STUDIEDAGWANNEER LIEFDE UITMONDT IN EEN GEVECHT…

DETERMINANTEN, SCREENING & INTERDISCIPLINAIRE AANPAK

Faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid Zeger van Hee - Tiensestraat 41 - 3000 Leuven

Dinsdag 2 juni 2009

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INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

International shifts and trends

Prof. Dr. Renée RömkensINTERVICT – Universiteit Tilburg

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HISTORICAL SHIFTS IN CONCEPTUALIZATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

• politicization 1970s-1980s• From the 1970’s onwards from private issue to public concern

and regulation.• Women’s movement as the engine of politicization

• Vision: Re-conceptualization of private violence as social problem and disproportionately affecting women due to inequality between men and women and cultural legitimizations

• Strategy: creating safety. Shelters/rape crisis/self help initiatives• Political goal: government should step in to a) protect female

citizens and b) sanction perpetrators. Equal rights (to protection) and equal treatment (of perpetrators of private and public violence) as legal bases of government intervention.

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1970s-1980s – cont’dCrucial role of social activist research and literature in the 1970s initial process of social change and consciousness raising.

• Rape: Susan Brownmiller (1974) ‘Men, women and rape’• Wife abuse: Erin Pizzey (1974) ‘Scream quietly or the neighbors will hear’• Sexual abuse of girls: Toni Morrison (1970), The bluest eye.

Social scientific research: kick-off 1980’s to mid 1990’s.

• International political and legal acknowledgment• 1979: UN CEDAW (violence against women left out as politically

contested and too controversial to include• 1992: General recommendation no. 19 on violence against women as a

form of discrimination. 1993: UN Declaration on violence against women (as a violation of human rights)

• Since 1994: Special UN Rapporteur on violence against women.

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From violence against women to gender based violence: 1990’s

• developing a complex and contextual gender perspective (1990s).

• Definition of gender as social construct (not synonym with biological male or female)

• Gender based violence: going beyond violence of men against women

• Violence in the social context of unequal power relationships between men and women

• Violence that affects women disproportionately

• Racial/ethnic bias criticized (1990’s). intersectionality as concept to acknowledge simultaneous intersecting axes of inequality (class/race/gender/sexual orientation)

• Impact globalisation (human trafficking, migration & cultural diversity in violent abuse)

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State of the art 1: research in IPV as booming business

• General • majority interdisciplinary, with recurring developments towards mono-

disciplinarity (psychology)• impact globalisation

• 1. sociology/criminology/victimology• Prevalence of victimization• Correlates of victimization (social, economic, cultural, psychological)

• 2. (socio-)legal studies• (national) generic criminal law: abuse/assualt, threat, rape, stalking,

fgm, forced marriages, trafficking for sexual purposes.• (national) special laws ( Spain ‘gender based violence’, Sweden• (national) civil/admin. Law (injunction/eviction order, barring order as in

Austria, Germnay and Netherlands) )

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State of the art 1: research in IPV as booming business (cont’d)

• 2. (socio-)legal studies cont’d• International human rights law

• UN CEDAW; Optional Protocol; Council of Europe Rec. 2002 (5). • Under construction: Council of Europe Convention on Violence

against women/domestic violence; EU preparatory work on European harmonisation of legislastion on violence against women and children).

• criminal justic system/police studies

• 3. psychology (social psychology; clinical psychology)• Therapeutic interventions – treatment evaluation (victim,

perpetrator)• Risk-assessment (risk of recidivism; risk of revictimization)

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State of the art 2: core research results on prevalence of

forms of intimate partner violence • physical abuse

• women victimized by a male (ex-)partner : 16-31% (average: around 25 %). predominantly unilateral and repeated violence that causes injuries.

• men victimized by a female (ex-)partner : 4-16% (wide range). predominantly incidental violence and/or mutual violence; mild or no physical injuries.

• rape of women by (ex-)partner: 7-9% (conservative)

stalking by (ex-)partner: 5-23%. (Women disproportionately affected:2- 4 times as much as men).

spouse killing: Women disproportionately affected. ‘Separation violence’.

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State of the art 3: trends in (governmental) policy and interventions

• Extensive network of shelters for (female) victims and children• Wide array of social work and/or therapeutic interventions

(victims, increasingly also for perpetrators)• Increased efforts to professionalize police and criminal justice

response• Increased efforts to develop inter- & multidisciplinary

collaboration• USA: community based intervention

• Increased focus on legislation (criminalization)• Implies a shift towards a focus on the perpetrator• Fits in with crime control agenda

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After 2000: gender and ethnicity under debate (policy and research)

• De-gendering (domestic violence as a gender neutral and moral problem)

• De-contextualization (severing from social economic power differences and specific gender-based ideological legacies).

• ‘intimate partner violence’ and the construction of reciprocity/mutuality

• Paradox: while simultaneous broadening in thematic scope it leads to a narrowing of analytical perspective

• Ethnicisation • Selective foregrounding ethnic difference/othering (in the North

related to migration/growing cultural diversity)

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After 2000: criminalisation under debate • EVIDENCE BASE LIMITED OR LACKING

• No preventive effect on perpetrators of pro-arrest policies and pro-prosecution policies towards perpetrators

• Continuing evidence of resistance of the police to intervene in IPV (‘private matter’).

• RISK OF DISEMPOWERMENT OF VICTIMS • Individually: criminal justice system positioning victims in a marginal and

non-agentic position• Socially and culturally: decline of trust in the criminal legal system

• OVERALL: • Undermining effect on multidisciplinary intervention programs that focus on

an integrated approach. • Critique of limited understanding of gendered nature of the problem

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IPV RESEARCH: THEMATIC GAPS

• Prevalence of IPV • Standardizing instruments that validly address:

• unilateral and mutual violence (‘common couple violence’)• heterosexual and gay/lesbian couples• differences in nature (physical and sexual violence) • differences in severity • social and personal correlates

• Intervention: what works?• Multidisciplinarity and the powers of law

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IPV RESEARCH: theoretical and methodological challenges • CONTEXTUALITY: maintaining a complex analysis of IPV as a

gender-based issue. Aim: understanding individual variation and heterogeneity in the context of structural gender dynamics.

• Legal research: unmasking the gendered nature of law in practice (vs. law on the books as gender-neutral and hence ‘objective’).

• Social research: • developing gender-sensitive data-collection instruments.• theorizing the relationship between private and public

violence

• INTERDISCIPLINARITY: interdisciplinary analyses aiming at providing that go beyond strictly law/legal based interventions to develop an integrated intervention approach (prevention, protection and punishment).

• HETEROGENEITY/DIVERSITY: acknowledging cultural differences yet avoid essentialization.