The purpose of this study was to do a narrative survey of the discussion about violence in partner relationships that is held in research literature. The question at issue was: How do research literature discuss violence in partner relationships, with focus on heterosexual relationships? The eight primary documents that have been chosen are written by researchers, professional therapists, National Counsil for Women's protection (Nationellt Råd för Kvinnofrid, NRK) and Swedish Government Official Report (Statens Offentliga Utredningar, SOU). To investigate the theories, discover the similarities and differences between them and how they can complement each other, the documents statements has been analyzed with a dialectic-hermeneutic approach and social constructionism and discourse theory. The research findings showed that the gender perspective theory, the psychodynamic theory and the social psychology theory have a few things in common, but that they on the whole are different and contradict each other. The gender perspective theory dominates the discussion but needs to be combined with the other theories to give a more all-embracing understanding. A multidimensional model seems to be necessary.

La poliorcétique romaine connut apogée et suprématie sous le Haut Empire, dans un monde antique urbanisé où les guerres ne cessèrent jamais. Elle est bien davantage que le simple art de faire le siège d’une ville ou d’une place forte. Elle comprend tous les modes d’action, violents ou non. La guerre de siège et la défense en font également partie. Pragmatique, le général romain cherchait la conquête au moindre coût et n’utilisait la violence qu’en dernier lieu. L’assaut dans la foulée, très pratiqué, était d’une efficacité redoutable. Il évitait les désagréments d’un siège incertain, techniquement complexe, demandant une logistique considérable, dévoreur d’hommes, de temps et d’argent. Pour toutes ces raisons, le siège en règle était finalement assez peu fréquent. Une fois entrepris, il pouvait requérir, mais sans doute moins souvent qu’on ne le pense, des travaux lourds et complexes, exigeant de l’armée une division du travail poussée. Au combat, la complémentarité et l’efficacité du couple légion/auxiliaires n’a pas été assez soulignée, de même que l’importance du combat interarmes, incluant l’utilisation systématique des appuis, artillerie, archers et parfois frondeurs. L’assaut final semble avoir été assez rare et les dénouements alternatifs fréquents. Le traitement des vaincus dépendait de leur opiniâtreté. Sans pitié pour ceux qui leur résistaient, les Romains étaient assez pragmatiques pour les autres, en fonction des buts recherchés. Enfin, la prise d’une ville, était génératrice de richesses. Elle renforçait la légitimité impériale et le butin, matériel et humain, était un complément non négligeable pour le chef et le soldat. / Roman siege warfare achieved its upmost efficiency and supremacy under the Early Empire in an antique world in which wars were permanent. Siege warfare is far more than the simple art of besieging cities or fortresses. It includes violent and non-violent courses of action. Siege wars and defense are part of it. Pragmatic, the roman general was eager to capture cities at low cost and use of violence came last. Storming assault was frequently employed and very effective. It avoided dangers of an uncertain siege, characterized by technical complexity, an important logistics, potentially high losses, time consuming and requiring huge financial resources. For all those reasons, methodical siege was not a very usual course of action. It sometimes meant, less frequently than expected, heavy siege works, requiring a demanding division of labor. During the battle, the complementarity and efficiency offered by the couple legion/auxiliaries hasn’t been stressed enough. Such is the importance of combined warfare, which systematically included the use of fire support, artillery, archeries and sometimes slingers. Regarding the capture, final assaults appear to have been rare. Alternative conclusions were most of the time the rule. Pitiless with resistant forces, Romans were rather pragmatic with others, depending on the final desired end state on the ground. When overrun, the city was generally a wealth provider. It concurred to strengthen the imperial legitimacy and, bounty, material and humans as well, was an important financial contribution for the general and the soldier.

Thesis (M. A. (Clinical Psychology)) -- University of the North, 2003 / Refer to the document

Although there is extensive research on children’s exposure to intimate partner violence and its impacts, there is very little information available with respect to how child protection workers assess the risks posed to children by the negative parenting associated with battering and how these workers intervene to protect children. This case study therefore sought to understand how child protection workers accounted for the parenting of men who batter in their assessments of child safety and in their service plans. It explores in detail how mothers and child protection workers conceptualize and describe the parenting attitudes and behaviours of the men who came to the attention of MCFD due to battering, how protection workers assessed children’s safety in light of the parenting behaviours and examines the types of child welfare responses or interventions that were utilized in order to deal with these challenges. Results show that despite the level of understanding on the part of the child protection workers’ with regard to the links between the perpetration of intimate partner violence and negative parenting approaches, these fathers’ parenting was largely overlooked in the child safety assessment and service delivery plans. Thus, it is recommended that child welfare policies draw robust links between the perpetration of intimate partner violence and negative parenting approaches and provide child protection workers with the safety assessment tools and clear direction to assess the parenting behaviours of fathers who batter their children’s mothers. / Graduate

Globally, in low and middle-income countries 4 out of every 10 pregnancies is reported to be unintended. Having an unintended pregnancy increases the risk of maternal and infant morbidity and mortality, preterm birth, low birth weight, and decreases rates of breast-feeding. The United States (U.S.) consistently has some of the highest rates of preterm birth, infant and maternal mortality of all high-income countries and 45% of all pregnancies in the U.S. are reported to be unintended. The etiology of these outcomes and their relationship to pregnancy intention are complex and multifactorial, but we know this disproportionately effects women living in poverty both in the U.S. and globally. When couples have the knowledge, access, and power to decide when and whether to become pregnant they are more likely to seek preconception care, thus increasing the likelihood of planned pregnancies leading to improved maternal and child health outcomes. Primary prevention strategies to improve maternal/child health outcomes in the U.S. include sexual and reproductive health considerations such as increasing access to birth control. Globally, strategies include expanding access, as well as focusing on the empowerment of women and improving gender social norms. Focusing on community level norms and individual empowerment can lead to greater reproductive autonomy, which in turn leads to an increase in the uptake of birth control and family planning. This broader consideration of multiple levels of power or autonomy is often lacking in approaches taken in the U.S. More information is needed about the social context and determinants of pregnancy intention in our communities, particularly of women living in poverty. The purposes of this dissertation were to 1) to describe reproductive autonomy and family planning challenges in a population of marginalized Ecuadorian women; 2) develop a conceptual framework of reproductive autonomy from the global literature; 3) to validate a shortened form of an interpersonal violence scale used in a study of low-income pregnant women in Kentucky; and finally 4) to investigate the association between pregnancy intention and individual, interpersonal and community factors of impoverished women living in Kentucky. The qualitative study of women in Ecuador identified barriers and facilitators to family planning in a low-resource community. The major themes that emerged were that women’s autonomy was limited by men, shame was ‘keeping women quiet’, systems failed women, and as women aged they were able to build resilience in spite of these challenges. Many reported reproductive coercion, gender-based violence, and regret. Those who could leave unsupportive partners and found social support were more effective at planning their pregnancies. Evidence supports these themes are relatively common in the global literature, particularly of women living in poverty. The comprehensive review of these findings was used to develop a conceptual framework of reproductive autonomy. The Socio-Ecological Model was used to organize the data based on individual, interpersonal or community level determinants of pregnancy intention and reproductive autonomy. This new conceptual model, called the Power and Reproductive Autonomy (PARA) model, was used as a guide to analyze multiple levels of data in a secondary analysis of pregnant women living in poverty in Kentucky. Prior to this secondary analysis study, a measure used in the parent study needed to be validated. A short form of the Women’s Experience with Battering (WEB) scale was found to be psychometrically valid to measure of the impact of intimate partner violence for this population. Findings from the secondary analysis included high rates of unintended pregnancy (66%), and women with unintended pregnancy were more likely to report exposure to interpersonal violence, poor social support, and anxiety at the bivariate level. At the community (county) level those with an unintended pregnancy were more likely to live in counties with fewer social associations, and in rural communities. None of the access, gender equity, income inequality, or violence variables were correlated to pregnancy intention. In the final multilevel model, controlling for demographic variables, only being unmarried and answering the question in English were significant predictors of unintended pregnancy. The rate of social associations in a county was marginally significant with pregnancy intention, in that the presence of social associations appeared to decrease the likelihood of unintended pregnancy. Operationalizing the PARA framework to examine predictors of unintended pregnancy in Kentucky proved to not yield expected results; county level variables related to access, gender equity, and violence were not found to be significantly correlated. Women answering the question in Spanish had significantly higher rates of planned pregnancy, which is a new finding. Having opportunities for social engagement also seemed to be a protective factor in preventing unintended pregnancies. Limitations of cross-sectional data also make it a challenge to capture cumulative life stressors which could contribute to poor reproductive autonomy. Future studies may yield a greater understanding of the social context of pregnancy intention if more interpersonal data related specifically to reproductive autonomy are in the model, such as reproductive coercion, relationship power, communication, and contraceptive decision making. Additionally, further examination of structures or systems that provide economic opportunities in the community is a promising area of reproductive autonomy and pregnancy intention research.

Despite the increased social recognition, law and policy changes within the criminal justice system, and the widespread use of court mandated batterer intervention programs (BIPs) domestic violence continues to be a persistent problem. The lack of significant decline in incidence rates along with a growing body of empirical evidence that indicates BIPs are, at best, only moderately effective raises serious concern. Effective policies and programs are based upon empirically tested theory. The assertion "the batterer's motive is power and control" has become fundamental to almost all of our currently used and accepted mainstream theoretical explanations regarding domestic violence. However, the domestic violence literature has not yet advanced any specific conceptualizations of power as a construct, it has not produced a theoretical model of power that articulates why or how power specifically acts as a motive for a batterer, and it has never empirically tested this fundamental assertion. The purpose of this research is to address this gap by focusing on the role of power in domestic violence theory and offer a more complete conceptualization and precise operationalization of power. The main goal of this study was to advance our current understanding of an individual's sense of power and control as a motive for using coercive control tactics, such as psychological and physical abuse tactics against an intimate partner. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to develop and assess the measurability of the construct "internal power". Specifically, it defined, conceptualized, and operationalized internal power. Then a Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient was examined and a principal components factor analysis was conducted to investigate the dimensionality and underlying factor structure of internal power. Findings indicated empirical support for the proposed measure of internal power, allowing its relationship to an individual's use of psychological and physical abuse tactics to be empirically assessed. Results of a t-test and examination of a Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient indicated that internal power is inversely related to an individual's use of psychological and physical abuse tactics. Findings indicate that both the measure for internal power and its potential relationship to an individual's use of psychological and physical abuse tactics warrants further exploration and development.

Using a Cox proportional hazards regression model, this dissertation explores three factors currently not addressed in the literature on men who batter women and who are court ordered to participate in a battering intervention program. These factors are the cumulative effects of civil and criminal legal sanctions (dose-response of sanctions) for domestic violence related offenses on recidivism, reduced opportunities to recidivate, and whether the number of legal sanctions imposed has an effect on how long a man maintains his non-recidivism status. Because one domestic violence case may involve multiple sanctions, this study uses the Legal Sanction Dose-Response Index to gauge the cumulative impact of civil and criminal sanctions upon recidivism of domestic violence. The Cox proportional hazards model indicates that the risk of recidivism is 45% lower for men who experienced two legal sanctions (typically arrest and probation) in response to the index case, relative to men who experienced one legal sanction (typically civil protective order). In other words, those with two legal sanctions are able to maintain their non-recidivism status longer relative to those with one sanction. Men with prior criminal court involvement for domestic violence related offenses are more likely to recidivate. Additionally, rather than incarceration reducing opportunities to recidivate, this study finds that incarceration for any offenses committed during the follow-up period is a predictor of recidivism of domestic violence related offenses. It is possible that, rather than incarceration reducing opportunities, recidivists are persistent and use whatever opportunities are available to them to commit domestic violence, despite legal sanctions.

The subject of this master’s thesis is depictions of Old Norse mythology and related motifs in the visual arts during the period 1775–1855. The main question of this research is how the motifs were visualized and how the depictions are related to the classical tradition. Three artworks are objects of detailed study: Johann Heinrich Füssli’s painting Thor Battering the Midgaard serpent (1790), Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg’s The death of Balder (1817) and Nils Jacob Blommér’s painting Näcken and the daughters of Ägir (1850). The paintings are compared with literary sources and analyzed in relation to classicism as well as ideas about history and the Old Norse. It is argued that symbols, themes and compositions from the classical tradition, such as the heroic nude, were used by artists to visualize motifs from Old Norse mythology. It is also argued that the depictions, which by previous scholars have been considered primarily classical, are in fact characterized by a resistance against likeness with the Olympic gods and antique costume.

The purpose of this research was to describe and explain crimes against women in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. It was conducted by means of a literature review, followed by empirical research, based on police dockets, against the background of Seligman's theory on learned helplessness. The literature review was used to design a research schedule. The schedule was used for data capturing from police dockets from the Crime Information Analysis Centre (QAQ at their Gauteng Regional office in Johannesburg. From this data, a convenience sample, consisting of 303 cases, was compiled. These cases were reported at the charge offices of Pretoria-Moot Villieria, Pretoria-North, Pretoria-West Eersterust and Hillbrow, for the period between 1 January 1997 and 1 March 1998. Finally, recommendations are made for the design of preventative strategies, and suggestions are made for possible future research. / Die doel van hierdie navorsing was om misdade teen vroue in die Gauteng Provinsie van Suid-Afrika te beskryf en te verklaar. Dit is gedoen aan die hand van literatuurstudie, en is uitgebrei met 'n empiriese ondersoek wat op polisiedossiere ebaseer is, teen die agtergrond van Seligman se teorie van aangeleerde hulpeloosheid. Die literatuurstudie is gebruik om 'n skedule te ontwerp. Die navorsingskedule is gebruik vir datavangs uit polisiedossiere. Die polisiedossiere van die Misdaadinligting-Analisesentrum (MIAS) van Gauteng se streekkantoor in Johannesburg is gebruik vir die samestelling van 'n gerieflikheidsteekproef bestaande uit 303 gevalle. Hierdie gevalle kom uit die aanmeldings by die aanklagkantore van Pretoria-Moot/ Villieria, Pretoria-Noord, Pretoria-Wes, Eersterust en Hillbrow, en wel tussen 1 Januarie 1997 en 1 Maart 1998. Ten slotte word aanbevelings vir die ontwerp van voorkomingstrategie gedoen en voorstelle vir moontlike toekomstige navorsing gemaak. / Criminology / M.A. (Criminology)

The purpose of this research was to describe and explain crimes against women in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. It was conducted by means of a literature review, followed by empirical research, based on police dockets, against the background of Seligman's theory on learned helplessness. The literature review was used to design a research schedule. The schedule was used for data capturing from police dockets from the Crime Information Analysis Centre (QAQ at their Gauteng Regional office in Johannesburg. From this data, a convenience sample, consisting of 303 cases, was compiled. These cases were reported at the charge offices of Pretoria-Moot Villieria, Pretoria-North, Pretoria-West Eersterust and Hillbrow, for the period between 1 January 1997 and 1 March 1998. Finally, recommendations are made for the design of preventative strategies, and suggestions are made for possible future research. / Die doel van hierdie navorsing was om misdade teen vroue in die Gauteng Provinsie van Suid-Afrika te beskryf en te verklaar. Dit is gedoen aan die hand van literatuurstudie, en is uitgebrei met 'n empiriese ondersoek wat op polisiedossiere ebaseer is, teen die agtergrond van Seligman se teorie van aangeleerde hulpeloosheid. Die literatuurstudie is gebruik om 'n skedule te ontwerp. Die navorsingskedule is gebruik vir datavangs uit polisiedossiere. Die polisiedossiere van die Misdaadinligting-Analisesentrum (MIAS) van Gauteng se streekkantoor in Johannesburg is gebruik vir die samestelling van 'n gerieflikheidsteekproef bestaande uit 303 gevalle. Hierdie gevalle kom uit die aanmeldings by die aanklagkantore van Pretoria-Moot/ Villieria, Pretoria-Noord, Pretoria-Wes, Eersterust en Hillbrow, en wel tussen 1 Januarie 1997 en 1 Maart 1998. Ten slotte word aanbevelings vir die ontwerp van voorkomingstrategie gedoen en voorstelle vir moontlike toekomstige navorsing gemaak. / Criminology and Security Science / M.A. (Criminology)