Smurtas prieš vaikus šeimoje yra pasaulinė problema. Jis egzistuoja visose šalyse, kultūrose ir visuomenės sluoksniuose, nepaisant žmonių išsilavinimo ar pajamų dydžio. Smurtas prieš vaikus pasiižymi fiziniu bei psichologiniu smurtu, seksualine prievarta ir nepriežiūra. Vis aktyviau Lietuvoje kuriama socialinių paslaugų sistema, kuri dar nėra pakankamai orientuotą į efektyvią pagalbą vaikui, visapusišką jo teisių apsaugą. Svarbu sukurti saugią aplinką vaikams, patyrusiems smurtą šeimoje. Vienas iš pagalbos būdų yra vaikų dienos centrai (VDC). Tyrimo objektas – dienos centro veikla orientuota į vaikus, patiriančius smurtą šeimoje. Tikslas – ištirti dienos centro veiklos ypatybes, padedančias spręsti vaikų, patiriančių smurtą šeimoje, problemas. Tyrimo metodai: mokslinės literatūros analizė, anketinė apklausa raštu, gautų duomenų kiekybinė ir kokybinė analizė. Tyrimo imtis: apklausti 36 vaikų dienos centrų darbuotojai bei savanoriai. Vaikų, lankančių VDC imtis – 231 tyrimo dalyvis. Bendra tyrimo imtis – 267 respondentai. Tyrimo metodologija grindžiama: Poreikių teorija (Maslow, 2006; Rogers, 2005); Humanistine asmenybės teorija (Maslow, 2006); Ugdymo filosofijos ir Hodegetikos nuostatomis apie vaiko auklėjimą, tapsmą socialine būtybe. Svarbiausios empirinio tyrimo išvados: tyrimas parodė, kad vaikų dienos centrai vykdo smurto prevenciją, pagal galimybes stengiasi padėti smurtą šeimose patiriantiems vaikams. Tačiau ne visada įsigilinamą į vaikų poreikius, o dienos centrų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Violence against children in the family is a worldwide problem. It exists in all countries, cultures, levels of society regardless of people’s education and incomes. Violence against children includes physical and psychological abuse, sexual abuse and child neglect. Social services system is being developed in Lithuania more actively, but it is not sufficiently focused on effective aid to the child and the full protection of his/her rights. It is very important to create a safe environment for children who had experience family violence. Children Day Centres (CDC) is one of the ways to help a child. The subject of the research – the activity of the Day Centre oriented towards children experiencing family violence. The aim of the research: to investigate the peculiarities of the activity of the Day Centre which help to solve the problems of the children experiencing family violence. The research methods: scientific literature analysis, questionnaire survey (in written form), quantitative and qualitative analyses of the obtained data. The volume of the research: 36 employees of the Day Centre and volunteers were interviewed. The volume of the children attending CDC is 231 participants. Total volume of the research is 267 respondents. The grounding of the research methodology: Hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 2006; Rogers, 2005); Humanistic theory (Maslow, 2006); the provisions of Philosophy of Education and Hodegetics on the child's upbringing and social transition to being. The... [to full text]

Violence by children and young people against their parents, often described as parent abuse, is a problem that has been less recognised and researched than other forms of family violence. The present study explored a distinct form of parent abuse - that being the causing of intentional loss of, or damage to, parental property, referred to as Domestic Property Violence (DPV). A questionnaire was designed to gather quantitative data on what gets damaged, how often, and by whom. Additionally, rich, qualitative information about how parents made meaning of their experiences and how they were affected by, and responded to, DPV was gathered using in-depth interviews with 14 participants, and later analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Although the questionnaire attracted just 30 responses, this information was used to inform the subsequent qualitative phase of the research. When combined, the quantitative and qualitative data demonstrated that DPV happens in some families, and when it does, it has the potential to cause significant financial, emotional, and relational harm. An ecological meaning - making theoretical framework emerged from the data and illuminated connections between social and cultural influences on personal theories of causation, impacts, and responses to DPV, including help seeking. The findings of the present study have important implications for supporting parents experiencing DPV and other forms of parent abuse. Help seeking was shown to not always be a positive experience, particularly when help was not available, the problem was viewed as trivial, or parents were made to feel they were wholly responsible for their children's misconduct. Conversely, parents benefited from services that offered an opportunity for private disclosure without critical judgement, practical advice, and support. One objective of the research was to increase awareness of the many and complex causes and impacts of parent abuse, and the wide range of families that may be affected, in order to promote better screening within health and social support services.

Although there are many studies that have examined explicit attitudes toward domestic violence, no studies to date have examined participants’ implicit attitudes towards this topic. The current research sought to address this absence and examined gender differences in implicit and explicit attitudes toward domestic violence. In addition, gender differences in attributions of responsibility and blame for an instance of domestic violence were examined. Participants’ implicit attitudes toward a female victim and male perpetrator of domestic violence were assessed using a modified version of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998). In addition, the Inventory of Beliefs About Wife Beating Scale (Saunders, Lynch, Grayson, & Linz, 1987) and an attribution for violence scale (Dexter, Penrod, Linz, & Saunders, 1997) were used. It was hypothesized that men would hold more negative explicit and implicit attitudes toward victims of domestic violence than women. It was next hypothesized that when compared to women, men would assign more responsibility and blame for an instance of domestic violence to the victim. It was also hypothesized that participants’ responses on the explicit and implicit attitude measures would not be correlated with one another. Results for these hypotheses were mixed. Limitations to the current research and implications for future research and practice are discussed / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Grace Gospel Church (GGC) is a small congregation that has met in various venues in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal since 2003. It is a partner church of the Mauritian-based organisation, Church Team Ministries International (CTMI), led by Miki Hardy. Hardy is a pastor who claims to have received a unique revelation from God, and he is considered to be an apostle by his followers. Grace Gospel Church and Church Team Ministries International have gained international attention due to claims that they exert a controversial influence over their members. This influence appears to induce a radical commitment to the partner church and CTMI, leading to behavioural, career and study changes, arranged marriages and estrangement between members and their families. Grace Gospel Church has been accused of being a cult, and this exploratory research questions whether this accusation has justification by comparing the group’s theology and practices against theological, psychological and sociological research on cults. Cult researcher Janja Lalich’s theory of “bounded choice” is described and used to evaluate the commitment witnessed in GGC. Bounded choice exists when, as a result of psycho-social group dynamics, a personal fusion occurs between the individual and the ideology and mores of the group. Out of this fusion, a charismatically committed “true believer” emerges who may appear to have personal freedom, but whose palette of choices is severely curtailed by the beliefs and practices of the group. “Bounded” decision making results which might appear irrational or repugnant to those outside the group, but to true believers represent their highest aspirations. This research indicates that GGC shares many characteristic features of typical cults and also promotes the conditions necessary for bounded choice to occur. It is thus concluded that GGC could legitimately be termed a cult, and that bounded choice is a valid explanation for the controversial choices made by its members. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

Despite increasing interest on the topic of violence in intimate relationships, research exploring the experiences of same sex domestic violence among lesbians from "ethno-racial" communities remains considerably rare. In this qualitative study, semi structured interviews were conducted with four (4) lesbians (one experiencer, one aggressor and two community workers) and one heterosexual shelter worker. The aim was to explore the intersections of gender, "race"/ethnic group, and sexual orientation and their impact upon the experience of violence. The accounts of the participants demonstrated that converging identities and experiences of oppression, such as homophobia, heterosexism, sexism and racism, affect the nature of same sex domestic violence and negatively impact upon the conceptualization of the experience of violence. The attitudes of social workers and other professionals are also identified as being a significant barrier to the help seeking strategies of both experiencers and aggressors.

This thesis focuses on an Islamic feminist community organization, and its activities in combating violence against women. The case example discussed in this study is the Rifka Annisa Women's Crisis Center (WCC Rifka Annisa) located in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. By examining the environment and the issues that WCC Rifka Annisa faces, broader thematic concerns can be applied to Indonesian society in general. This study reviews western feminist and community organizing approaches, and examines them in light of the specific religious, cultural, economic and political context in Indonesia. A blend of Islamic feminim and community organizing approaches has emerged in Indonesia. Data collection for this study was based on interviews and direct observations. Exploring this perspective will contribute to the knowledge, practice and values of social work generally, and development work in similar contexts in particular.

<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>

Bibliography: p. 56-63.

Femicide, homicide involving female victims, accounts for approximately one third of all homicides in Australia. Despite its prevalence, femicide has received considerably less theoretical attention than the more common male-on-male homicide. The current study uses qualitative data from the Coroner’s brief of evidence to examine the social context of homicides which occurred between 1994 and 1998 in Victoria, Australia. All homicides for which data were available that included a female victim were included in the study, resulting in a total of 67 victims. Six social contexts of femicide were identified through the cases. Intimate femicide (22 cases, 33% of the sample) involved female victims who were killed by their intimate partner in a relationship characterised by jealousy, possessiveness and violence. These intimate femicides were usually not spontaneous acts of rage, but planned and purposive attacks, and often occurred around separation. Intimate homicide-suicides (9 cases, 13%) shared many of the characteristics of intimate femicide, but in addition to being possessive and violent, the offender was notably depressed, often due to financial problems.

My research focused on five women in Aotearoa naming and defining their experiences ten or more years after leaving an intimate partner violence relationship. An increasing amount of literature has been published reporting the prevalence of intimate partner violence among women in our society, including surveys documenting devastating short and long-term health effects. However, little has been published about the long-term experiences of women who have survived such abuse. I was interested in making more visible the experiences of long-term survivors of intimate partner violence. I wondered what the challenges and legacies from experiences of intimate partner violence are and what contributes to women rebuilding their lives after intimate partner violence. In this research utilised a participatory action research approach informed by a critical feminist theoretical perspective. I selected two data collection methods, individual interviews followed by a focus group interview bringing the participants together. The findings identified nineteen themes emerging from the individual and focus group interviews. Some expressed the long-term challenges and legacies of intimate partner violence, such as feelings of powerlessness, guilt and shame and feeling silenced. Others reflected ways women rebuilt their lives, such as empowerment, resilience, courage and the importance of education and meaningful work. Interpreting the findings, empowerment was often juxtaposed with powerlessness, living side by side within the inner world of the long-term survivor of intimate partner violence in equal tension. This study affirms that challenges and legacies from intimate partner violence continue to affect women many years after leaving violence. Despite these challenges and legacies, women work very hard to rebuild their lives, care for their children and attain autonomy, independence and control of their lives. Women spent time and energy to recover ‘well enough’ from such violence, in order to lead a productive and functioning life.