Domestic Violence and Substance Use: Tackling Complexity

Domestic violence and substance use are issues which pervadesocial work practice, yet are often on the margins of the knowledgebase for practitioners and their managers. This article providesan overview of the literature on substance use and domesticviolence, highlighting the problems with the separation of bothpractice and policy in these areas. Research on substance useand the needs of women survivors of domestic violence are explored,alongside the more substantial literature on perpetrators ofdomestic violence and patterns of substance use. The problemsof a simplistic analysis which suggest that there is a causallink between substance use and domestic violence are highlighted.Using data from an on-going research project, the sources ofthe continuing and dysfunctional separation of work in theseareas are explored.     

新视域下的家庭暴力及其成因探索

迈入新世纪,家庭暴力的内涵和特征也发生了相应的变化。从广义上讲,家庭暴力不仅指在有婚姻关系、身份关系的生活共同体中出现的暴力行为,而且还包括同居关系及婚姻关系终止后出现的暴力行为,如“事实家庭”、“同性恋家庭”、“离异家庭”、“准家庭”成员之间的暴力行为;从狭义上讲,特指发生在上述广义家庭中对女性所实施的一切暴力和虐待行为。对此,尝试用一种新的视域(宗教、社会和两性冲突等)来探讨家庭暴力的成因,对于增进妇女权益,维护家庭稳定和社会和谐具有积极的意义。     

危及大陆架固定平台安全罪国内法化研究

《制止危及大陆架固定平台安全非法行为议定书》将危及大陆架固定平台安全罪规定为国际犯罪,中国作为《议定书》的缔约国理应通过国内立法予以回应,但现行国内刑事立法没有与之对应的罪名,而是按照外延相当宽泛的包容性罪名惩治,两个罪名的差异性致使国内法在应对本罪时处于尴尬境地。为切实履行缔约国义务,借鉴其他国家的国内立法,有必要在中国刑法分则第二章中增设劫持大陆架固定平台罪和危及大陆架固定平台安全罪两个罪名,并相应地配置不同的法定刑。     

Domestic Violence, Criminal Justice Responses and Homelessness: Finding the Connection and Addressing the Problem

As more social scientists examine the female side of social issues a host of questions are answered and further inquiries form in the wings. Two fields where much detailed and valuable information on women have been provided, and many questions still remain, are social work and criminal justice. A meeting point for these disciplines lies in the area of homelessness and females. By most accounts, a sizable proportion of homeless women, many of whom are mothers, become homeless due to domestic abuse. Knowledge of ineffective criminal justice responses to domestic violence leaves one to ponder whether there exists a connection between lack of social control in domestic abuse calls and the onset of female homelessness. The present work addresses this knowledge gap and suggests future research necessary to delineate a proposed link between weak criminal justice responses and female homelessness. Policy initiatives to correct these flaws are provided as well.     

Avoidance and confrontation: social work practice in relation to domestic violence and child abuse

Action on the relationship between domestic violence and child abuse has been slow to emerge in mainstream child protection agencies. This paper reports a qualitative study of child protection files. Particular attention was given to the issues for Asian families. Initially the numerous strategies which social workers and other professionals at child protection conferences used to avoid the issue of domestic violence are explored. However, there was also a small, but emerging, pattern of child abuse in the context of domestic violence being taken seriously. In each of these cases strong expectations were placed on women to separate from or remain separated from men who were violent. These expectations were backed by 'threats' or the actual accommodation of children often with little interagency support for women undertaking this difficult and dangerous task, or before women were ready to undertake this separation. Suggestions are made about aspects of the organizational context which need to change if good child protection is also to include appropriate protection and support for the child's mother.     

Examining the Relationship between Domestic Violence and Depression among Koreans: The Role of Self‐esteem and Social Support as Mediators

Domestic violence is a prevalent social issue in Korea affecting a significant number of people every day. It is thus important to examine how the experience of domestic violence affects their mental health to better address their needs. Using stress‐coping theory as a theoretical framework, this study examines the domestic violence and depression relationship among Korean men and women. Two aspects of self‐esteem and informal and formal social support are examined as potential mediators of this relationship. The data was the first wave of Korean Welfare Panel Study data including 2477 individuals with experiences of abuse. Structural equation modeling procedures were used for analyses. Domestic violence was significantly associated with self‐worth, self‐deprecation, and depression. The experiences of violence eroded self‐worth while reinforcing self‐deprecation and those with more exposure to violence showed a higher level of depression. Self‐deprecation played a significant role in mediating the effect of domestic violence on depression. However, different findings were yielded for social support. While informal social support was significantly associated with domestic violence, formal social support was not associated with domestic violence. Findings suggest for mental health interventions targeting self‐esteem, particularly the diminution of self‐deprecation in working with the victims. Suggestions for future research and implications for social work are also discussed.     

Domestic Abuse Assessment in Child Custody Disputes: Beware the Domestic Violence Research Paradigm

ABSTRACT

In some states, custody assessors are now required to become familiar with the dynamics of prevalence of domestic abuse since the presence of one or more abusive parents in the house has an impact on the “best interests of the child.” The domestic abuse literature is misleading in setting a framework for abuse incidence and threat source for children. Males are represented as primary perpetrators of physical abuse although data from meta-analytic studies show otherwise. Indirect aggression is scarcely mentioned in the literature, although prevalent in research on aggression. Physical violence directed towards children is actually more likely to be mother-perpetrated. Child safety may be compromised if attention is focused solely on the possibility of abuse from a male perpetrator.     

Leerstände: A Photo Project

ABSTRACT

Contrary to previous belief, there are now known to be substantial numbers of household inventories for nineteenth-century England and Wales. This article discusses what, and how, this “new” source can add to our understanding of the domestic cultures of the period. It describes how these inventories, read through the lens of a material-culture approach in both aggregate and interpretive analysis, not only offer unprecedented grounded evidence for how a sample of “unremarkable” Victorians laid out and equipped the spaces of their homes but also bring to light stories of intention, choice, and change in the furnishing, equipment, use, and meaning of domestic spaces.     

Stories of Work and Home in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

ABSTRACT

It is widely accepted that nineteenth-century ideals of middle-class domesticity involved the valorization of a family-centered home life and its conceptual and physical separation from the economically productive work that supported it. Whether this was the case in working-class ideas is less certain. However, discussion continues about how widely such a separation was adopted and about its inherent contradictions. Using an interpretive approach to household inventories, this article adds to that discussion through a close examination of the household arrangements of three unexceptional mid-century individuals, each of whom worked from their residence. Taking into account the individuals' personal circumstances and the requirements of their particular work as well as circulating normative ideas, the article investigates what sort of distinctions, if any, these people made between home and work and how they put them into practice.