Bruise Documentation,Race and Barriers to Seeking Legal Relief for Intimate Partner Violence Survivors: a Retrospective Qualitative Study

Documentation of physical injuries from intimate partner violence (IPV) is critically important when a victim seeks legal help. Bruising, a common IPV injury, is often less visible on victims of color. This retrospective qualitative study is focused on IPV survivors’ and service providers’ experiences with the complex interrelationship between IPV injury, bruise documentation, race and legal assistance. Focus group results with a racially diverse group of female IPV survivors and legal service providers indicate that all victims struggle with documenting their bruises, but for women of color, even documentation of visible bruising underrepresents the severity of their IPV injuries. Further, there are a number of social, logistic, and systemic barriers to injury documentation that may make legal relief for IPV difficult for all women, but particularly more difficult for women of color. Proposed solutions to address the gap include, improved documentation techniques, and greater education for legal service providers. Implications for the field of family violence generally and potential future research directions are also discussed.     

Governments and their advisors

Abstract. Governments need highly-skilled advice to cope with the demands of modem society. The traditional civil service, which is professionally oriented, has difficulty in adapting quickly enough to fulfill this function adequately. Democratically elected governments have, therefore, had to look elsewhere for help to cope with rapid changes and increasing complex questions. Royal commissions, for example, have demonstrated lexible and innovative approaches to far-reaching problems; however, such commissions are costly and transitory. Since world war II, governments have become highly active in initiating and directing social programs. Appropriate guidelines and policies have been sought increasing from advisory councils and experts in the private sector, while the re& structure of government has responded too slowly to change. Western economies have made substantial improvements in social policies and in the avoidance of mass depressions, but these have been accompanied by a massive increase in government programs and bureaucracies. Furthermore, the problems of persistent unemployment and inflation still defy solution. There has been a rapid growth of ministerial and semi-political staffs, which are more sensitive to change than the traditional civil service. Outside consultants also are being employed more extensively and so-called ‘think tanks’ are beginning to play a role. Effective solutions will demand the purposeful application of mud specialized knowledge but with due respect for human values and sensitivity to rapid social change. Sommaire. Les gouvernements ont besoin de conseillers très compétents pour répondre aux exigences de la société moderne et la fonction publique traditionnelle qui est surtout professionnelle a des difficultés à s'adapter assez rapidement pour remplir convenablement cette fonction. Les gouvernements élus de façon démocratique doivent donc chercher de l'aide ailleurs, pour répondre aux changements rapides et au questions d'une complexité croissante. Les commissions royals, par example, ont adopté des façons simples et nouvelles d'aborder des problèmes d'une grande portée. Ces commissions ont toutefois l'inconvénient d'être coûteuses et temporaires. Depuis la deuxième guerre mondiale, les gouvernements ont fait preuve d'une grande activité du point de we de l'élaboration et de la direction des programmes sociaux. Ils se sont adressés de plus en plus à des conseils consultative et à des experts du secteur privé pour mettre au point les directives et les politiques, les structures gouvemementales régulières réagissant trop lentement aux changements. Les économies occidentales ont beaucoup amélioré leurs politiques sociales et ont évité les crises généralisées mais ce progrès s'est accompagné d'une augmentation massive des programmes gouvemementaux et des bureaucraties. De plus, les problèmes du chomage chronique et de l'inflation n'ont pas encore trouvé de solution. Il y a eu me croissance rapide du personnel ministériel et semi-politique, qui at plus sensible au changement que la fonction publique traditionnelle. On emploie également beaucoup plus de consultants de I'extérieur et les “Think tanks” (littéralement “réservoir à penser”) commencent à jouer un rôle appréciable. Des solutions efficaces demanderont l'application judicieuse de connaissances spécialisées mais avec le respect des valeurs humaines et la conscience de la rapidité de I'évolution sociale.     

Ethnic conflict & civic life: a review essay

Academic discourse on ethnic conflict in India has, all too often, amounted to little more than platitudes, hand-wringing, and blame-casting. Far too seldom do we see an investigation of the topic that is firmly grounded in both theory and on-the-ground data collection: a soberly argued, articulately presented work examining the local circumstances that make Hindu–Muslim conflict more or less likely to flare into bloodshed. Even apart from the added timeliness produced by last year's conflagration in Gujarat, Ashutosh Varshney's new book, Ethnic Conflict & Civic Life: Hindus & Muslims in India, is a welcome contribution to a field sorely in need of such creative, clear-headed, and academically rigorous thinking. It provides the opportunity, moreover, to review the existing schools of thought attempting to explain ethnic conflict, and highlight their inadequacies as a comprehensive framework for analysis.     

VISITATION AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

with increasing frequency, courts and legislatures are focusing attention on visitation disputes in which there are allegations of domestic violence. This article explores the requirements for a careful assessment of the domestic violence issues, theparenting capacities of the adults, and the coping skilk of the children. It then proposes a decision-tree model of access recommendations that incorporates the information gatheredfmm the evaluation procedures.     

Rights and obligations of the persons concerning their genetic data.

The right to privacy is a right that is universally recognised and which encompasses the protection of the genetic codes. However, this is not an absolute right and is limited when certain interests come into play. This article highlights such limits, analysing the different uses that can be made with the genetic data, as well as the dangers that such uses can entail.     

OVERCOMING BARRIERS FAMILY CAMP:A PROGRAM FOR HIGH‐CONFLICT DIVORCED FAMILIES WHERE A CHILD1 IS RESISTING CONTACT WITH A PARENT

Overcoming Barriers Family Camp is an innovative program designed to treat separating and divorced families where a child is resisting contact or totally rejecting a parent. Both parents, significant others, and children participate in a 5‐day family camp experience that combines psycho‐education and clinical intervention in a safe, supportive milieu. This article describes the components of the program, from referrals to intake to aftercare. Evaluation immediately following the camp experience is provided for the camps that ran in 2008 and 2009, and 6‐month follow‐up interview information is provided for the 2008 camp program as well as 1‐month follow‐up about the initiation of aftercare with the 2009 families. A discussion of the strengths and challenges of this approach with entrenched, high‐conflict family systems concludes the article.