Domestic and Family Violence, Mental Health and Well-Being, and Legal Engagement

Douglas, Heather

doi:10.1080/13218719.2017.1396865

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Perpetrators in these instances used women’s reproductive capacity in order to dehumanise, degrade, and dominate them psychologically. This behaviour is clearly gendered, and consistent with recent scholarship on intimate partner sexual violence [ 18 , 46 , 54 ], where women describe similar attitudes of bodily ownership on behalf of male perpetrators. Numerous scholars [ 34 , 52 , 55 ] have written about how perpetrators of coercive control seek to weaponise women’s social roles (as mothers, as sexual partners, as homemakers) against them as a way of eroding their self worth.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Tarzia and Hegarty, in their commentary on the conceptual dimensions of RCA, argue that these other forms of violence can be understood as the mechanisms by which perpetrators force women into particular reproductive outcomes [ 1 ]. In other words, whilst perpetrators can use a broad range of tactics to achieve their aims–including tampering with or denying access to contraception, rape, blackmail, financial abuse, physical violence to induce miscarriage, forced abortion and interference in medical care [ 18 ]–the shared characteristic amongst these behaviours is that they are designed to cause fear and/or impose control [ 1 ]. However, whilst this analysis is useful in terms of distinguishing RCA from other types of abusive behaviours, there is still considerable detail to unpack in understanding this hidden form of violence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reproductive coercion and abuse in intimate relationships: Women’s perceptions of perpetrator motivations

Tarzia,

McKenzie

2024

PLoS ONE

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Reproductive coercion and abuse is a hidden and poorly recognised form of violence against women. It refers broadly to behaviours that interfere with or undermine a person’s reproductive autonomy, specifically to promote or prevent pregnancy. Reproductive coercion and abuse can involve physical, sexual, financial or psychological abuse in order to achieve these aims, and is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men against women. As an emerging field of scholarship, conceptual understanding of reproductive coercion and abuse is still in its infancy; however, it is often described as being linked to coercive control. In this article, we seek to highlight the complexity of this relationship through qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 30 victim/survivors in Australia recruited from the community, focusing on their perceptions of the perpetrator’s motivations. We developed four themes from our analysis: 1) His needs came first; 2) The illusion of a perfect father; 3) Creating a weapon of control; and 4) My body was his. Perceived perpetrator motivations ranged from entitlement and self-interest to a deep desire for domination and entrapment. Pregnancy preventing behaviour was more likely to be linked with entitlement and self-interest, whereas pregnancy promoting behaviour tended to be described by participants in relationships where there was a broader pattern of ongoing control and entrapment. Thus, we suggest that coercive control is a motivating factor for some, but not all men who perpetrate reproductive coercion and abuse. A greater understanding perpetrator motivations may be important for practitioners, particularly those working in sexual and reproductive health services, since it could be relevant to women’s level of risk for coercive controlling behaviour or more extreme forms of physical or sexual violence.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive coercion and abuse in intimate relationships: Women’s perceptions of perpetrator motivations

Tarzia,

McKenzie

2024

PLoS ONE

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“…In their argument, an effective open legal system requires people to have the opportunity to decide whether and how to use legal frameworks. Thus, if disadvantaged individuals are more likely to encounter civil problems, the rule of law will provide the legal empowerment to solve them, weakening the negative effect of legal problems on well-being (e.g., Douglas 2018;Horn, Vahidy, and Charters 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional context and life satisfaction: does the rule of law moderate well-being inequalities?

Olivos¹,

Jin

2023

European Societies

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An emerging strand of research emphasizes the role of the macro institutional context in shaping the social distribution of well-being. This article examines the variations in the association between political power and subjective well-being by how the rule of law is instituted across societies. Two hypotheses of the rule of law role are tested: (a) power-tempering and (b) power-enhancement hypotheses. We use a unique dataset of 30,491 individuals from 27 countries with diverse social and political characteristics. We first confirmed the relationship between individuals' perceptions of their positions in the power hierarchy and their overall satisfaction with their lives using models with country-level fixed effects. Moreover, this relationship significantly varies across countries, and the Rule of Law Index explains part of the variation, as indicated by random-effects models. In societies with well-defined, universally applicable, and fair laws, the association of one's position of power and subjective well-being is reduced. Our study illustrates that institutions of better quality and functioning may equalize access to well-being.

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“…Perpetrators used their legal rights to present survivors to the court in a way that undermined the truth of survivors’ experiences [ 6 ]. The court also caused harm through secondary victimisation [ 8 , 9 ] by not providing survivors their legal right to be fairly represented in court, leaving them feeling dismissed and ignored. This is supported by recent research surveying women survivors’ experience of services which found that women and their children were ‘let down and unprotected’ by family court (Hegarty, 2022; p.76).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Family court…sucks out your soul’: Australian general practitioners’ experiences supporting domestic violence survivors through family court

Kuruppu

Novy

Fetter³

et al. 2023

BMC Prim. Care

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Background Domestic violence is a significant public health issue with survivors experiencing short- and long-term physical, sexual and psychological health issues. Given this, survivors of domestic violence use healthcare services at an increased rate compared to the general population. Therefore, general practitioners (GPs) are well placed to support survivors of domestic violence. However, many practitioners do not feel ready to address this complex issue of domestic violence. Further, there is no research exploring GPs’ role in supporting families through family court in the context of domestic violence. Methods This study used qualitative methods. Fifteen GPs participated in individual in-depth interviews. The interviews were audio recorded with consent, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Results The majority of participants were female GPs working in metropolitan settings. Four themes were generated from the data: on different planets, witnessing legal systems abuse, weaponizing mental health in family court and swinging allegiances. Participants had negative perceptions of family court and felt that it operated on a different paradigm to that of general practice which caused difficulties when supporting patients. Participants supported survivors through instances where the court was used by perpetrators to further their abusive behaviour or where the court acted abusively against survivors. In particular, perpetrators and the family court used survivors’ mental health against them in court proceedings, which resulted in survivors being reluctant to receive treatment for their mental health. Participants struggled with their allegiances within their patient family and usually opted to support either the mother, the father, or the children. Conclusions Implications of these findings for GP training are evident, including curriculum that discusses the intersection of mental health diagnoses and legal proceedings. There may also be a place for health justice partnerships within general practice.

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Domestic and Family Violence, Mental Health and Well-Being, and Legal Engagement

Cited by 16 publications

References 22 publications

Reproductive coercion and abuse in intimate relationships: Women’s perceptions of perpetrator motivations

Reproductive coercion and abuse in intimate relationships: Women’s perceptions of perpetrator motivations

Institutional context and life satisfaction: does the rule of law moderate well-being inequalities?

‘Family court…sucks out your soul’: Australian general practitioners’ experiences supporting domestic violence survivors through family court

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