NCJ Number
239150
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 17 Issue: 12 Dated: December 2011 Pages: 1559-1575
Date Published
December 2011
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article discusses victim advocates and the types of services they offer their clients: care work and legal work.
Abstract
Past scholarship has weighed the risks and rewards of legal remedies for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Missing from this debate, however, is an analysis of the social incentives for victim advocates to offer legal options to their clients. Preliminary findings show that victim advocates perceive that outsiders respect legal work more than their care work with clients (listening, caring, and empathizing). This study offers three explanations for this phenomenon: (1) the devaluation of women's care work in general, (2) the confidentiality constraints on communicating the value of their care work, and (3) popular assumptions that care work requires professional credentials in order to be legitimate. (Published Abstract)