations supporting victims of domestic violence in Sweden

The aim of this paper is to investigate the prevalence and character of ‘empowerment’ as an approach used by women's shelters, crime victim support groups and municipal crisis centres that provide support for battered women in Sweden. The study was based on a mail survey distributed among representatives of local crime victim support groups and women's shelters run by non-governmental organisations and the public sector (N = 207). The survey showed that empowerment was perceived as similar to the already established ‘help to self-help’ approach. Empowerment was described as a tool for individual change rather than collective action, although links to power-sensitivity and social change did appear in some answers. Contrary to expectations, the use of empowerment was not accompanied by comments on problematic power relations and difficulties in merging a non-directive approach with professional responsibilities. Using neo-institutional theory, results were interpreted in relation to established work-patterns and problems that empowerment was perceived to solve.     

Do laws restricting access to firearms by domestic violence offenders prevent intimate partner homicide?

Domestic violence imposes a large cost on society. The authors exploit state variation in timing to examine the impact of three types of law on intimate partner homicides. These laws restrict access to firearms by individuals who are subject to a restraining order or have been convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor or allow law enforcement officers to confiscate firearms at a domestic violence scene. The authors find that female intimate partner homicide rates decline 7% after a state passes a restraining order law. They find no effect from the domestic violence misdemeanor or confiscation laws.     

What criteria do child protective services investigators use to substantiate exposure to domestic violence?

The primary purpose of this study is to determine whether child protective services investigators apply a recognizable set of criteria to substantiate batterers and victims of battering for exposing their children to domestic violence. Although domestic violence occurred in 35% of the 1,248 substantiated incidents of child maltreatment, only 31 (7.1%) couples were investigated for exposing a child to domestic violence or failing to protect a child from domestic violence. All of the batterers investigated and in the caregiver role when their children were exposed to domestic violence were substantiated. The unsubstantiated victims of battering tended to use more protective behaviors (M=3.82) than the substantiated victims (M=2.00); yet, at the case level, using more than one protective behavior did not seem to be a criterion used to substantiate the victims. Instead, it appears that investigators were discriminating between those protective behaviors by the victims that ended contact between the batterers and the children--for a substantial amount of time--and those that did not in both the substantiation and removal decision. Key issues related to applying criteria in incidents involving domestic violence are discussed along with recommendations to further refine and document them.     

Female victims of domestic violence: which victims do police refer to crisis intervention?

Factors associated with activation of a volunteer-based crisis intervention services program for victims of police-reported intimate partner violence (IPV) were examined to determine if those for whom services were activated were representative of the overall eligible population. The study population comprised 2,092 adult female victims of male-perpetrated police-reported IPV. Crisis intervention services were requested by responding patrol officers in 415 (19.8%) of these incidents. Activation of crisis intervention services was more likely for victims who were married to their abusive partner, pregnant, or of Latina or Asian race/ethnicity and among IPV incidents involving physical abuse, visible victim injuries, and arrest of the abusive partner. Additionally, one of the city's five police precincts was less likely than the remaining four to utilize these services. Activation of crisis intervention services was associated with factors related to need and feasibility of service delivery, but differential activation at the precinct level was also found to be influential.     

Carriers of the troublesome violence – the social services’ support for female victims of domestic violence

In Sweden, the social services’ responsibility for abused women has been reinforced and clarified on several occasions since the 1990s. At the same time, the knowledge of their work is undeveloped. This article analyses the social services’ support for female victims of domestic violence with a focus on organisation, based on the concepts of specialisation and specialists. The study consists of qualitative interviews with 16 social workers in 11 municipalities. The study shows great organisational variation between the municipalities, although most have some sort of specialised units or person-bound specialisation. Colleagues, training and external supervision are factors the social workers emphasise as important in working with female victims of violence, a social problem described as both special and difficult. The different forms of organisation and specialisation influence the support the social services offer abused women.     

Onwards and Upwards? Gender and Work in Ireland

It can be argued that the Irish workforce has been revolutionised over the past 25 years, as married women entered the world of paid work in increasing numbers, bolstering the female participation rate. There have also been changes in gender roles and gender role attitudes over the period. This review will present sociological research analysing this major social change, including research that places the Irish case in a comparative European and international context. The review will mirror the main foci of the field, paying particular attention to research on gender role attitudes, occupational segregation and unpaid work. The gendering of the Irish workforce has been a complex and uneven process, involving continuities as well as changes. Overall, the sexual division of labour remains a key feature of paid and unpaid work in Ireland, and the concept has considerable explanatory power in relation to persistent gender inequalities.     

Can social workers and police be partners when dealing with bikie-gang related domestic violence and sexual assault?

Welfare and criminal justice systems manifest different goals, cultures, values and working methods. In Australia, the welfare sector has a culture of empowerment and concern for victims’ rights, within which social workers focus on social justice and social change. In contrast, the criminal justice sector (police) is patriarchal and para-military in structure, focusing on enforcing and maintaining community order and safety. These differences can create tension when social workers and police need to work as partners in response to violence against women, in particular violence against women from bikie gangs. This article addresses the issue of partnerships between social workers and police when working with abused bikie-gang women. It presents the findings of recent research into social work practice with such women in South Australia, in conjunction with a brief exploration of the international literature on social work and police cultures, and partnerships. It concludes that whilst there is a great need for genuine collaboration and partnership between social workers and police in the complex context of domestic violence with links to organised crime, the cultures and mandates of these different professions make this difficult.     

Affirming, Transforming, or Neglecting Gender? Conceptualizing Gender in the Pension Reform Process

This article analyzes the gender visions adopted by policy actorsin pension reform debates. Based on the work of Fraser (Fraser, N. 1994."After the Family Wage: Gender Equity and the Welfare State."Political Theory 22 : 591–618; Fraser, N. 1995. "FromRedistribution to Recognition? Dilemmas of Justice in a ‘Post-Socialist’Age." New Left Review 212:68–93), four gendered visionsof public pensions are introduced and then applied to pensionreforms in Belgium and Sweden. In line with international trends,both cases seek to integrate women within a pension system thattreats men and women the same regardless of their nonmarketactivities. However, in both cases, some compensation is introducedto acknowledge the caring functions performed mainly by women.Based on Fraser's typology, this arrangement leads to one ofthe worst-case scenarios since it legitimizes pension systemsthat are predominantly geared toward full-time contributorsand penalizes those individuals most likely to spend sometimesaway from the labor market. The Belgian case emphasizes thenegative role of the EU in retrenching pension rights and benefitsfor women. The Swedish case is interesting because of the scopeof its reform and the fact that women in the service sectorend up supporting the principle of tying benefits to contributions.     

Financial consequences of leaving violent men – women survivors of domestic violence and the social assistance system in Sweden

Being self-sufficient, having an economy of your own, does not only safeguard basic resources such as food and shelter but is also a prerequisite for ensuring full participation in society. Research shows that women subjected to domestic violence often suffer from economic abuse and experience economic hardship within and after their relationships. Without economic support it is harder for abused women to break up and the risk of returning to a violent partner increases. The aim of the article is to understand how survivors of domestic violence experience financial vulnerability and what implications these experiences have on social work within the social assistance system. Based on 13 in-depth interviews with women survivors, our study describes how debts and stolen money, together with difficulties on the labour market, affect their ability to have a reasonable economic standard (long) after breaking up. Several of the women describe how social workers in different ways have recognized them by giving emotional support, cognitive respect and social esteem. However, social workers have also mimicked patterns of abuse from their ex-partners.     

Have wars and violence declined?

For over 150 years liberal optimism has dominated theories of war and violence. It has been repeatedly argued that war and violence either are declining or will shortly decline. There have been exceptions, especially in Germany and more generally in the first half of the twentieth century, but there has been a recent revival of such optimism, especially in the work of Azar Gat, John Mueller, Joshua Goldstein, and Steven Pinker who all perceive a long-term decline in war and violence through history, speeding up in the post-1945 period. Critiquing Pinker’s statistics on war fatalities, I show that the overall pattern is not a decline in war, but substantial variation between periods and places. War has not declined and current trends are slightly in the opposite direction. The conventional view is that civil wars in the global South have largely replaced inter-state wars in the North, but this is misleading since there is major involvement in most civil wars by outside powers, including those of the North. There is more support for their view that homicide has declined in the long-term, at least in the North of the world (with the United States lagging somewhat). This is reinforced by technological improvements in long-distance weaponry and the two transformations have shifted war, especially in the North, from being “ferocious” to “callous” in character. This renders war less visible and less central to Northern culture, which has the deceptive appearance of being rather pacific. Viewed from the South the view has been bleaker both in the colonial period and today. Globally war and violence are not declining, but they are being transformed.     

Who Gets What? Gender Differences in “Spendable” Income

SUMMARY

Feminist policy makers need accurate measures of inequality in the economic well-being of men and women. In this paper, we explain why the wage gap by gender gives a misleading measure of women's relative economic well-being in the United States, emphasizing the effects of income pooling within households. We construct a household-level index of women's “spendable” income relative to men's that builds on Randy Albelda's (1988) “PAR index.” We improve on the PAR index in three ways. First, we account for economies of scale associated with additional household members. Second, we utilize the Current Population Survey to capture the impact of government taxes and transfers, providing an indicator of “spendable,” rather than “money,” income. Finally, as a step toward redefining the concept of “spendable” income, we deduct a lower-bound estimate of child care costs.     

“Suffragettes in Satin Shorts”? Gender and Competitive Boxing

This study is an empirical and theoretical contribution to the burgeoning literature on gender and competitive boxing. By using Connell's concepts of labor, power, cathexis, and representation and a combination of content and semiotic analysis, interviews, and observations, we argue that competitive boxing can be studied productively as a paradoxical gender regime that simultaneously enables and constrains how women do gender. On one hand, the sport encourages individual women to display physical aggression when such behavior traditionally has been deemed the antithesis of femininity. Some feminists argue that this form of physical feminism enables women to transcend essentialist discourses that restrict their corporeal power. On the other hand, women boxers in general also encounter resistance to their aspirations. For example, they are still positioned by essentialist discourses about both their bodies and capacity to develop the requisite form of controlled aggression. Strongly gendered links between bodily labor and bodily capital also mean that women have less access to resources than do men and, consequently, fewer opportunities to develop their pugilistic capital. We also maintain that competitive women boxers are implicated in a body project that tends to replicate sporting practices that some feminists and pro-feminists argue are damaging to both men and women.