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1 – 10 of 11Since female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) entered the wider Western consciousness in the 1970s, feminist debates surrounding these practices have wrestled with the tensions…
Abstract
Since female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) entered the wider Western consciousness in the 1970s, feminist debates surrounding these practices have wrestled with the tensions between recognising the specificity of women's experiences of oppression and challenging gender-based violence (GBV) as a global phenomenon. Crucially, although intersectionality is now readily applied to analyses of different forms of GBV, the international anti-FGM/C discourse has been slow in embracing more nuanced analyses of women's vulnerability. This chapter draws from still often-overlooked Black and postcolonial feminist thinking to problematise the radical feminist legacy which continues to prescribe the dominant explanations to women's participation in FGM/C in terms of ‘Third World’ un-educatedness and lack of feminist consciousness. In framing women's participation as a patriarchal bargain (Kandiyoti, 1988), this chapter argues that women's complicity in FGM/C takes place amidst complex constraints which inhibit women's spaces for action in FGM/C-practising societies. The chapter reflects findings from qualitative research which has interrogated women's experiences of continuums of interpersonal and structural violence to make sense of women's participation and constrained resistance in FGM/C-practising contexts. In doing so, this chapter problematises the gender and racial binaries which continue to influence decontextualised understandings of women's acts of ‘honour’-based violence.
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The figure of the female revenger has haunted the western imagination as far back as some of the earliest extant texts, most starkly in Euripides' tragedies Hecuba and Medea (c…
Abstract
The figure of the female revenger has haunted the western imagination as far back as some of the earliest extant texts, most starkly in Euripides' tragedies Hecuba and Medea (c. 430–420 bc). She has tended to take on one of three forms: the scorned woman, the vengeful mother or the victim of physical violence, almost always sexual violence.
This chapter presents an interdisciplinary and transhistorical understanding of the troubling figure of the violent female revenger in her shifting incarnations. The investigation traces conceptual strands through a variety of cultural texts, focusing on specific instances that are both situated historically and simultaneously analysed for the ways in which they reflect recurring priorities and cultural anxieties through the centuries.
After considering key ideas such as revenge and justice and gender and revenge, the chapter looks more closely at the so-called rape-revenge genre, moving from the earliest examples such as I Spit on Your Grave (1978) to more recent films which are considered for the ways they intersect with the global feminist protest movement #MeToo, and other key cultural moments such as the Harvey Weinstein case and the very public trial of the USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar: Revenge (2017), The Nightingale (2018) and Promising Young Woman (2020). The chapter draws direct lines of connection between imaginative works, cultural types and stereotypes, and lived reality in order to come to a fuller understanding of the female revenger.
Charlotte Proudman and Ffion Lloyd
This study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on women and children in the UK who were victims of domestic abuse.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on women and children in the UK who were victims of domestic abuse.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw from their experiences of working in the domestic abuse sector to reflect on the impact of lockdown restrictions on women and children, focussing on the impact of government restrictions that created an environment in which abusers could control the movement of victims.
Findings
The impact of the pandemic was significant as victims were locked into the abuse, unable to escape for fear of breaching lockdown rules. The lockdown affected victims of different forms of violence against women and girls in the UK including forced marriage and female genital mutilation, which highlighted the ramifications of intersectional inequalities for abuse victims.
Originality/value
This paper articulates the devastating impact of the pandemic on vulnerable women, and their fair and just access to the family courts. This paper concludes that women were failed by the government and that there was not nearly enough support from support agencies, which has left many at risk and suffering significant harm.
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In March 2020, the UK entered its first lockdown responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the same month, the Domestic Abuse Bill had its first reading in Parliament. Charities and…
Abstract
Purpose
In March 2020, the UK entered its first lockdown responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the same month, the Domestic Abuse Bill had its first reading in Parliament. Charities and non-governmental organisations critiqued the Bill for failing to protect migrants from domestic abuse, and not complying with the Istanbul Convention. Drawing on interviews with staff from Southall Black Sisters, this paper aims to foreground the experiences of practitioners within the women’s sector to explore the unique experiences and challenges migrant and racially minoritised women encountered when seeking support from domestic abuse during the Covid-19 pandemic. It highlights how the pandemic-related lockdowns created barriers to accessing support services and housing, creating an epidemic within the pandemic, and how minoritised women and the organisations that supported them had to overcome structural barriers and racism.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff from a leading women’s organisation that supports migrant and racially minoritised women. Four participants were asked questions within four themes: domestic abuse before and during the pandemic; accessing support from and reporting domestic abuse; accessibility of resources; and post-pandemic challenges. A phenomenological approach was used to analyse the transcribed interviews.
Findings
Participants consistently highlighted the unique threats and barriers migrant and racially minoritised women faced when seeking support. Barriers included racism, language barriers, cultural constraints, the triple threat of destitution, detention, deportation, and political resistance to protect migrant women from destitution/homelessness.
Originality/value
This paper provides a unique insight into the experiences of staff members within a specialist by and for women’s support organisation in England and their perspectives on the barriers racially minoritised and migrant women experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic. It offers rare insights into how service users’ needs changed during the lockdowns and how the pandemic affected their ability to operate.
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Kristian Moesgaard Loewenstein, Barak Ariel, Vincent Harinam and Matthew Bland
A recent body of evidence investigated repeated intimate partner violence (IPV) using crime harm indices (the severity of victimisation), instead of crime counts (the number of…
Abstract
Purpose
A recent body of evidence investigated repeated intimate partner violence (IPV) using crime harm indices (the severity of victimisation), instead of crime counts (the number of additional victimisation incidents). Yet, the predictive utility of harm scores in IPV remains unclear – except that high-harm IPV is not usually followed by any additional IPV incidents. The authors take cases of repeat IPV from North Zealand Police, Denmark, to predict subsequent IPV harm and counts based on the level of harm of the first reported IPV offence.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the Danish crime harm index (CHI) to estimate harm levels, non-linear regression models are applied (due to the non-linear nature of the data) to show that the CHI level of the index offence validly predicts gains in future CHI but does not predict IPV counts.
Findings
The findings suggest that whilst high-harm IPV is a rare event and repeat high-harm IPV even rarer, when they do occur, escalation in harm is likely to occur.
Practical implications
A simple metric of harm of the first reported IPV offence can validly predict future harm – however, scholars should apply more fitting analytical techniques than crude descriptive statistics, which fail to take into account the non-linear distribution of police records.
Originality/value
This is the first study to show the value of predicting future harm based on prior harm in IPV.
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This paper aims to offer a profile of domestic abuse of older women and its impact on their health and well-being; explore some of the conceptual tensions that exist in this…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to offer a profile of domestic abuse of older women and its impact on their health and well-being; explore some of the conceptual tensions that exist in this field; and discuss current policy and practice responses to this group of victim-survivors.
Design/methodology/approach
It is a review paper drawing on material from a range of sources; it has policy, practice and research implications.
Findings
Although there is growing recognition that older women are victims of domestic abuse, it tends to be regarded as a “younger women’s issue” and to be subsumed under the umbrella of elder abuse. This not only removes the gendered element, but it also uncouples it from the lifecourse where, for many, its roots lie. It also tends to foreground “old age” as the primary dimension of risk. There is a tension between the justice-oriented approach of the domestic abuse system and the welfarist approach that imbues the safeguarding system. There is a need for integration between the two systems. Also, for the health and care system to be more alert to the needs of older women at risk, we need to achieve a more effective balance between protection and justice, accord a greater level of agency to older victim-survivors and ensure they have access to domestic abuse law, policy and appropriate support services.
Research limitations/implications
More research is needed with older victim-survivors: listening to their lived experiences, coping strategies and pathways out of abuse. The issue also needs to be more visible.
Practical implications
Developing appropriate domestic abuse services for older women is critical. Practice lessons can be learnt too: especially greater integration of the safeguarding system with the domestic abuse system. Training is needed too for frontline health and social care staff about the distinctive nature of domestic abuse of older women.
Social implications
Domestic abuse of older women needs to be spoken about and made more visible in society and inside services, including older people’s third sector services.
Originality/value
This paper adopts a critical lens and makes a number of new arguments.
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Fatmakhanu (fatima) Pirbhai-Illich, Fran Martin and Shauneen Pete
Katarzyna Lakoma and Peter Murphy
Safe and Well visits are the primary preventative vehicle now used by all Fire and Rescue Services in England. The purpose of this paper is to examine their recent development to…
Abstract
Purpose
Safe and Well visits are the primary preventative vehicle now used by all Fire and Rescue Services in England. The purpose of this paper is to examine their recent development to identify notable practice and potential improvements.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review and archival document analysis have been supplemented by data and information from the evaluation of a case study at Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Findings
There is considerable scope to improve Safe and Well visits, although individual services and the sector are not yet able to implement effective benchmarking across services or commission a more appropriate evaluation methodology such as a social return on investment.
Research limitations/implications
The research is situationally bound to England, although there may be transferable lessons to other services and jurisdictions.
Practical implications
Potential future improvements are identified and recommended at local and national levels, both in the data and information available, and for policy, operationalisation and public assurance.
Originality/value
Although a small number of professional reviews have been undertaken, the authors are not aware of any academic evaluation of Safe and Well visits since they superseded the previous Home Fire Safety Checks.
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