Transcript INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

Chie Maekoya
Tokiwa International Victimology Institute
11th Asian Post Graduate Course on Victimology and Victim Assistance
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What is intimate partner violence (IPV)?
Who are the victims of IPV?
What is the dynamic between offenders and victims like?
What are the impacts of IPV on victims and their children?
How do victims respond to their victimization?
Unique aspects of IPV (Women who use violence against their
partners)
Effective psychological intervention
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Definitions
A pattern of behaviors where one partner tries to
maintain control over the other through the use of
physical force, intimidation and/or threats.
Intimate Partner: current or former spouses,
boyfriends, and girlfriends
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Physical
kicking, grabbing, punching, shoving, slapping, pushing,
burning, biting, choking, use of weapons
Sexual
forced or pressured sexual acts, criticizing her/his body
parts and rape (even if married)
Emotional
excessive jealousy, making the victims feel crazy,
isolation from family and friends, making the victim feel
worthless and threatened
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Verbal
name calling and put-downs, yelling, blaming,
minimizing, denying abuse
Spiritual
attacking the victim’s spiritual or religious beliefs or
misquoting the scripture to justify the abuse
Financial/ economic
controlling the victim’s economic status and basic
needs, withholding money and prohibiting the victim
to work
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Destructive acts
destruction of victim’s property, vandalism and
harming or killing pets.
Homophobic
threatening to reveal the victim’s sexual orientation
Immigration
using fear of deportation
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Males or Females?
Percentages of males and females who report their
experience as victims
 In the USA (in their lifetime):
7.3% males vs. 21.7% females
(Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000)
 In Japan (in their lifetime):
17.4% males vs. 33.2% females
(Gender Equality Bureau, 2006)
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Female victims experience more negative impacts by their
partners’ violence compared to male victims (Tjaden &
Thoennes, 2000).
Females are more likely to …
◦sustain injury
◦receive medical help
◦be hospitalized
◦receive counseling
◦loose time from work
◦report incident to the police
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Countries?
 The World Health Organization (WHO)(2005b)
measured the prevalence of IPV including physical,
sexual and emotional violence in 10 countries. They
focused on only violence against women.
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Although there were some differences among
countries, the results revealed that IPV was
widespread all over the world.
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(WHO, 2005)
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Physical violence by a male partner: ranged from 13% in Japan to 61% in Peru.
Sexual violence by a male partner: ranged from 6% in Japan to 59% in Ethiopia.
(WHO, 2005)
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(WHO, 2005)
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In all countries, the interviewer was frequently the first person that the
abused women had ever talked to about their partner’s physical violence.
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 “My
husband slaps me, has sex with me against my will
and I have to conform. Before being interviewed I
didn’t really think about this. I thought this is only
natural. This is the way a husband behaves” (by women
interviewed in Bangladesh).
 “I
did not know where I could go for help. Now I know
where I can go. I was looking for such places. It is good
to address these types of issues in a survey” (by
women interviewed in Japan).
(WHO, 2005)
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Cycle of violence (Walker, 1979)
It consists of three phases
 Tension building phase
 Acute battering phase
 Honeymoon phase
The dynamics of violent relationships between an offender
and a victim is complex and makes it difficult for a victim to
leave a violent situation.
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Offenders
hitting, humiliating, rape,
verbal abuse etc.
Victims
Acute Explosion
Tension Building
protect self, call police,
try to calm offender,
try to reason, fight back, leave
Denial
Offenders
moody, nitpicking, put-down,
yelling, threatening,
withdraw affection, criticized
Victims
nurturing, stay away from
family/friends, agree, try to reason,
cook partner’s favorite foods,
feel of walking on eggshells
Honeymoon
Offender
“I am sorry”, “I‘ll never do it again”,
beg forgiveness, cry, declare love
Promise to get help
Victims
agree to stay, return to offender
attempt to stop legal proceedings
feel happy/ hopeful
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Effects of violence on victims
◦ Depression
◦ Anxiety
◦ Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
◦ Suicidal ideation
(Pico-Alfonso et al, 2006)
Long term mental health risks
Five years later they are likely to have …
 greater degree of depressive symptoms
 functional impairment
 low self- esteem
 less life satisfaction (Zlotnick et al., 2006)
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Effects of violence on children
The effects on children who witness violence between their
parents are also serious and various.
Those children are likely to …
◦ withdraw, being depressed and get involved with delinquent
and aggressive behaviors (Clarke et al., 2007).
◦ Get involved with bullying behaviors which are both offending
and victimization (Baldry, 2003).
 Being maltreated & witnessing of IPV in childhood can increase
the risk of women being victimized later in adulthood (Renner & Slack,
2006).
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Abused women tend to abuse their own children (Coohey & Braun, 1997).
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An abusive behavior is handed down from generation to
generation as an appropriate way to deal with conflict
This theory does not suggest that battering tendencies are
inherited; rather, they are experienced.
Witness violence
between parents
Being abused by
parents
In childhood
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Learn violence
Becoming an abusive
adult
In adulthood
Violence facilitates more violence.
Cycle of violence occurs across generations.
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Fear
Low self-esteem
Recognition toward violence
Feeling toward partner
Lack of resources
Childcare need
Financial problems
Social embarrassment
Poor social support
Hopes things change
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Battered women syndrome
Describe a pattern of psychological and behavioral symptoms found in
violent relationship.
Four psychological stages of battered women syndrome.
 Denial: refuse to admit that she has been victimized or there is a
problem.
 Guilt: acknowledge and recognize that there is a problem, but still
consider herself responsible for it.
 Enlightenment: no longer assume responsibility for her husband.
Recognize that no one deserves to be victimized.
 Responsibility: accept the fact that her partner will not/ cannot change.
No longer submit to it and start a new life. choose to take necessary step.
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Learned helplessness (originally this concept
was created by Seligman)
it occurs when victims believe that they are powerless
and not able to escape from their abusers and it results
in them staying in violent relationships.
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Try to resolve these abusive situations by separating,
reporting the case and seeking help (Ruiz-Perez et al., 2006).
Becoming aggressive (Hamberger, 1997; Richardson, 2005).
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There is no single profile of a battered woman.
Each individual is different in…
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Their responses depends on…
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◦ emotional reaction (fear, anger, sadness)
◦ beliefs and attitudes about self, other and the world
◦ symptoms of psychological distress or dysfunction.
◦ victimization
◦ victims
◦ context or environment in which victimization occur, victims
respond to, heal from, and based on social class, culture, social
support (Dutton, 1996)
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Historically, victims of IPV have been viewed stereotypically.
Females → helpless victims in IPV
Focus of research ：female victims ＆ male offenders
(Frieze, 2005; Robertson & Murachver, 2007).
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IPV has been considered as violence from males to female
partners.
This perception begun to be changed after the
first U. S. National Family Violence Survey in 1975.
“Females were as violent as males were.”
(Frieze, 2005; Carney et al., 2007)
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Bi-directional violence
Violence is initiated by both partners.
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Mutual violence
The more their partners use violence against female victims,
the more female victims use violence against their
partners and vice versa.
→ Violence is escalated.
(For example. Graham-Kevan & Archer, 2005; Hamberger & Guse, 2002; Hendy et
al., 2003; Hughes et al., 2007; Swan et al, 2005; Swan & Snow, 2003)
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Here are some facts…
 Mutually mild violence was the most common form of violence (Williams
& Frieze, 2005).
 Females’ use of violence and their partners’ use of violence appeared to
be parallel (Orcutt et al., 2005).
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Being involved with a violent male partner
→ Reinforces females’ aggressive tendencies & amplify their likelihood
of being offenders of IPV
Being involved with a nonviolent male partner
→ Reduces females’ violent tendencies
(Herrera et al., 2008)
Females experiencing both offending & being victimized behavior are
more vulnerable than females experiencing only being victimized (Orcutt
et al., 2005).
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Both males and females likely use violence as a means to
achieve their goals, but females are mostly unsuccessful in
achieving their goals (Dasgupta, 2002).
Motivations
 Both genders
◦ controlling their partners (Hamberger et al., 1997; Dasgupta, 2002)
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Males
◦ trying to establish long-term authority (Dasgupta, 2002).
◦ punishment their partners’ unwanted behaviors (Hamberger et al.,
1997).
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Females
◦ trying to establish short-term security (Dasgupta, 2002).
◦ Self-defense (Swan & Snow, 2003).
◦ Retaliation for prior physical and emotional violence from their
partners, and escape from their male partners’ violence (Hamberger
et al., 1997).
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Using violence for self defense:
◦ may be effective for some victims in stopping the violence from their
partners (Swan & Snow, 2003).
◦ makes their situations worse and they may end up being more
vulnerable.
 Offenders’ violence get worse
 Victims receive more severe injuries and injuries likely to be
sustained
(Bachman & Carmody, 1994; Langhinrichsen-Rohling et al., 1995;
Orcutt et al., 2005)
Even though females use minimal violence against their partners who use
violence, male partners respond with much more severe violence (Downs
et al., 2007).
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Four non violent strategies that female victims can use to protect
themselves in violent situations (Downs et al., 2007)
◦ Separating themselves from their partners by running away or
locking themselves in a room
◦ Threatening to call for help such as to the police
◦ Talking the partners out of perpetrating the violence
◦ Obeying their partners’ demands.
↓ If those strategies do not work…
◦ Use violence
 Usually, it results in the escalation of violence from their partners.
 Nonviolence strategies generally appear to be the safest and
effective option.
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Effective Intervention (Ananda et al., 2007)
Exposure therapy, cognitive therapy, anxiety management,
psychoeducation
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Psychoeducation
Victims often have maladaptive coping strategies, confusion and
self-blame.
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◦ Provide accurate information about
 their victimization
 typical responses
 educate healthy vs. unhealthy coping strategies (teach
adaptive coping techniques.)
Empowerment
 Give appropriate referrals
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A condition surrounding violence may be different in each community and
country because of different social situation, economies, perceptions
about violence and other factors; however, it is true that violence is not an
acceptable behavior and it facilitates many negative consequences.
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Most of what I have mentioned about today is basically based on facts
that were found in the studies done in high income and greater gender
equality countries. There might be something similar and different in your
countries. I hope you have found something you can apply to your
community/ country or come up with new ideas to help victims.
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I personally believe that education is really important in order to raise the
awareness that violence is not acceptable as the first step to reducing this
kind of victimization.
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Thank you for your attention!!
Chie Maekoya ([email protected])
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