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INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCEInternational shifts
and trends

• Prof. Dr. Renée Römkens
• INTERVICT Universiteit Tilburg

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HISTORICAL SHIFTS IN CONCEPTUALIZATION OF
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

• politicization 1970s-1980s
• From the 1970s onwards ? from private issue to
  public concern and regulation.
• Womens 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 contd

• Crucial 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 1980s to mid 1990s.
• 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 1990s

• 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 (1990s). ?
  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 (contd)

• 2. (socio-)legal studies contd
• 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 affected2- 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.