Interpersonal violence, intimate partner violence: France between figures and public policy

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Interpersonal violence, intimate partner
violenceFrance between figures and public policy
Catherine CAVALIN Centre détudes européennes de
Sciences Po (Paris) Centre détudes de lemploi
(Noisy-le-Grand)
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12 years ago

• Interpersonal violence 3 victimization surveys
  (1984-1985, 1996, 1999)
• Conducted by CESDIP and INSEE
•  Classic  approach of delinquency measure of
  offences against property, but no detailed
  question about offences against the person
•  Attack  or  mugging  to designate all forms
  of physical and sexual violence
• Nothing about the identity of the perpetrator
• Intimate partner violence nothing but scattered
  pieces of information
• Testimony of social workers, fieldwork of
  feminist and non-governmental organizations
• Psychological approach of the mechanisms of
  interpersonal violence, at work and between
  partners (Marie-France Hirigoyen, 1998, Le
  harcèlement moral. La violence perverse au
  quotidien)

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In the meantime (2000-2012) figures and public
policy measures

• The starting point NVAWS ( ENVEFF  2000,
  results published in 2003, Maryse Jaspard,
  Elizabeth Brown et al.)
• and then several statistical surveys (EVS and
  CSF 2005-2006, CVS 2007 and then annually),
• Followed by
• Parliamentary reports (Bousquet, Geoffroy 2009
  Laborde, 2010), laws on intimate partner violence
  (L.2006-399, L.2010-769),
• Public campaigns to denounce and prevent violence
  against women (from 2006)
• National action plans (2005-2007, 2008-2010,
  2011-2013)
• in a favourable European context where data and
  measures are also growing in number and gaining
  in importance (STCE, No. 210, 7th April, 2011
  continuation of the DAPHNE programme etc.)

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gt Objectives of this presentation

• An assessment of what has been done in France to
  improve the knowledge about IPV from 2000 to 2012
• The aim is not to give many figures that could
  bring THE measure of IPV
• In order to understand
• The advances in knowledge and action AND the
  ambiguities and inadequacies they keep coming up
  against
• At least two issues to bear in mind
• Links between interpersonal violence and intimate
  partner violence
• Definition of violence (and particularly IPV) as
  a public problem and a public health problem

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Plan (1/2) On the sunny side

• A positive interaction between new figures on the
  one hand, between figures and  public policy 
  on the other
• How did the French NVAWS found IPV as public
  problem?
• Previous non-statistical steps denouncing
  violence against women, particularly IPV
• The  discovery  of IPV in France prevalence
  and complexity
• How did the advances in measuring interpersonal
  violence help in qualifying IPV as a public
  problem?
• Old questions about delinquency reactivated about
   violence  as defined by international
  institutions
• Victimization surveys revitalized so as to be
  able to measure IPV
• How figures can (rarely) impact the definition of
  a public problem the consequences on (so-called)
  public policy

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Plan (2/2) and on the darker side

• IPV an unquestionable and consequently common
  public problem?
• The limits and negative side effects of
  describing IPV in the terms of interpersonal
  violence
• Why IPV is so difficult to manage as a public
  health problem?
• And further is managing IPV as a public health
  problem a good idea?
• Last but not least the classic discrepancy and
  inefficiency in public action

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I - How did the French NVAWS found IPV as a
public problem?
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Old questions, new figures

• In all social fields many actors in competition,
  so that a  problem  can become a  public
  problem 
• Leading role of the feminist movements for IPV
• Mostly qualitative works
• A new context from the mid 1990s
• WHO and EU members were required to develop the
  knowledge about violence, particularly IPV and
  violence against women, children (and other
  vulnerable populations)
• The feminist movement made the most of this
  statistical tropism how to measure
  quantitatively the phenomenon of IPV in a gender
  perspective

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The  discovery  of IPV in France several
thunderbolts

• The quantitative extent to which women are
  victims along the whole duration of the
  lifecourse
• Particularly
• The quantitative extent of IPV its severity
• The role played by ex-partner(s) the severity of
  health and social consequences in that case
• The  classic  social criteria are irrelevant
  IPV as a social transverse phenomenon
• Accumulation of
• forms of violence
• situations of victimization at different
  periods in life

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A strong consistency with other statistical
sources since then (adding comparisons with men)

• Confirmation of the NVAWS results through the
  comparisons between men and women
• Types of violence, types of perpetrators
• Severity measured by injuries, immediate
  consequences on health
• IPV versus violence perpetrated  outside 
  and/or by strangers
• Among the new sources
• Some are interested in health EVS (2005-2006,
  French ministry of Health and Social A ffairs)
• Some others go back to the  traditional 
  victimization approach and renew it CVS
  (annually since 2007, French Home Office)
• Which means a preoccupation for Health, Human
  Rights and Security (larger and different from a
  gender perspective)

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From a public problem to a public policy?

• A very rare case of a real impact of figures on
  the definition of IPV as a public problem
• Womens Department at the Ministry of Social
  Affairs
• Several prevention campaigns since the mid 2000s
• Parliamentary works to follow up the statistical
  results
• Definition of three National Action Plans
  (2005-2007, 2008-2010, 2011-2013)
• A decisive evolution of law
• Law n 2006-399 (4th April, 2006)
• Decree n2010-355 (1st April, 2010)
• Law n 2010-769 (9th July, 2010)
• A continuation of a former and on-going
  evolution the criminalization of  private 
  behaviours (e.g. legislative changes on rape 1980
  IPV defined as specific offences in the new
  French Penal Code, 1992, 1994)

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• gt Are all the elements assembled to make IPV a
  public problem i.e. (in a full meaning) a real
  public policy problem?

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II The limits of IPV as a public problem
figures are not sufficient !
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IPV an unquestionable and then common public
problem?

• Paradoxical situation in spite of some
  opposition (denounciation of a  victimizing
  feminism )
• Large consensus about IPV as a  public
  problem . Intimate partner violence IS a public
  problem
• BUT were the results of the NVAWS  too 
  efficient?
•  10 of women  round figures, simplification
  of the results
• Trivialization of the problem?
• From the denial of domestic violence to the
  acceptance of its  obviousness ?
• Forgetting the diversity of the forms of IPV (not
  only  battered women )
• Parallel with the success and deadlock of the
  gender mainstreaming

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IPV as trivial  interpersonal violence ?
Victimization surveys and public security policy

• The new French victimization surveys produce
  light and confusion
• Giant strides in the factual description of
  physical and sexual violence committed between
  co-resident individuals, partners or ex-partners
• But
• What is IPV without knowing elements of CONTEXT
  about family life, relations within the couple,
  organization of daily life, etc.?
• The public policy on delinquency is in fact
   located  elsewhere and aims at other targets
• And additionally the new laws are difficult to
  implement (very few  protective orders )

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IPV as a public health problem other negative
side effects?

• The perception of IPV (and all forms of violence)
  as a public health problem might also create
  confusions
• First of all (and except for direct injuries)
  the correlations between violence and health
  cannot be easily interpreted as causal
  relationships
• Contexts where other types of adverse events also
  occurred in the lifecourse
• Definition of a  public health policy  on
  violence addressing mainly the consequences of
  violence?
• IPV what about gender relations?
• Moreover, risk of naturalizing womens health
• Trivialization of health, as much as of violence?
• What happened to the  Violence and Health Plan 
  ?

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• Last but not least public policy and  true
  life 
• An enlightening personal experience about the
  implementation of the 3rd National Action Plan
• gt How to understand the  Grande cause nationale
  2010  announced by the Prime Minister François
  Fillon on 25th November, 2009?

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Conclusion statistical measures as a historical
means to build IPV as a public problem

• Social problems dont exist by themselves and in
  a timeless form
• Such is violence, such is IPV
• Statistical measures have been helping to build
  IPV as a public policy matter since the mid 1990s
• The content of those measures partly expresses
  the way we consider IPV and violence
  (historically)
• A powerful tool to bring some hidden social facts
  into light

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IPV, statistically defined and measured, competes
and possibly clashes with other public problems

• Security, delinquency / health also public
  problems, with their historical specificities
• Possible contradictions or practical difficulties
• Interferences and competition with a gender-based
  approach of IPV
• bearing in mind the difficulties that usually
  characterize the implementation of public
  policies
• gtFrance in the midstream
• Diagnoses OK (figures and policy)
• Objectives many uncertainties
• Instruments many uncertainties too

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