Toward Enhancing Collaborative Efforts to Eliminate Violence Against Women

Vera E. Mouradian, Ph.D.

Wellesley Centers for Women Wellesley College

Paper presented at the Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence in Maine: Strengthening Relationships Between Research, Practice, and Policy conference, November 18, 2005, Orono, ME

Organizational Chart for Wellesley Centers for Women

Wellesley College Chartered 1870 Wellesley Centers for Women Established in 1995 as the Umbrella Organization Unifying the Stone Center and Center for Research on Women Stone Center (Founded in 1981) Center for Research on Women (Founded in 1974) Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

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Recent VAW Projects Conducted by WCW Staff

Navy Family Study

in process (1997-2004) – PIs – Linda M. Williams and Benjamin E. Saunders – Examined family violence, including IPV, in families referred to Navy FAP to evaluate risk factors, long-term outcomes, and FAP’s success – Has produced many conference presentations and reports. Research publications are – Resulted in an internal memo recommending FAP attention to the needs of female teenage incest victims – the child victim group in our study with the most serious victimization histories and clinical presentations – The plan is to also disseminate results to non-academic and non-Navy audiences •

2004 International Research and Action Conference: Innovations in Understanding Violence Against Women

– Co-Chairs: Linda M. Williams, Nada Aoudeh, and Victoria L. Banyard – Designed to maximize networking and formation of collaborations across and within countries – Included 130 delegates from 30 countries – Hope is to establish cross-national/cross-cultural collaboratives and initiative in the VAW field – A working group of participants drafted a statement to highlight some timely issues pertaining to VAW internationally that require attention and action (available through a link at the WCW website www.wcwonline.org

) Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

Recent VAW Projects Conducted by WCW Staff

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National Violence Against Women Research Center

researchers perspectives of researchers, practitioners, and advocates – Materials are available at www.vawprevention.org

(1999-2002) – Center Directors – Dean G. Kilpatrick, Linda M. Williams, Patricia A. Resick – Provided a website with information for practitioners/advocates, the general public, and – Documented through focus groups the benefits and pitfalls of collaborative work from the – Created training materials on the collaborative process for graduate students and researchers new to the VAW field, and for practitioners and advocates interested in doing VAW research •

WCW Working Paper: Women’s Stay-Leave Decisions in Relationships Involving Intimate Partner Violence

(2004) – Author – Vera E. Mouradian – Goal: to create greater understanding and support for women navigating this difficult process by providing a thorough treatment of this issue for the general public (Available for order at www.wcwonline.org

) – Abbreviated version was in the WCW Fall/Winter 2004 Research & Action Report – Permission to reproduce for public education campaigns and training has been sought by and granted to women’s organizations in AL, CA, and CT.

– An expanded version of the WCW Working paper will become a book chapter in a book focusing on IPV victimization to be published in 2006 Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

Recent VAW Projects Conducted by WCW Staff

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IPV Question Pairing Order Study

– PI – Vera E. Mouradian – Goal: To examine whether changing the within-pair ordering of items from the CTS, Sexual Experiences Survey, and a measure of stalking would affect reporting of IPV perpetration and/or victimization.

– Slight advantage for the typical ordering of self-acts first for stalking, no other statistically significant differences found.

Women’s Rights Network and the Battered Mothers’ Testimony Project

– Project Directors – Carrie V. Cuthbert, Kim Slote, Monica G. Driggers – Applied a human rights perspective to experiences of Massachusetts women who had suffered IPV and felt they had been mistreated during their efforts to establish safe custody arrangements for their children – Formally documented some of the abuses and negligence that can occur in the courts when battered women seek custody of their children/custody is challenged by batterers – Resulted in a human rights report and a tribunal on steps of the state capitol in Boston – Organizations in several states are preparing to replicate the project – There is a “replication supplement” for those interested in replicating the project or expanding on it – Funding is being sought by Monica Driggers to expand the project at WCW – WRN also organized an International Working Session to End Family and Partner Violence in 1997 and conducted an international study of the response of women’s organizations to the problem of intimate partner sexual abuse. – Information on all of the WRN’s activities and products is available on the WCW website at www.wcwonline.org

Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

Recent VAW Projects Conducted by WCW Staff

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Gender Violence/Gender Justice: An Interdisciplinary Teaching Guide for Teachers of English, Literature, Social Studies, Psychology, Health, Peer Counseling, and Family and Consumer Sciences

(1999) – Author – Nan D. Stein -- Explores power, inequities, and violence in relationships, also friendship, mutuality, affection, courage, loyalty, justice, and interventions in relationships -- Utilizes selections from literature and history to explore these themes -- Defines gender violence as hazing, sexual harassment, and sexual assault •

African American Intimate Partner Violence: The “Strong Black Woman “ Is Dead

(Current) – P.I. -- Katherine Morrison – Is interviewing both African American and white women to ascertain what aspects of IPV abuse dynamics, help-seeking, social support, and the stay-leave decision- making process may be unique to the African American victim’s experience – Will utilize lessons learned from this study, and her earlier dissertation study out of which it grew, to design a public health education curriculum that will be culturally sensitive and promote increased awareness and knowledge about IPV (including about social and community resources) and more positive attitudes toward IPV victims in the African American community Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

Sources of Recommendations To Be Made In Today’s Presentation

• Experiences working as a peer counselor and support group facilitator at a shelter for battered women and their children • 19 years of research experience using a variety of methods and working with a variety of social scientists on a variety of topics – past 10 on VAW and family violence • Observations of collaborative efforts among researchers doing applied work and efforts to establish projects with non-researchers Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

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Some Personal Potential Sources of Collaborative Partners Over Time

Medical Doctor who wants to promote screening for IPV across medical specialties at his institution.

– Problem 1: Provided too little time by his institution for both the introduction of an intervention and an evaluation study to be completed – Problem 2: No funding from either institution or outside sources to pay for research costs – Problem 3: Contaminated sample by beginning “intervention” before baseline data could be collected for comparison to post-intervention results •

Attorney who wants to examine the Guardian Ad Litem system in Massachusetts

• – Problem 1: No funding/extra hands to pay for her research time/allow her to invest time in project development – Problem 2: No funding available for project development process including pilot testing

Criminal Justice Researcher who wants to make more in-depth use of NIBRS data

-- Problem: No time/extra hands to allow for efforts outside of regular tasks Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

What can we do to become more effective as a field?

1) Confront stereotypes and prejudices that interfere with our working relationships 2) Confront false dichotomies that prevent us from learning from the past and from objectively and knowledgably evaluating the full range of techniques which could help us obtain needed information 3) Become better educated/informed in areas to which we have no or too little exposure 4) Hold ourselves and our colleagues to minimum standards of scientific and practice adequacy Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

What can we do to become more effective as a field?

5) Only “Re-Invent the Wheel” sparingly and judiciously. In many areas, it’s time to move past simple cataloging of rates and of bi-variate relationships.

6) Explore the adequacy and interpretation of our intervention outcome measures 7) Get the word out: Consistently plan for and achieve dissemination of research results to multiple audiences Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

What can we do to become more effective as a field?

8) Find ways to fund and support the very beginning, exploratory stages of the collaborative process 9) Fund and support studies of methodology, including on instrumentation issues 10) Leave No Victim Behind (or Expand the VAW Intervention Horizons) Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

What can we do to become more effective as a field?

• • • • • • 1) Confront stereotypes and prejudices that interfere with our working relationships Don’t assume that a person who is primarily identified with a particular professional role has self-serving or malicious intent Do assume that a person who is motivated to approach you about doing VAW research shares some of your values and goals “make a difference in the world” – specifically, sees VAW as a problem of sufficient import to warrant attention and wants to Don’t use a person’s educational credentials (or relative lack thereof) or institutional title or affiliation as a basis for devaluing (or overvaluing) the knowledge and skills he or she potentially has to offer Assume that you both share knowledge with and are in unique possession of some knowledge in relation to a potential collaborative source. Don’t assign blame or criticism to that other person for the information he or she “lacks” at the outset Treat collaborative opportunities as learning and growth experiences for everyone Learn about the many responsibilities and burdens that collaborative partners face and about the written and unwritten “rules” within which they have to work so that you can be more understanding of why certain products are in fact important to them and how these responsibilities and obstacles may impact your work together – also helps with planning Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

What can we do to become more effective as a field?

• • • 2) Confront false dichotomies that prevent us from learning from the past and from objectively and knowledgably evaluating the full range of techniques which could help us obtain needed information The notion that either qualitative research or quantitative research is necessarily always good or bad is false The notion that certain fields of study provide good or useful information while others provide bad or useless information is false The notion that we should only consider information dealing with a particular level of analysis but not other levels of analysis is detrimental to our efforts to understand the VAW “elephant” Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

What can we do to become more effective as a field?

• • • • 3) Become better educated/informed in areas to which we have no or too little exposure. Some suggestions or possible routes: Non-researchers interested in doing research or working with researchers need to invest time learning about research methods and the history of science some reading – this does not mean becoming an expert but it might mean taking a course or two or doing Researchers interested in doing research in the VAW field need to invest time in practice training – e.g., going through the advocate’s training at a local shelter or batterer’s intervention center and doing some volunteer work for a time Consider part of your collaborative’s responsibility to members the process of “cross-training” where researchers offer a seminar on research methods and statistics and practitioners/advocates offer a training course on dynamics, interventions and their underlying philosophy, system responses that impact victims, etc.

Everyone who is involved in designing, implementing, and interpreting research and with disseminating its results has a responsibility to know what others have done before them and to objectively determine how the findings of prior research should impact the planning and implementation of a study and the interpretation of its results. There’s no excuse for ignorance. Ignorance is not bliss to the degree it potentially harms the very people we hope to serve or our reputations as individuals or as a field.

Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

What can we do to become more effective as a field?

• • • • • • 4) Hold ourselves and our colleagues to minimum standards of scientific and practice adequacy Anything worth doing is worth doing well, so plan to invest the time to do your research well. Don’t make excuses retrospectively for not meeting a particular standard. Brain storm how to meet scientific, ethical, and practice standards or needs As part of the planning process take time to provide the context, rationale, and history of a criterion for excellence or ethics that may not be well understood or may be misunderstood by one or more collaborative partners Regardless of which research method you choose to apply, unless your study is truly meant to be a pilot study, plan to collect information from more than a handful of participants so you can reasonably speculate how your results apply to a larger group of people. Not every study’s results has to come from a probability sample to provide valuable information, however, reasonable efforts at obtaining a diverse sample should be made and/or the limitations of the results for generalizing to non- or under-represented groups should be acknowledged The (other) limitations of a study as well as its strengths should always be kept in mind in interpreting one’s own results as well as the results of other studies. Communicating this information about research results is important practically and ethically whether or not the audience is an academic one.

Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

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What can we do to become more effective as a field?

• 5) Only “Re-Invent the Wheel” sparingly and judiciously. If it is necessary for attaining policy or funding goals to demonstrate what is already known, only, now, specifically for your area or for an understudied subgroup – go for it If you must “reinvent the wheel” be certain to know what the state-of-the- art best research practices are and use them, otherwise you may inadvertently “demonstrate” a relative lack of need for services or policy change that can then be used against you In many areas we have demonstrated sufficiently often that some factor is a risk factor for violence or for negative long- or short-term functioning that we should be moving beyond this more basic effort. It’s time to address the questions of under what conditions it is a risk factor for violence or other negative outcomes and how its influence is impacted by other features of a person’s experience or life history, interpersonal dynamics, and more macro level factors.

In other areas we have many sources of clinical and advocacy observation that something is related to violence, but demonstrating the link “conclusively” using research has been frustrating. This appears to be primarily because we keep returning to the same general method which may have major design flaws

in relation to the question we want to answer

. We need to be creatively seeking other means for examining the nature of such relationships and to enlist the advice or contribution of those who are more expert in methods with which we are less familiar.

Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

What can we do to become more effective as a field?

• • • • 6) Explore the adequacy and interpretation of our intervention outcome measures Define what appears to be “intuitively obvious” explicitly. Often treatment outcomes are more complex than they are represented to be by our (too often only implicit) operational definitions. This affects the adequacy of our interpretations of program effects, often without our awareness Consider addressing multiple outcomes. Most interventions and the programs which offer them have the potential to achieve multiple effects (both positive and negative). However, often evaluation studies address one or, at most, two possible outcomes Be careful not to define measures of success (or failure) in terms that fly in the face of our empowerment goals or, just as important, our knowledge of the dynamics and typical trajectories of abuse Consider the possibility that if multiple types of intervention help a small percentage of people without differing greatly from one another in that percentage there still might differences in who is helped Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

What can we do to become more effective as a field?

• • • • • • 7) Get the word out: Consistently plan for and achieve dissemination of research results to multiple audiences.

Publications in professional research journals, books, and presentations at professional conferences will remain important as ways for scientists to communicate with and inspire their peers Non-researcher collaborative partners need to be brought into this process Researchers need to assist their practitioner/advocacy/policy partners to translate their findings into materials useful for programmatic, policy, training, and funding needs Collaborative partners need to consider multiple venues and formats for the dissemination of both “theoretical” and “practical” outcomes of their research Some outlets for dissemination might include development of special research publications and webpages written in language accessible to the general public, writing for national and local newspapers and popular magazines, public speaking at community events, among others Institutions and organizations with which collaborative partners are affiliated need to support these kinds of dissemination activities through the provision of time, resources, and recognition Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

What can we do to become more effective as a field?

• • • • 8) Find ways to fund and support the very beginning, exploratory stages of the collaborative process Organizations need to consider creating a research liaison role for at least one staff member and provide “release time” for that person to develop research projects him- or herself and to meet plan, and implement projects with those outside the organization One of the biggest obstacles to this approach has to do with the value attached to research relative to other organizational goals and functions. Research needs to be seen as complementing rather than competing with these goals and functions. Until research is seen by an organization as supporting, enabling, and expanding the organization’s capacity and function it will be undervalued and neglected or undermined The other big obstacle is funding and material support. Several funding organizations provide grants to support collaboratives, but the focus of the granting agencies has been on a stage of the process that many would-be partners never reach, and, many times, there are no incentives or compensation built into the funding mechanism for practice organizations to compensate them for the loss of practitioner service-provision and administrative time Research institutions need to raise the profile and recognition of applied research within the academy, rewarding those who work collaboratively with non-academic colleagues on reducing or solving social problems Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

What can we do to become more effective as a field?

8) Find ways to fund and support the very beginning, exploratory stages of the collaborative process (continued) • Funding organizations need to create funding mechanisms to support the exploratory stages of research collaboratives and of subsequent projects, including discussion and planning meetings and pilot studies or projects (and including those that may not ultimately lead directly to a “fundable” project) • Funding mechanisms need to allow for greater flexibility in the topic or focus of projects – ideally researchers and their collaborative partners should be setting the research agenda Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

What can we do to become more effective as a field?

9) Fund and support studies of methodology, including on instrumentation issues • The need for information and the passion for reform have outpaced the ideal progression of research development and has resulted in holes in our knowledge of what we are and are not measuring • Some of the recurring debates in the VAW field might be answered or better understood, in part, through a better understanding of social-contextual effects and intra-personal information processing effects on study outcomes • Many of us speculate about the causes of discrepancies in rates obtained across studies. It is important to subject our assumptions to systematic, objective testing • More intra- and extra-mural funding is needed to conduct this type of research, which, in some cases, will require very large sample sizes • Support for multiple approaches to psychometric analysis needs to increase, including for qualitative techniques such as “cognitive interviewing,” focus groups, and “think aloud” task processing Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005

What can we do to become more effective as a field?

• 10) Leave No Victim Behind: VAW Intervention Organizations Need To: Have a plan for supporting the victim when she is one of their own and for addressing the effects on their organization and themselves of her (or his) situation -- Perhaps setting up cooperative agreements with sister organizations to provide staff-targeted interventions would be useful -- Perhaps consulting professionals from the organizational behavior and/or personnel fields would be useful in planning for such a possibility • Work collaboratively on understanding, training, and service provision for forms of VAW that may “exceed” their traditionally-defined missions. For example, there is a need for services to assist – victims of sexual assault who are in on-going relationships that may be violent in other ways (sexual IPV or intimate partner rape victims) – victims of IPV or sexual assault who are being stalked – male victims of IPV and sexual assault (perhaps with one or more men’s organizations) – female victims of IPV who also are being economically abused through the misuse of the courts (to accomplish this may require honest self-appraisal and rejection of reverse-classism) Vera E. Mouradian, Nov. 18, 2005