Failing to meet expectations:the meaning of intimate partner violence for Pakistanis

Background: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a major social and public health problem affecting people across cultures, religions and societies. Much research has been undertaken to offer understanding and explanations of this phenomenon, its determinants, and its consequences in developed countries around the world. However, there is still a paucity of research on IPV in many areas of the developing world such as Pakistan. Although various studies have been conducted to demonstrate the prevalence of IPV in the country, none of the studies have tried to explore the meaning of IPV from the perspective of Pakistani people. Aim: This study aimed to explore understandings of Pakistani men and women of IPV. It aimed to develop a theory to explain the meaning of IPV and the process through which it occurs, from the perspective of Pakistani people. Methods: The study utilised a qualitative approach with constructivist grounded theory methods and analysis techniques. Data was collected from Karachi, Pakistan and Sheffield, UK. Forty one people (20 from Pakistan and 21 from UK) participated in the study. Findings: The participants identified IPV as a serious concern. Although verbal abuse is often included in definitions of IPV, the participants did not consider shouting, raising the voice or scolding as a type of violence. Hitting, beating, pushing, throwing objects, and pulling hair were identified as acts of physical violence, and non-consensual sex was identified as a form of sexual abuse. Participants identified failure to meet role expectations of a husband or wife as a key contributor to the development of conflict between partners which could lead to IPV. Examples of various expectations from a wife include completing household chores, looking after husband, looking after children, looking after in laws, respecting and adjusting to in-law's customs and traditions. Important expectation from a husband include provision of finances, acting as a bridge, maintaining a balance between his wife and other family members particularly his mother and sisters, and taking the responsibility for his wife and children. Failure to meet these expectations could contribute to conflict and subsequent violence. This appeared to be shaped by cultural issues such as common use of arranged marriages, the rarity of divorce and the centrality of the extended family to the intimate partnership. Implications: Any interventions aimed at reducing IPV in Pakistani people must consider the meaning and causes of IPV from the perspective of that group.

Understanding the factors that affect the severity of juvenile stranger sex offenses

Understanding factors that affect the severity of a juvenile-stranger sexual assault has implications for crime prevention, and potentially, the assessment and treatment of juvenile sex offenders. This study investigated how victim characteristics and the number of suspects affected the use of physical violence and weapons and the occurrence of penetration in 495 allegations of sexual assault committed by juveniles against strangers. Statistically significant interactions between victim age and gender were found for occurrence of penetration and use of violence. Differences in offense characteristics were also found between offenses with varying victim-suspect age differences. When comparing the rate of penetration in the presence and absence of violence, little change was observed for lone suspects. However, the rate of penetration increased significantly for groups in the presence of physical violence, suggesting that violence in this context may be more expressive than instrumental. Theoretical explanations and practical implications are considered.

Postcesarean pelvic floor dysfunction contributes to undisclosed psychosocial morbidity

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence and severity of postcesarean pelvic dysfunction. STUDY DESIGN: Using biopsychosocial interviewing at home, 184 postcesarean primiparas were compared to 100 vaginally delivered women regarding symptoms of stress incontinence, anal incontinence and dyspareunia. Delivery details were confirmed from medical records. RESULTS: Comparison of postcesarean vs. vaginally delivered women revealed stress incontinence in 33% vs. 54% and dyspareunia in 27% vs. 46%, both differences reaching statistical significance, unlike anal incontinence, which was manifest in 51% vs. 44%. When compared to emergency cesarean the relative risk of stress incontinence following an elective cesarean was 0.99 (0.71, 1.39), of dyspareunia 1.02 and of anal incontinence 1.05, indicating no statistically significant difference. Thirty (22%) stress incontinent and 4 (3%) fecally incontinent mothers used pads continuously, suggesting severe physical morbidity. Severe dysphoria (depression) was expressed by 41 (35%) stress incontinent mothers, 38 (30%) with dyspareunia and 34 (26%) with anal incontinence; the association of severe dysphoria with dyspareunia was statistically significant (OR = 2.504 [1.362, 4.602]). Few women came forward to seek help. CONCLUSION: Pelvic dysfunction was similar after elective or emergency cesarean. Compared to vaginal delivery, postcesarean stress incontinence and dyspareunia were less frequent but biopsychosocial morbidity could be severe.

Language and peace

This study seeks to demonstrate how critical discourse analysis can elucidate the relationship between language and peace. It provides a view on the notion of peace put forward by peace researchers, namely that peace includes not only the absence of war or physical violence, but also the absence of structural violence. Approaching the topic from various perspectives, the volume argues that language is a factor to be considered together with social and economic factors in any examination of the social conditions and institutions that prevent the achievement of a comprehensive peace. It illustrates a framework of concepts and methodologies that offer to help guide future linguistic research in this area, and also calls for foreign language, second language and peace educators to include critical linguistic education into their curricula and describes an approach for doing so.

Night terrors:Women's experiences of (Not) sleeping where there is domestic violence

The management of sleep is embedded within the social context of individuals' lives. This article is based on an exploratory study using focus groups of the sleep problems encountered by 17 women survivors of domestic violence. It argues that fear becomes the organizing framework for the management of sleep and illustrates how this takes place both while living with the perpetrators of violence and after the women have been rehoused. It argues that sleep deprivation is a method used by the perpetrators to exert control over women and that this has long-term implications for women's physical and mental health. © 2007 Sage Publication.

Sleep disruption and domestic violence: exploring the interconnections between mothers and children

This paper argues that sleep disruption is both a strategy and an effect of violence and abuse which profoundly affects the lives of women and children. This paper traces the interconnections between the patterns of sleeping (not sleeping) for women and children living with and recovering from the effects of violence and abuse. It highlights the threat to the emotional and physical well-being of children and women and provides a non-pathologizing route into an exploration of one of the symptoms of trauma. It is based on a pilot study which interviewed 17 women, 14 of whom were mothers to 28 children. Mothers reported that many of their children experienced nightmares, bed-wetting, night panics and disrupted sleep patterns. Recovery of the ability to sleep was often slow and uneven with interactive effects between women and children slowing progress.

The transition from severe to mild wear in law alloy steel

The wear rates of sliding surfaces are significantly reduced if mild oxidational wear can be encouraged. It is hence of prime importance in the interest of component life and material conservation to understand the factors necessary to promote mild, oxidational wear, The present work investigates the fundamental mechanism of the running-in wear of BS EN 31!EN 8 steel couples. under various conditions of load. speed and test duration. Unidirectional sliding experiments were carried out on a pin-on~disc wear machine where frictional force, wear rate, temperature and contact resistance were continuously monitored during each test. Physical methods of analysis (x-ray, scanning electron microscopy etc.) were used to examine the wear debris and worn samples. The wear rate versus load curves revealed mild wear transitions, which under long duration of running, categorized mild wear into four distinct regions.α-Fe20s. Fe304, FeO and an oxide mixture were the predominant oxides in four regions of oxidational wear which were identified above the Welsh T2 transition. The wear curves were strongly effected by the speed and test duration. A surface model was used to calculate the surface parameters, and the results were found to be comparable with the experimentally observed parameters. Oxidation was responsible for the transition from severe to mild wear at a load corresponding to the Welsh T2 transition. In the running-in period sufficient energy input and surface hardness enabled oxide growth rate to increase and eventually exceeded the rate of removal, where mild wear ensued. A model was developed to predict the wear volume up to the transition. Remarkable agreement was found between the theoretical prediction and the experimentally-measured values. The oxidational mechanjsm responsible for transitjon to mild wear under equilibrium conditions was related to the formation of thick homogenous oxide plateaux on subsurface hardened layers, FeO was the oxide formed initially at the onset of mild wear but oxide type changed.during the total running period to give an equilibrium oxide whose nature depended on the loads applied.

Who speaks up for Inés Fonseca? Representing violence against vulnerable subjects and the ethics of care in fictional narrative about Alzheimer’s disease:Ahora tocad música de baile (2004) by Andrés Barba

This paper studies the Spanish fictional novel by Andrés Barba, Ahora tocad música de baile (2004), one of the first cultural texts dealing entirely with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) to appear in Spain. It argues that the significance of Barba’s fictional novel rests on two important issues: the ethics of representation of violence against vulnerable subjects and the ethics of care. The paper analyses how these two issues allow Barba to create a story in which the verbal and physical abuse to which the person living with Alzheimer’s disease is subjected places the reader, on the one hand, as voyeur/witness of the abuse; and, on the other, as interpreter, and ultimately judge, of the fine line that separates euthanasia, assisted suicide, and murder. The open ending of the novel defers all ethical and moral judgment to the reader. It examines how the novel offers a monolithic perspective about AD, in which care is presented as a burden. In fact, this study shows that the novel’s multi-layered structure and polyphonic nature places the emphasis on stigmas, stereotypes and negative metaphors around AD, as found in contemporary social discourses.