Between the Devil and the Deep-blue Sea: Conceptualizing Victims Experiences of Policing in Domestic Violence in the Singaporean Context

In contextualising victims' experiences of policing in domestic violence situations in Singapore, two extreme but interrelated sets of responses have been observed. At one end of the continuum, criminal justice sanctions are strictly contingent upon victim willingness to initiate criminal proceedings against the perpetrator, and at the other, victims' rights, needs and preferences seem to be usurped by the justice system regardless of victims' choice. Neither of these positions takes victims' interests into account. Nor do they stem from an understanding of the sociocultural, economic and structural circumstances in which victims experienced violence, and continued to experience it, long after a police intervention. Data from the research revealed that criminalisation as an ideological and legally practical tool was not only rendered ineffective but irrelevant to the experiences of women in the Singaporean context.Two factors account for this phenomenon. First, the absence of support structures to achieve criminalisation and address victims' needs in the aftermath of criminalisation; second, the authoritative, paternalistic and patriarchal state impedes processes aimed at the empowerment of women victims.

Reinvigorating the domestic violence sector : systemically addressing conflict, power and practitioner turnover

The purpose of this exploratory Australian study was to consider methods of retaining skilled and experienced staff within the domestic violence sector. The antecedents that might influence turnover of practitioners were investigated and analysed. Antecedents broadly included the work-related factors, organisational factors and professional factors. The changing nature of the domestic violence sector was also examined, in particular, feminist identity and feminist practice frameworks. It became evident, however, that the primary reasons for the turnover of study participants can be described as parallel power processes. The concept of parallel power processes as developed through this research aims to capture how workplace behaviours can strongly mirror, or parallel, behaviours used by domestic violence perpetrators. As such, it appears that some domestic violence practitioners are experiencing their own abusive relationship, not within the confines of their home, but within their workplace. Additionally, parallel power processes are compounded by ineffective conflict management processes within the workplace. These concepts directly contribute to practitioners leaving their workplace and, sometimes, the sector. This qualitative study utilised a feminist research epistemology and focused strongly on practitioners' stories. Interviews were undertaken with fifteen domestic violence practitioners from three services within South-East Queensland, Australia. Two sets of semi-structured interviews provided in-depth information based on practitioners‘ experiences of working within this specialised sector. Analysis was conducted using a thematic analytical frame, drawing attention to the key themes as mentioned above. From these findings, it is suggested that in order to retain practitioners, domestic violence services must identify and address parallel power processes through effective conflict management processes. In an operational sense, it is recommended that education and training be undertaken within all staffing levels, in particular management committees. Lastly, it is recommended that the sector itself places greater attention on the re-invigoration of the feminist principles and philosophy that has traditionally guided the sector.

Children's exposure to domestic violence in Australia

Children's 'witnessing' or exposure to domestic violence has been increasingly recognised as a form of child abuse, both in Australia and internationally. Although it is difficult to accurately assess the scope of the problem, research has demonstrated that a substantial amount of domestic violence is witnessed by children. As this paper outlines, witnessing domestic violence can involve a range of incidents, ranging from the child 'only' hearing the violence, to the child being forced to participate in the violence or being used as part of a violent incident. In this paper, current knowledge about the extent of children's exposure to domestic violence in Australia is described, along with the documented impacts that this exposure can have on children. This includes psychological and behavioural impacts, health and socioeconomic impacts, and its link to the intergenerational transmission of violence and re-victimisation. Current legislative and policy initiatives are then described and some community-based programs that have been introduced in Australia to address the problem of children's exposure to domestic violence are highlighted. The paper concludes that initiatives focused on early intervention and holistic approaches to preventing and responding to children's exposure to domestic violence should be considered as part of strategies developed to address this problem.

Factors influencing health professionals' response to victims of domestic violence

This thesis examined factors influencing health professional's response to victims of domestic violence in Vietnam. As this is the first time that this type of research has been conducted in Vietnam, it was expected that the results would contribute significantly to local knowledge and should add to global perspectives. Since it is the first questionnaire about this topic to be developed in Vietnam, the psychometric property of the questionnaire was primarily established, resulting in the questionnaire being recommended to use for further study. By explaining the factors that affect the intentions to respond of health workers, this project provides key data for authorities to design intervention strategies to improve the responses of health professionals to victims of domestic violence in Vietnam.

Domestic violence and family law : recognition and appropriation

The battered women’s movement in the United States contributed to a sweeping change in the recognition of men’s violence against female intimate partners. Naming the problem and arguing in favour of its identification as a serious problem meriting a collective response were key aspects of this effort. Criminal and civil laws have been written and revised in an effort to answer calls to take such violence seriously. Scholars have devoted significant attention to the consequences of this reframing of violence, especially around the unintended outcomes of the incorporation of domestic violence into criminal justice regimes. Family law, however, has remained largely unexamined by criminologists. This paper calls for criminological attention to family law responses to domestic violence and provides directions for future research.

Australian domestic violence protection order legislation : a comparative quantitative content analysis of victim safety provisions

In Australia, protection orders are a key legal response to domestic violence, and are often viewed as a way of providing for victim safety. For instance, recently the joint Australian and New South Wales Law Reform Commissions recommended that a common core purpose of all state and territory domestic violence legislation should be ‘to ensure or maximise the safety and protection of persons who fear or experience family violence’ (2010:Recommendation 7-4). Drawing and building upon prior research in Australia and the United States (‘US’), this paper uses comparative quantitative content analysis to assess the victim safety focus of domestic violence protection order legislation in each Australian state and territory. The findings of this analysis show that the Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria ‘stand out’ from the other jurisdictions, having the highest victim safety focus in their legislation. However, there remains sizeable scope for improvement in all Australian jurisdictions, in terms of the victim safety focus of their legislative provisions and the considerations of legislative inconsistency between jurisdictions.

Threat vigilance in child witnesses of domestic violence: a pilot study utilizing the ambiguous situations paradigm

Research has found that children exposed to family violence exhibit higher rates of maladjustment. We review relevant literature on family violence, marital conflict, and cognitive factors implicated in child behaviour problems. A bias toward perceiving threat in ambiguous contexts has been identified as one factor mediating both aggressive and anxious behaviour disorders. We conducted a study utilizing the ambiguous situations paradigm to assess whether children exposed to violent spousal conflict were more likely than children not exposed to violence (divided into children with an externalizing behaviour disorder and non-clinic children) to perceive threat in two classes of ambiguous situations: Peer and Inter-Parental. The results indicated that children exposed to violent spousal conflict perceived more threat in parental situations than either of the other two groups. A number of considerations were taken into account given the exploratory nature of the study, particularly sample limitations. We conclude with suggestions for improvements to the research design and the further relevance of exploring cognitive factors involved in the adjustment of children from backgrounds of violence.

Underlying beliefs influencing Vietnamese nurses and doctors in screening for victims of domestic violence: An exploratory study

Many health professionals in Vietnam have limited knowledge and experience in coordinating care for victims of Domestic Violence (DV). This qualitative study aimed to elicit the beliefs of nurses and doctors that are influencing the care of victims of DV. Data were collected by semistructured interviews with nineteen nurses and doctors. Data were analyzed by content analysis and organized by three main themes; behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs and control beliefs. The outcomes of this study will inform the development of intervention strategies that will enable health professionals to better respond to and manage care for women who experience domestic violence in Vietnam.