This research explores the themes of participation and professionalization as they intersect with power in domestic violence advocacy by using a case study from one region in Kentucky. Throughout this dissertation, I investigate the ways political and economic pressures influence local domestic violence advocates and the ways these macro-level pressures influence 1) an advocate's level of participation in the organization and 2) a transition in social service provision to a professional model of advocacy. The research illustrates that the nature of domestic violence service provision is changing in the United States as a result of the increasingly privatized nature of social service provision and subsequent shifts in domestic violence advocacy participation practices and professionalization trends.Specifically, I explore the relationships between power and levels of participation in domestic violence advocacy by examining the relationship between power, the expectation for increased professionalization within social service agencies, and the local level negotiations of these expectations. Furthermore, I provide an ethnographic description of the daily activities of a domestic violence organization to illustrate why, how, and what aspects of the program are transformed in a new model of professionalized social service provision. Additionally, this research includes the voices of oral history participants in the domestic violence social movement in Kentucky. As services in Kentucky undergo a transformation aimed at further professionalizing domestic violence advocacy, the historic local knowledge of domestic violence advocacy and activism is useful for clarifying the foundations of contemporary advocacy service provision and activism by providing a longitudinal perspective.The changing field of domestic violence advocacy is marked by the move towards unequal power relationships between the advocates and the women, the lack of victims' and advocates' participation in the creation and implementation of programming and services, and the professionalization of domestic violence organizations and workers. This local case study contextualizes the trends that are currently acting upon social service organizations in general, thereby illustrating thecomplexity of human service provision by examining the multiple messages that domestic violence advocates, and thus human service care workers in general, negotiate.

The present dissertation provides an analytical and comparative study of the application of Islamic law (Shari’ah) and international human rights law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It provides an analysis of the sources of Islamic law as well as the sources of international law to set the background for analysis and defines the nature of both laws. It also tackles the subject of the domestic application of international human treaties in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it examines some reservations Saudi Arabia has entered to some of the international human rights treaties it has ratified, specifically the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). It also sheds some light on the political, cultural and religious obstacles to the realisation of norms protected by international human rights treaties in the country, and in other countries for that matter, clearly stating the impossibility of implementing the provisions of the international human rights treaties in their entirety. This is due to the various political and legal developments towards the internationalization of the concept of human rights. It observes that despite the existence of the international human rights treaties, which aim at reinforcing a universal realisation of international human rights, these rights cannot be possibly realised by all countries. To stress the importance Saudi Arabia attaches to the issue of human rights, the dissertation discusses some rights of women before Saudi courts in family matters, an issue which has been criticised by some international human rights treaties, and examines to what extent the country has managed to tackle the issue of domestic violence, particularly violence against women. It provides an overview of the major causes of domestic violence against women in Saudi Arabia, presents some cases of domestic violence before Saudi courts and sheds some light on the measures taken by the Saudi government to combat domestic violence against women. It also tackles this issue both in the international and domestic legal frameworks, clearly stating the Islamic standpoint on the issue, namely that Islamic law, and Saudi Arabia for that matter, whose laws are essentially derived from the two main sources of Shari’ah. It also discusses the common forms of violence against women in Saudi Arabia and suggests a number of recommendations towards more effective protection of women against violence in the country. The dissertation concludes by presenting a number of obstacles in the way of executing judicial decisions in the Kingdom as well as the obstacles which negatively affect the performance of the new code of law practice. It also presents some recommendations concerning personal status law obstacles and hindrances to progress and attempts to answer the research questions it has posed.

Domestic violence shelters offer services key to ending intimate partner violence, but the effect of a shelter stay on women has received little research attention. The present qualitative study examined how a shelter stay affects women’s sense of empowerment, and addressed the following questions: (1) How do women in shelter define empowerment? (2) What are the empowerment experiences of women in shelter? (3) How do shelters support, or hinder, women’s empowerment process? Nine interviews were conducted and analyzed using Fraser’s (2004) narrative method, which situates personal stories within their social context. Four interrelated empowerment processes emerged: self-reflection, gaining clarity, acquiring knowledge, and building community. Three primary shelter elements impacting empowerment were: increasing safety, forming connections, and promoting self-efficacy. This research situates a stay in shelter within the process of empowerment and highlights interpersonal, organizational, and structural influences on women’s empowerment. Suggestions regarding shelter practices and system policies are made. / February 2017

Background: The World Health Organization report shows that about 30% of all women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical or sexual violence in intimate relationships. 38% of all murders of women is made of a close partner. In Sweden, an estimated 22 000 cases of violence against women a year, where domestic violence is the single largest portion. The two most common treatment models for men who used violence in close relationships is Domestic Abuse Intervention Program and cognitive behavioral therapy. The government's goal is to stop men's violence against women. Therefore, the issue of men's violence against women is raised as a fourth milestone in equality policy to draw attention to the violence linked to the patterns and norms that exist in society. Socialstyrelsen underlines that there are few evaluations of activities using cognitive behavioral therapy. Aim: Examining the effect of CBT as a treatment for men who used violence in close relationships. Method: Systematic literature study. Results: Based on the results obtained it is possible to gently draw positive conclusions that motivation and attitude are important components in the changing process. There is some evidence to suggest that CBT can be an effective treatment for men who used violence in relationships during a follow-up of four to nine months if the participant’s got motivation and willingness to change.

Some studies have shown that children who witness domestic violence against a family member or experience physical, emotional, or sexual abuse will often display behavioral risk factors such as increased suicidal ideation. Using social learning as the theoretical basis, this study examined factors that are associated with suicidal ideation in children of domestic violence, such as witnessing domestic violence, experiencing physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and experiencing abuse perpetrated by a parental figure. Results showed that while witnessing domestic violence alone did not affect suicidal ideation, the combination of witnessing domestic violence and being sexually abused was strongly associated with suicidal ideation, as was having a perpetrator who was a stepparent, and having a perpetrator who was a parental figure who threatened suicide and/or homicide. Implications for further research are addressed.

This study examined victims' perceived sense of empowerment during the process of seeking a Preliminary Protective Order. A cross sectional survey design with stratified sampling was used to gather information from women seeking Preliminary Protective Orders in Richmond City, Virginia. During a six month period 89 women agreed to participate, for a response rate of 83 percent. In general, the sample consisted of women who identified themselves as African-American, single, with either a high school/GED degree, and/or some college education.Overall, the women found the steps during the process of seeking an Order, either easy or very easy. In general, the participants responded positively to the steps outlined in the process index. Exceptions to the largely positive results included: getting help preparing a safety plan, explaining what you wanted to the judge, and learning about how to seek a Protective Order. The empowerment sub-scales' results suggest that overall the participants felt empowered during the process of seeking an Order. The final mean for each sub-scale was higher than the minimum score necessary to be considered a high score. The results of the multivariate analysis suggest that the process of seeking an Order was an empowering act on two of the three levels of empowerment studied. The two sub-scales found to have a positive and statistically significant relationship with the process index were the self-efficacy, and collective advocacy level. Alternatively, when utilizing the self-advocacy sub-scale as the dependent variable, only marital status was found to be significant. Implications for social work practice include practitioners educating themselves on legal protections for abused women and educating clients about the process of seeking an Order. Additionally, social workers should incorporate empowerment theory concepts while working with clients. Social work educators should incorporate empowerment theory throughout the curriculum and increase content on intimate partner violence and interdisciplinary teams. Additionally, social workers should consider partnering with other disciplines, such as criminal justice departments to offer cross-listed courses and certificate programs to prepare future professionals who will work in the domestic violence field. Policies to enhance victim-witness advocates' ability to assist victims and specialized courts are recommended.

History can provide some clues concerning the physical abuse of women by men. Beginning in biblical times, women were viewed as the property of men (Steinmetz, 1977). Until 1824 by law, a man was allowed to strike his wife if provoked (Bell, 1977). Under the law, some states still grant "spouse immunity" in cases of assault and battery, where married couples are involved.The focus of this research was to examine the problem of wife abuse through the perspective of social learning theory. Using Roy's theory of adaptation (Roy, 1976), the investigator also examined the area of self-concept as it related to abused women. On the basis of the question,'What is the relationship between self-concept and locus of control in physically abused women?" the investigator surveyed a sample of 26 abused women to identify possible correlations among these variables.Twenty-six subjects constituted the sample. Twenty-five of these subjects provided information concerning demographic attributes. Data collection consisted of a semi-structured interview between investigator and subject, followed by completion of the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale and Rotter Internal/External Scale. Four situation-specific questions were administered following the Rotter Scale. Data were analyzed descriptively for the subject attributes. The Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient was used to test the major hypothesis.

1 online resource ([8], 326 leaves) / Criminal and Procedural Law / LLD

The topic of the submitted diploma thesis is "Domestic violence and its prevention". Domestic violence is a societal problem accompanying the society since time immemorial. For a long time this phenomenon has been understood by society only as a private matter and government should intervene only in extreme cases. This state has been changing for the last two decades. Both professional and general public has begun to accept the opinion that domestic violence is a public issue that requires a state intervention. Domestic violence must be perceived interdisciplinary because it is a very complex problem. In the introductory part there is presented a definition of domestic violence and some other terms related to it. The following criminological part describes domestic violence itself, its dynamics, principles and specifics that make it different from other forms of violence. In this chapter, various aspects of this phenomenon are analysed, such as private nature, repetition and longevity, clearly defined constant roles, etc. Further, domestic violence is divided according to its types and forms that are specified in details. The last section of the criminology part looks at the topic from the perspective of victimology which studies victims of a crime. The aim of this section is to divide and describe...

The aim of this thesis named "Civil procedure and domestic violence" is to provide an overview of means of civil procedure which lead to protection against this form of violence. Domestic violence is a current topic which deserves a lot of attention. Very often it is unnoticeable and hard to uncover because it happens in privacy. This is why it is necessary not to interrupt efforts to reach the highest protection of endangered persons. Procedural law offers several ways how to reach protection against domestic violence. In this thesis, I define these means of civil procedure, consider their usefulness and indicate their strong or weak points. The thesis gives a detailed description of preliminary injunctions. This procedural means provides victim with almost immediate help and time to make steps in order to settle the situation down. The preliminary injuctions are based on the aspect of surprise, because the violent person does not expect it. However, attention must be paid so that the interference with the rights of violent person is not unproportional. The thesis is divided into five parts. The first part is an introduction which presents purposes and goals of this thesis. The second part introduces a general presentation of the issues of civil procedure and domestic violence. It attemts to define...