published_or_final_version / Criminology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing in Advanced Practice

This study examines the way that Native women incorporate the history of colonization into the way that they think about, and organize against, family violence in Vancouver's urban Aboriginal community. Using Melucci's (1989) model of collective action, this thesis focuses on the social process behind Native women's organized resistance to domestic violence. This thesis studied family violence intervention programs among Vancouver's Aboriginal organizations in order to understand the underlying process of negotiation between collective identity, solidarity, and environment. The study was divided into two levels: the organizational and individual. The thesis studied the narratives, or discourse of both organizations and individuals who delivered family violence intervention projects to the urban Native community. On the organizational level, data consisted of promotional texts that were produced by the organizations (posters, leaflets, brochures). The texts were then subjected to a content analysis, to identify the frequency of rhetorical devices, and then a rhetorical analysis, to see how these concepts were used. On the individual level, data was collected by means of loosely-structured interviews that asked questions about why participants were involved in family violence intervention. Nine interviews were collected from individuals who worked the organizations sampled. A rhetorical analysis of the interviews was also conducted, and compared with organizational discourse. The study found that the anti-violence movement among Vancouver's urban Native women was articulated primarily through the rhetoric of healing through cultural identity and spirituality. Both on the organizational and the individual levels, violence against Aboriginal women was explained as a result of the colonial process. The low status of Native women was linked to the oppression of First Nations people. "Healing" from the destructive cycle of family violence involved recovering "traditional" ethnic and gender identities, which in turn involved raising the status of women in Aboriginal communities.

The judicial response to family violence in Montreal during the period 1825 to 1850 was marked by paradox. The criminal justice system, driven by private prosecutors, limited the ability of some victims to seek the law's protection, but it allowed others to exercise considerable discretion and influence over the pursuit of justice. The legal response to the crimes of infanticide, child abuse, domestic violence, and spousal murder was equally contradictory. Infanticide may have been depicted as a horrific crime, but the call for justice was never strong. Society became increasingly sensitive to the notion that parents should be held accountable for causing injury to children, but a belief in the sanctity of the family was still paramount. When child abuse cases did come before courts, children were often accorded the same legal remedies by courts as were adult victims. Similarly, while the issue of family violence was not then a widespread societal concern, and while the notion that a wife was subordinate to her husband remained a prominent part of early-Victorian life, hundreds of abused wives prosecuted their husbands for assault. Those cases reflect not only that abused wives were contesting their partner's use of violence, but also that courts were willing to intervene. Spousal murder cases were further evidence of contradiction: women were subject to heightened legal penalties for killing their partners, but their gender also insulated them from the full severity of the law. / In a period before the sweeping public movements that developed in the last several decades of the nineteenth century, courts were forced to grapple with family violence because private prosecutors brought those issues before them. In their willingness to hear cases involving infanticide, child abuse, domestic violence, and spousal murder, courts made public some of Victorian Montreal's darkest secrets. While the privately-driven system of justice was slowly to erode over the intervening decades, that erosion was to coincide with the rise of public crusades against child-cruelty, domestic violence, and other social issues. The visibility of family violence likely fueled, and in turn was fueled by, those social movements.

Increasingly; child welfare authorities have become involved with families where domestic violence is an issue. This has been the result of improved understanding of the impact of witnessing domestic violence on children. However, child welfare has been criticized for the oppressive nature of the interventions with families where domestic violence has occurred. Critics have argued that an absence of understanding about domestic violence by social workers in child welfare has resulted in oppressive practice towards women and children. This study explored the perceptions of social workers in British Columbia's Ministry for Children and Family Development - South Fraser Region about the barriers to best practice in cases of domestic violence. An extensive literature review revealed eight barriers to best practice that contradict current best practice guidelines for cases of domestic violence. The findings of this study revealed that social workers identified that similar barriers to best practice exist in the South Fraser Region, thereby confirming the concerns in the literature. The use of factor analysis revealed that social workers are attempting to work with non-offending parents in amore supportive manner, but there continue to be systemic problems associated with child welfare services that impede workers ability to practice in a non-oppressive manner. Recommendations for improvement of service provision are outlined and discussed.

This study examined the perceptions of counsellors who provide group counselling for abusive men regarding what characteristics differentiate program dropouts from program completers. A total of 37 counsellors participated via an online-based or paper-based survey. The respondents rated 44 different client variables from four different categories (demographic, psychological, client-group, and client-therapist) on their impact on a client‟s likelihood to drop out of the program. The results were analyzed using chi square analyses, Mann Whitney U Tests and Kendall‟s tau-b correlations to determine the extent to which these variables were judged to impact dropout and how these results interacted with respondents‟ characteristics including demographic variables as well as experience and training variables. The results confirmed that many of the variables found in previous literature to discriminate between these two groups do operate in this way. Additionally, the results suggest several new sets of variables that could be helpful including batterer typology variables, stages of change variables and stages of group development variables. The implications of the findings are discussed with regards to their application in developing and facilitating group programs for abusive men with a view to identifying and intervening with potential dropout clients such that they are more likely to complete the program. The thesis concludes by discussing future research opportunities in this area and outlining the limitations of the study. / xvii, 174 leaves ; 28 cm

In this dissertation, teenagers (13-19 years) are allowed to speak out. The purpose of the study was to gain knowledge regarding the conditions related to socialization in the proximity of violence through listening to, interpreting and attempting to understand the teenagers' narratives about life when violence is an everyday occurrence. Primarily, I wanted to obtain a picture of the conditions under which these girls and boys grew up as they themselves described them. My questions are primarily concerned with the teenagers' experiences of violence in the home, the strategies they used to cope with a violent home environment and finally with their self-images. Secondarily, my intention was to analyze and interpret the picture that emerged in an attempt to understand the meaning of socialization in the proximity of violence, primarily based upon theories of sexualized violence (aspects of gender and power), coping, resilience, and the social heritage of violence-related behavior (the inter-generational transmission of violent behavior). My purpose was also to relate the descriptions and analysis of domestic violence, and the associated conditions under which these young people grew up, to previous research within the field of family violence. The dissertation is grounded in feminist theory which views the gender and power relationships between women and men as a determining principle of social organization. I associate this with the established Scandinavian concept of "sexualized violence," used to describe forms of abuse and sexual exploitation such as rape, incest and other sexual assaults, pornography, the sex trade and sexual harassment. Fifteen teenagers living in Sweden volunteered to be informants for the study. They were interviewed six to ten times each over a four year period. The interviews progressed in steps from background information to the most private and sensitive questions about the violence which had taken place in the home. The number of interviews was determined case by case; the interviews were concluded when no or few new aspects emerged. The analysis is based in part upon the categorized statements and in part upon the longer narratives. The results show that the young people exist in the presence of violence as witnesses to and victims of violence perpetrated by their fathers. The children are threatened into silence and bear inner feelings of powerlessness and loneliness. They are regarded as different in school, bullied by peers and disregarded by adults. In this double victimization, the children feel themselves to be unwanted and worthless. If the child breaks the secrecy and seeks help, he or she experiences utter betrayal, foremost from social authorities. The lack of protective factors and insightful adults is nearly total. The very essential contact with peers has also been denied them. The children feel themselves to be completely abandoned. Using their own resources, they yet manage to formulate their thoughts, create meaning in events and become survivors. / digitalisering@umu

An estimated 800,000 Canadian children are exposed to domestic violence in their homes every year. Families experiencing domestic violence use various community and government agencies along with the criminal and civil court systems. Unfortunately, collaboration between these agencies and the courts is described by professionals in Montreal as being problematic and strained. Elsewhere in Canada and the United States, some cities and communities have made progress in working through the complex obstacles inherent in the coordination of services in the area of domestic violence. This thesis will examine 14 inter-agency programs and coordinated models of intervention that have been initiated outside the province of Quebec to respond to the needs of children exposed to domestic violence. The history of these programs, their objectives and along with coordination mechanisms will be examined. A discussion regarding the implications of these findings for practice in regards to coordination of services in Montreal will also be presented.

No abstract available. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2000.