Pacific Peoples, Violence, and the Power and Control Wheel

Abstract

This qualitative project was the first to study values and practices about sexual assault among migrant communities from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, and Tuvalu in New Zealand. It aimed to identify customs, beliefs, and practices among these ethnic groups that were protective and preventive factors against sexual violence. Researchers were ethnically matched with 78 participants from the seven ethnic communities, and conducted individual interviews and one female focus group using protocols that were culturally appropriate for each ethnic group. Interviews were thematically analyzed. The study identified the brother-sister covenant and the sanctity of women as strong protective and preventive factors against sexual violence, expressed differently in each culture. Most participants viewed sexual violence as involving their extended families, village, and church communities, rather than solely the individuals concerned. However, the communal values and practices of these seven Pacific cultures raise questions about the individualistic assumptions and the meaning of violence underlying the Power and Control Wheel and the Duluth Model of domestic violence. It also raises questions about how such an individualized model can help services effectively support women in these collective societies who are experiencing violence, and how it can contribute to Pacific community prevention of violence. This study is therefore relevant to countries with significant populations of Pacific peoples and other collective cultures.

Thinking differently about family violence: Shifting from a criminal justice response to a recovery orientation

“…What supported participants to desist from family violence differed considerably from the conventional singular focus of interventions arising out of criminal justice orientations (Ali & Naylor, 2013;Armenti & Babcock, 2016;Kruger et al, 2002).. Rather, the study's findings affirm the potential benefits of a recovery orientation, as community-led and holistic responses, to address family violence (Kruger et al, 2002;Rankine et al, 2017).…”

Exploring Intimate Partner Violence in Polynesia: A Scoping Review

“…While attitudes supporting IPV and adherence to strict gender roles are important sociocultural factors to consider within IPV prevention (Heise, 2011;Waltermaurer, 2012), the current literature highlights the complexity of these relationships, suggesting nonlinear associations between high prevalence of certain attitudes and rates IPV. Further, the identified literature cautions against understanding culturally prescribed gender roles as the sole reason for IPV and suggests, for example, that perpetrators may take advantage of their dominant position within the family and use culture as an excuse for violence (Kingi & Roguski, 2011;Rankine et al, 2017;Tauasosi, 2010). There is a clear need for research that uses an intersectionality lens to explore these complex relationships between individual-and community-level beliefs, attitudes and experiences, and the macrolevel institutions, systems of power and laws that support these.…”

“…Intersectionality supports a human rights approach for understanding IPV, creating spaces to acknowledge and investigate unique experiences of women across cultures, socioeconomic status, and other diverse social locations by highlighting the social context within which systems of power intersect to create oppression (Bent-Goodley, 2007;Sokoloff & Dupont, 2005). The current body of literature points to some key intersections and complex relationships between social and cultural factors and experiences of IPV within Polynesian communities, including ways gender, age, and social and economic status intersect with social, cultural, and religious traditional and changing institutions (Baker & Helm, 2010;Cribb & Barnett, 1999;Crichton-Hill, 2001;Jansen et al, 2012;Magnussen et al, 2008;Oneha et al, 2009;Rankine et al, 2017;Turk et al, 2013). Specifically, the current literature touches on ways social structures including the Church and modern economies interact with and influence gender role expectations and IPV in Polynesia (Cribb & Barnett, 1999;Jansen et al, 2012;Tauasosi, 2010;Turk et al, 2013).…”

“…Ministry for Women, 2015; Rankine et al, 2017). Founded on respect, this relationship prohibits close physical contact and discussion of intimate topics between sisters and brothers and accords some power to women in their role as sisters (Cribb & Barnett, 1999;Lewis, 1998).…”

Kainga (families) experiences of a Tongan-Indigenous faith-based violence-prevention programme

“…Mainstream intervention programmes for family violence that predominantly target individual offenders, and which are not sensitive to the socio-economic and cultural contexts of their offending, have proven less effective for Pacific peoples (Rankine et al, 2015; Robinson & Robinson, 2005). This is likely, at least in part, due to such programmes encompassing Eurocentric values that emphasise individual rights and independence without including collectivist and relational approaches that are prevalent within Pacific and Tongan cultures (Ofahengaue Vakalahi et al, 2008; Puchala et al, 2010).…”