Silenced Voices and Structured Survival

Abstract

Despite social and governmental responses to battering, many women continue to feel entrapped in abusive relationships. Using standpoint epistemology, this article examines the various aspects of help seeking, and the social and institutional responses to such efforts, through the narratives of 19 women in a domestic violence shelter. The findings are discussed with reference to Ptacek's social entrapment perspective and Gondolf and Fisher's survivor hypothesis, illustrating the socioeconomic and political context of the control tactics utilized by abusers and the structural impediments to battered women's successful help seeking.

Backfire: lessons learned when the criminal justice system fails help-seeking battered women

“…As with fear of reprisal, women's economic dependence on their partners handicaps their help-seeking efforts (Fischer and Rose 1995, Horsburgh 1995, Websdale 1998, Goodman et al 1999, Abraham 2000, Bui 2001, Krishnan et al 2001, Moe 2007. If an incarcerated partner means the loss of the family's sole source of income, the absence of readily available child care, or is otherwise financially debilitating, women may avoid calling the police even in the face of severe abuse.…”

Det besvärliga våldet : Socialtjänstens stöd till kvinnor som utsatts för våld i nära relationer

“…De responser som kvinnor får kan upplevas som både positiva och negativa (Moe, 2007;Trotter & Allen, 2009), varför det är viktigt att inte bara fokusera på antal personer kvinnor har berättat om våldet för eller vänt sig till för hjälp.…”

“…Senare forskning ger stöd åt bilden av våldsutsatta kvinnor som aktiva i sitt agerande för att hantera våldet, vilket starkt ifrågasätter den tidigare bilden av inlärd hjälplöshet och passiva offer (se till exempel Hydén, 1999;Lewis, 2004;Lewis, Dobash, Dobash Emerson & Cavanagh, 2000;Moe, 2007) De flesta kvinnor söker hjälp på många olika sätt för att stoppa våldet (Barrett & St. Pierre, 2011;Bennett Cattaneo, Goodman, Kaltman & Dutton, 2007;Meyer, 2011).…”

Violence against women—social services support during legal proceedings

“…Recent research supports the notion of abused women as active in their actions to deal with the violence, which puts in question earlier images of the learned helplessness and passive victims (see e.g. Lewis, 2004;Lewis, Dobash, Dobash Emerson & Cavanagh, 2000;Moe, 2007) Most women seek help in many different ways to end the violence (Barrett & St. Pierre, 2011;Bennett Cattaneo, Goodman, Kaltman & Dutton, 2007;Meyer, 2011).…”

“…The responses that women receive may be perceived either as positive or negative (Moe, 2007;Trotter & Allen, 2009). Women can get formal social support from many different actors.…”