Listening to Women's Voices: The Participation of Domestic Violence Survivors in Services (From Researching Gender Violence: Feminist Methodology in Action, P 146-166, 2005, Tina Skinner, Marianne Hester, et al., eds., -- See NCJ-210311)

• NCJ Number: 210319
• Author(s): Gill Hague; Audrey Mullender
• Date Published: 2005
• Length: 21 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter analyzes the extent to which the perspectives of abused women and ideas of empowerment inform current policy and service development on domestic violence.

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a proliferation of research-based practices in the delivery of intervention and prevention services to at-risk populations. The field of domestic violence, once eschewed from public space, has blossomed under evaluative research that has helped inform the development of programming and service delivery. However, the authors question whether the emphasis on research and empirically-based programming has caused service agencies to turn a deaf ear to the voices of women survivors and to the ideas of personal empowerment that were once so important to the women’s activist movement during the 1970s. The study reported on in this chapter explored the views of abused women in terms of domestic violence policy. The findings revealed that the involvement of abused women is a powerful process for the women as well as agency staff and policymakers. Yet, it is a sensitive issue and the findings indicate that few agencies are attempting to incorporate abused women’s perspectives in the development and delivery of services. The most important lesson learned from the research was that any attempt to include the voices of abused women must be made at a deeply human level and must not be carried out as just another administrative mechanism. Notes, bibliography