Combating Violence against Women in India: Nari Adalats and Gender-Based Justice

Using qualitative methodology—field observations and in-depth interviews—the study examines the role of Mahila Samakhya (a group advocating women's equality) and Nari Adalats (informal women's courts) in India in combating violence against women. Interviews were conducted with members of a Mahila Samakhya in the southwest state of Karnataka and complainants who appeared before Nari Adalats. Nari Adalats in Karnataka are an innovation of Mahila Samakhya, a Government of India development program. The results indicate that Nari Adalats exercise broad authority to investigate and dispose of a wide range of domestic violence cases in India. The Mahila Samakhya serves as an advocacy group and provides shelter, legal assistance, and social help as well as education for victims of domestic violence.     

针对妇女的暴力以及社会性别规范

与性别 (sex)概念不同 ,社会性别 (gender)概念 〔 1〕 表明 ,社会性别的区分并非“自然”形成的 ,它是男女定型角色或社会对于两性差异的认知的结果。自 2 0世纪 80年代以来 ,女权主义法理学运用社会性别概念作为分析工具 ,超越了 60年代追求形式平等、倡导“社会性别中立”范畴的局限 ,转而质疑传统的社会性别中立目标 ,指出由于存在性别盲点 ,致使自 1 9世纪以来的妇女运动非但没有提升妇女地位 ,反而使妇女处于更糟糕的境地。社会不平等的现实———女性贫困化、就业歧视和不平等的报酬、对妇女的暴力 ,都印证了形式平等不能产生事实平…     

Risk Factors of Violence against Women in Peru

Based on the results of previous investigations, this study seeks for individual, relationship and community characteristics among women living with their partner associated with intimate partner violence [IPV] victimization. The sample of 19,131 women was taken from the 2016 Peru Demographic and Health Survey. A binomial logistic regression model showed among the most significant risk factors: heavy drinking by the woman’s partner (OR = 8.655, p < .001), having witnessed parental domestic violence (OR = 1.496, p < .001) and having experienced physical punishment during childhood (OR = 1.306, p < .001). Other factors related to higher odds of IPV at the individual level include employment and low educational attainment. Relationship risk factors comprise, 25 to 29 years of relationship duration, living in cohabitation, previous unions and low socioeconomic status. At the community level, living in an urban residence increases the likelihood of abuse. These findings highlight the need to include these factors, in the IPV prevention strategies.     

Factors Influencing Domestic and Marital Violence against Women in Ghana

Using the most recent version of the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey and employing complementary log-log models, this study examined the causes of both physical and sexual violence among married women in Ghana. Results indicate that wealth and employment status that capture feminist explanations of domestic violence were not significantly related to both physical and sexual violence. Education was however, related to physical violence among Ghanaian women. Women who thought wife beating was justified and those who reported higher levels of control by their husbands had higher odds of experiencing physical and sexual violence. Also, compared to those who had not, women who witnessed family violence in their lives were significantly more likely to have experienced physical and sexual violence.     

Predictors of Physical Spousal/Intimate Violence in Chinese American Families

A total of 262 Chinese Americans (133 males and 129 females) were randomly selected from the Los Angeles County telephone directory using Chinese surnames as the identifying marker. A structured telephone interview was administered measuring respondents' gender role beliefs, acculturation, sociodemographic factors, and their victimization experiences with physical aggression by a spouse or intimate partner. Contrary to the feminist literature on domestic violence, gender role beliefs was not related to physical intimate violence. Acculturation, however, significantly predicted severe physical violence experienced during respondents' lifetime. Whether respondents were employed also predicted lifetime minor forms physical violence by a spouse/intimate partner. Findings are discussed in a cultural context, and social work practice and research implications are also highlighted.     

Types of Violence against Women and Factors Influencing Intimate Partner Violence in Togo (West Africa)

Violence against women has been recognized as an important social and human rights issue that affects all cultures and societies. Although this issue has been more frequently studied in high-income countries, such as the United States, the scholarly research of violence against women in Africa, especially West Africa, has been scarce. Using a representative sample, this study examined violence against women in Togo, particularly the types of violence that Togolese women endure, and factors that affect a Togolese woman’s chance of being victimized by her intimate partner. The findings indicated that Togolese women experienced different forms of violence. Also, some covariates at the individual level significantly affected a woman’s risk of experiencing intimate partner violence. Several policy recommendations have been made.

Violence against Women, Trafficking, and Migration in the European Union

Abstract:  This article examines the evolving EU policy against human trafficking, especially trafficking that targets migrant women for sexual exploitation. It maintains that even though action against trafficking is now firmly on the EU agenda, current policies excessively focus on repressive measures and lack attention to the broader setting in which the exploitation of migrants takes place. This means that current EU anti-trafficking policy remains ineffectual, and may in some cases even be counterproductive.     

Violence Against Women in Jordan

This study aimed to describe the social and cultural etiology of violence against women in Jordan. A sample of houses was randomly selected from all 12 Governorates in Jordan, resulting in a final sample of 1,854 randomly selected women. ANOVA analysis showed significant differences in violence against women as a result of women’s education, F?=?4.045, α?=?0.003, women who work, F?=?3.821, α?=?0.001, espouser to violence F?=?17.896, α?=?0.000, experiencing violence during childhood F?=?12.124, α?=?0.000, and wife’s propensity to leave the marital relationship F?=?12.124, α?=?0.000. However, no differences were found in violence against women because of the husband’s education, husband’s work, or having friends who belief in physical punishment of kids. Findings showed women experienced 45?% or witnessed 55?% violence during their childhood. Almost all 98?% of the sample was subjected to at least one type of violence. Twenty-eight percent of the sample believed a husband has the right to control a woman’s behavior and 93?% believed a wife is obliged to obey a husband. After each abusive incidence, women felt insecure, ashamed, frightened, captive and stigmatized.     

Intimate Partner Violence against Women in Turkey: A Synthesis of the Literature

Violence against women is a serious abuse of human rights and an important public health problem that concerns all sectors of society worldwide. The objective of this study was to critically review and synthesize original research published between 2000 and 2010 focused on examining intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in Turkey. Several research databases were searched for journal articles published in English or Turkish and a total of 21 studies were identified for inclusion and further analysis. The present literature review revealed the ratio of IPV in Turkey reported by different studies ranged from 13 to 78 %. Results of this review emphasize that violence against women is an important issue in Turkey. Gathering data on the prevalence of IPV can serve to raise awareness on violence and provide baseline information for developing more effective preventive policies and programs.     

Violence against Women as a Factor in Unmet Need for Contraception in Southwest Nigeria

Evidence abounds that the relatively low patronage of family planning services in Nigeria is not simply as a result of the people being resolutely pronatalist. Available statistics indicate that some women are not using contraceptive despite their stated desires to limit or space births and as much as 62% of women with unmet need in Nigeria do not intend to use contraceptive. The paper examines the significance of violence against women in relation to unmet need for contraception. The study utilizes data obtained from a survey which took place in 2004 in six different locations (three rural and three urban) drawn from two of the six Southwestern states, Nigeria. Our findings indicate that domestic violence was not a strong factor influencing contraceptive use and unmet need in the area as spousal opposition was not cited as their reason by any of the women who were not using contraceptives.     

Violence against Women in Scandinavia: a Description and Evaluation of two new Laws Aiming to Protect Women

Violence against women by a present or former male partner has over the last decade been given a higher priority in the political discussion in all of the Scandinavian countries. Increasingly, violence in intimate relationships is viewed as a public rather than a private matter in these countries. With this change in attitudes and levels of political interest, higher expectations are placed on official authorities, including the criminal justice system, to deal actively with this social problem. In all of the Scandinavian countries it may, for example, be decided by a prosecutor that a woman should be protected from a man by issuing a restraining order. Moreover, a new offence called ‘gross violation of a woman's integrity’ was introduced into the Swedish penal code in 1998. With this offence, less serious but repeated violent acts committed by a man against a present or former female partner are to be judged as one serious offence. The stipulated sanction for this offence is imprisonment between 6 months and 6 years. The purpose of this article is to evaluate how the police, the prosecutors and the courts deal with this new offence. The article also present results from an evaluation of restraining orders in Sweden.     

Prevalence of Violence against Immigrant Women: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Interest in studying the particular case of the victimization of immigrant women has increased. This systematic review intends to document the violence that is experienced by immigrant women within their host country and its prevalence. Research was conducted using five databases: PsycArticles, Pubmed, Web of Science, Scopus and ScienceDirect. We selected 24 quantitative studies, according to the following inclusion criteria: published between 2003 and 2013, that focused on an adult study population, and that revealed the prevalence of victimization that is experienced by immigrant women. These studies were mainly conducted in America (67 %) and Europe (33 %), and the participants were mostly Asian and Latin women. The large majority of the studies focused their attention on intimate partner violence, whose prevalence ranges between 17 % and 70.5 %. There is a high variability of the prevalence rates, which could be due to cultural factors and/or to methodological issues. These matters should be addressed by future researchers to allow for a better understanding of the phenomena.     

Spousal Violence and Alcohol/Drug Problems Among Parolees and Their Spouses

The relationships of alcohol and drug problems to spousal violence for a sample of male parolees (n = 82) and their spouses were investigated. Alcohol problems were present in 76% of the parolees and 56% of the spouses. Seventy three percent of the parolees and 40% of the spouses reported using some type of illegal drug on a regular basis. Both parolees and their spouses gave reports on his and her spousal violence. During the three months preceding the interviews, 78% of the parolees and 72% of the spouses perpetrated moderate violence; 33% of the parolees and 39% of the spouses perpetrated severe violence. Regression analyses revealed that his alcohol problems increased the level of his violence when there were no drug problems, and that either of their alcohol problems increased the level of his violence. Given the high rates of spousal violence and the interrelationships with alcohol/drug problems, intervention efforts aimed at addressing family violence are needed.     

The European Court of Human Rights,Amicus Curiae,and Violence against Women

Are international courts and advocacy group legal mobilization shaping human rights politics? This question poses a theoretical and empirical challenge to state dominated understandings of international litigation. This article theorizes the interaction between advocacy groups and the European Court of Human Rights and the role this participation plays in the enforcement and development of human rights. The analyses examine institutional factors shaping broad trends in mobilization complemented by two in depth studies examining a single mode of participation, amicus curiae and a single area of law, violence against women. The data identify the critical role standing rules, court review powers and group expertise play in transnational rights mobilization and development. The findings bring into question dominant understandings of international law and contribute to a more complex understanding of law in a global age where international courts and societal actors are shaping the direction of rights protection.     

Factors Associated with Co-occurrence of Spousal and Parental Violence: Quebec Population Study

Although the occurrence of both spousal and parental violence within the same family has been documented, there are scarcely any data on this phenomenon for Quebec and Canada. In analyzing the data from the 2004 Quebec survey on family violence in the lives of children, conducted with a population sample of 3,148 mothers, this study pursued two goals: to determine what differences exist between three groups in which family violence occurs (spousal violence, parental violence and co-occurrence of the two) and to better document the factors related to the different types of family violence by developing an explanatory model. Ecological analyses revealed major differences between these three groups in every aspect examined. Our findings support the hypothesis that families in which spousal and parental violence co-occur are not qualitatively different from those families in which only spousal or only parental violence occurs, but that they differ in the severity of the cases reported.     

Violence against Women and Femicide: an analysis on the murders of foreign women in Italy

Crime, Law and Social Change - This paper presents the results of a research on the representations of femicide in the judicial field, in Italy. The use of the term femicide is analysed through the...     

Masculinity and Spousal Violence: Discursive Accounts of Husbands Who Abuse Their Wives in Ghana

This study investigated the influence of cultural notions of masculinity and its enactments on husband-to-wife abuse in Ghana from a discursive psychological perspective. Two focus group discussions and four in-depth personal interviews were conducted with 16 perpetrators (husbands) from rural and urban Ghana. Participants’ discursive accounts revealed that social anxieties of husbands, their fear of being perceived by others as weak or emasculated, and their disappointment with unfulfilled notions of masculine sovereignty influence conjugal violence. Perpetrators constructed a wife’s expression of dissent to her husband’s wishes and commands as an encroachment on masculine spaces, a gender-norm violation, or as providing a public challenge to male identity and thus violence could be used as an obligatory passage to manhood. Perpetrators also mobilized shifting and ambivalent discourses that draw upon culturally familiar notions of maleness to both resist and authorize a patriarchal privilege in marriage.