Domestic abuse embodies many forms including physical, emotional, sexual, financial, and spiritual abuse (Statistics Canada, 2011a). This study explored the experience of rural Alberta women who have left domestic abuse, as research on domestic abuse tends to be focused on urban settings. The "rural and small town" (du Plessis, Beshiri, Bollman, & Celmenson, 2001, p. 1) definition was utilized in this study: an area outside of census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and census agglomerations (CAs). CMAs have population of 100,000 or more with a core of 50,000, and CAs have a core population of 10,000 plus (du Plessis et al., 2001, p. 1). Participants included both rural women who have left abusive relationships as well as service providers who offer resources to rural women fleeing abuse. Three women told their stories of leaving domestic abuse and five service providers took part in interviews. Using a narrative approach, I gained insight into the women's experiences while offering participants the opportunity to have their stories heard. Through content analysis numerous themes emerged from the interviews. There were four themes that were found to be common to urban and rural women and six themes that were unique to or exacerbated by the rural context. The themes associated with the rural context included (a) Under a Microscope, (b) It Didn't End There, (c) Lack of Resources, (d) Squashing My Spirit, (e) From Numb to Empowered, and (f) Reaching Out. Narratives have also been included to represent each woman's story. / xii, 201 leaves ; 29 cm

No description available.

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

This study investigates the dialectic of emancipation and control in the relationship between staff and clients at shelters for battered women. The dialectic of emancipation and control represents the tension shelter workers feel in trying to empower their clients while, at the same time, maintaining control over the programs and domestic order of the shelter. Past research has introduced this dialectic, but no studies exist which view it in the context of the staff/client relationship. Additionally, very little communication research exists exploring the interaction that takes place in shelters for battered women.Four employees of four different shelters were interviewed by this researcher. Their accounts were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using the constant comparative review method consistent with grounded theory. The workers' accounts indicated that the nature of their profession requires them to be dominant over their clients in five areas. Additionally, the workers discussed four contradictory aspects of their work which reflect the existence of the dialectic of emancipation and control in their interaction with clients. / Department of Speech Communication

Although the civil restraining order is the most commonly sought legal initiative to combat intimate partner violence in British Columbia, no known qualitative research has assessed the application process or the enforcement of the orders in BC. Previous quantitative research presents mixed findings and fails to provide an in-depth analysis of how legal and institutional work is organized, and in turn, organizes the process. This thesis employs Dorothy Smith's institutional ethnography to critically examine civil restraining order application processing in the BC Provincial Court. A combination of interviews, observations, and textual analyses contribute to the mapping of the way formalized texts regulate the different phases of practitioner's work. Particular attention is paid to disjunctures between battered women's experiential knowledge and what becomes formally known to practitioners who manage her case. This research found that abused women's lived experience with violence is transformed and shaped into accounts in which her safety needs disappear. Court practitioners become immersed in text-mediated activity within a legal ruling apparatus that emphasizes timely completion of a large quantity of cases, with little or no commitment to quality solutions. In the same effort to preserve limited police time and resources, one policy directs judges to add a police enforcement clause to only a few of the most serious cases. All restraining orders that do not have this clause are currently unenforceable.

The importance of work, women's experiences of different work paths, and the effects abuse has on a woman's ability to work led to the question - how do women make meaning of the ways in which they have experienced the intersection of abuse and work? A qualitative research approach. within an overarching theoretical framework of social constructionism, and a narrative method forms the methodological basis for this work. Time-line drawings created by participants, concept maps. ghostwritten stories, and themes within and across participants formed the analysis. A major meta-theme across all participants related to the long-term effects of abuse experiences. The five women who shared their stories spoke of many barriers in their lives. At the same time. their stories shone with light and hope. Many of them reflected on how far they had come on their individual journeys of recovery and all had dreams for the future.

Portrayals of sexual and/or domestic violence committed by men against women appear in the television schedules and in movie theatres on almost a daily basis. There is a long established tradition of concern about how depictions of violence in the audiovisual media can impact on audiences. However, minimal consideration has been given to what kind of discursive 'messages' such portrayals might contain and how audiences engage with these. This research explores to what extent audio-visual portrayals of violence against women might offer certain ways of reading and understanding that violence, and how women audiences interpret these. It investigates this through both textual and reception analyses, with the framework through which reception is examined being directly related to the textual material itself. The study assesses to what degree audio-visual texts are capable of structuring audience interpretation, and whether there is any direct relationship between this and how women viewers actually read the texts. Four audio-visual products are examined: the Hollywood film The Accused; an episode of the soap opera EastEnders; the television play Closing Ranks; and an edition of Crimewatch UK. Ninety one women, formed into 14 focus groups, participated in the reception research. Half of these women had experienced violence of a domestic and/or sexual nature, whilst the other half had no experience of such violence. Groups further varied in terms of nationality (Scottish and English), class (working-class and middle-class) and ethnic background (white, Asian and Afro-Caribbean). The research demonstrates that neither audio-visual texts nor their reception can be considered outwith an appreciation of how social and cultural factors influence both. The media are involved in the circulation of cultural meanings about acts of violence against women and in mediating this cannot help but draw on existing discourses which surround such violence. As audiences, women also draw on their socialised conceptions of such violence, though how they engage with and read its representation is affected by their social and cultural positionings and their own lived experiences.

Denna studies syfte är att undersöka våldsutsatta kvinnors förväntningar på och upplevelser av socialtjänstens bemötande och insatser utifrån Goffmans dramaturgiska rollteori samt maktperspektivet. I denna studie används en kvalitativ ansats där vi har genomfört semistrukturerade intervjuer med våldsutsatta kvinnor som har varit i kontakt med socialtjänsten. De studier som berör våldsutsatta kvinnors förväntningar på och upplevelser av socialtjänsten är väldigt begränsade. Med detta i åtanke bör ytterligare forskning inom detta ämne eftersträvas. Föreliggande studies resultat har varit att de våldsutsatta kvinnornas förväntningar inte överensstämde med upplevelserna som de hade av socialtjänstens bemötande och insatser. Upplevelserna har generellt varit sämre än de förväntningar kvinnorna hade innan kontakten med socialtjänsten. Efter analysen av resultaten såg vi tydligt att de kvinnor som inte hade haft några förväntningar på socialtjänstens bemötande och insatser fick en bättre upplevelse av dem. De kvinnor som däremot hade förväntningar på socialtjänstens bemötande och insatser fick en sämre upplevelse.

<p>This thesis sought to explore the challenges experienced by selected clergy within the Anglican Church in dealing with domestic violence. The sample was drawn from the Diocese of Cape Town of the church of the Province of Southern Africa, based on the participants' experience of the phenomenon and their willingness to participate in the study. The researcher used face-to-face interviews utilizing a semi-structured interview guide for data collection. Questions were open-ended to allow for free flow of information. Because of the sensitive nature of the study, probing questions were followed up by responses to get in-depth perceptions and experiences of clergy's involvement in domestic violence. With reference to the ethical considerations in this study, all participants were thoroughly briefed before the interview with clear explanations of the goal, procedure and advantages of the study. Participants had the opportunity to withdraw at any stage of the interview as participation was completely voluntary.Consistent with literature, this study confirmed the complex nature of domestic violence. Participants experienced various challenges on different levels in the ministry pertaining to domestic violence.These challenges primarily related to the lack of training in dealing with real life issues such as domestic violence during their theological training, the lack of theological guidelines offered by the church to address patriarchal societal practices, beliefs and gender stereotyping, and the lack of guidance on contexual interpretation of Scriptures.</p>

Thesis (M.A.(Hons.))--Griffith University, 2003. / Title from title page of document; viewed 1/5/2007. "October 2003" Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-83).