Violence Against Women

This introduction to the special issue provides a brief overview of the state of the field of gender-based violence studies for the reader. This is followed by a thematic summary of the papers we curated for the special issue and concludes with lessons learned and recommendations. Keywords: gender-based violence studies, responses to gender-based violence, policy approaches to gender-based violence, activism, advocacy, homelessness, sports, criminal legal system.

In this conceptual paper, I argue that the anti-gender-based violence sector must make anti-carceral responses mainstream if we are truly committed to the healing, safety, and well-being of survivors. I trace the history of anti-violence social movements and articulate the harms of carceral responses, while also reflecting on my personal journey as a survivor, practitioner, and researcher. I offer a framework to combat carceral logics by encouraging readers to think and act “anti-carcerally” in everyday life. By making micro anti-carceral changes at the individual- or organizational-level, practitioners, researchers, professors, funders, and community members can make a non-carceral future possible.

How do correctional authorities and advocates frame girls’ sexual victimization during incarceration? Drawing from 34 interviews with Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) personnel, youth advocates for incarcerated girls, and technical assistance providers, I argue that correctional institutions serve as sites where advocates actively construct and contest incarcerated girls’ credibility as victims of youth-on-youth and staff-on-youth sexual misconduct. While carceral institutions broadly deem incarcerated girls as legible victims of some sexual abuse, the “victim” label often fails to secure protection from institutional gender-based violence. Together, interviews reveal how girlhood, carcerality, and sexuality shape incarcerated girls’ vulnerability to sexual violence throughout confinement.

Survivors of domestic violence face ample challenges when seeking support for the abuse they experience. Survivors of police officer-perpetrated domestic violence (OPDV) face unique challenges due to their abuser's role as a police officer. OPDV research has failed to capture this reality by creating a significant knowledge gap in survivor experience. Centering survivor perspective in future work offers researchers a path to begin repairing harm and advance a more accurate, accountable understanding of OPDV.

Policies throughout the U.S. respond to the well-documented relationship between housing instability and intimate partner violence (IPV), but in practice survivors’ needs often remain unmet. In this community-based participatory study, an interdisciplinary research team interviewed 41 survivors seeking emergency housing assistance at the sole public gateway for homeless families in Washington, D.C. Only four survivors received immediate assistance, and half were determined ineligible for services. While some felt genuinely supported, many survivors faced long wait times and experienced shaming and demoralizing treatment that exacerbated their risk. We discuss the influence of contextual factors including discriminatory narratives surrounding who deserves help, and a lack of system resources driving a scarcity mindset. Recommendations include a sustained, critical, and collaborative approach to evaluating local implementation of ostensibly supportive policies.

Gender-based violence (GBV) within major collegiate (NCAA) sports, the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and Major League Baseball (MLB) has been well document. However, gender-based violence in other sports is understudied. Analysis of the Gender-Based Violence in Sport database reveals six key differences between gender-based violence in football, baseball, and basketball as compared to other sports. Utilizing the framework of intersectional feminism, we theorize the lower rates of athlete-perpetrated gender-based violence, the disproportionate role that trainers, doctors, staff, and coaches play in its perpetration, and the higher rates of athlete victimization in these other sports.

Little is known about racialized women's work experiences in EDI/AO policy-led Canadian women's organizations in the gender-based violence (GBV) sector. Twenty-three racialized and white GBV workers participated in a critical qualitative study. Five themes emerged illustrating that racialized women workers are experiencing systemic violence through acts of racism and discrimination. The two themes examined in this paper: a culture of silence and shifting the needle forward reveal that the GBV sector is primarily an affirmative space. Creating greater safety for racialized women workers means moving toward transformative approaches that challenge the system's responsibility in creating and supporting anti-oppressive efforts in the elimination of violence.

This study examines how involuntarily celibate (“incels”) men justify gender-based and sexualized violence against women. Based on an analysis of 22,060 discussion board comments, we argue that: (1) incel justifications of sexualized violence are tied to their perception of gender relations, (2) incels justify sexual assault as a form of revenge for their incel status, and (3) incels misuse science to argue that women enjoy sexual assault. Adapting the concept of “stochastic terrorism,” we argue that incels and similar communities produce stochastic gender-based violence, wherein communities justify and encourage acts of violence. Findings are discussed in relation to gender-based violence, rape culture, masculinities theory, and policy.

The present study explored the relationship between disclosure of sexual trauma to a romantic partner and relationship satisfaction for individuals who have experienced unwanted or forced sexual contact. We examined whether posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) clusters, partner reactions, and perceived partner responsiveness (PPR) mediated that relationship. Relationship satisfaction was significantly, positively correlated with trauma disclosure, positive partner reactions, and PPR, and significantly, negatively correlated with negative partner reactions and the PTSD clusters of avoidance and negative alterations in cognitions and mood. Trauma disclosure had a significant, indirect effect on relationship satisfaction via positive partner reactions and PPR. Findings from this study can be utilized to inform clinical interventions and guide future research for individuals who have experienced sexual trauma.

TikTok is the second most popular social media platform among American teenagers, suggesting it may be a way to reach young people with sexual violence-related messages. This qualitative content analysis focused on what TikTok users share about sexual violence. The content of the videos fell into two primary types of information, people sharing experiences of sexual violence (i.e., what happened, how they responded, impacts of experiences) and people sharing other information related to sexual violence (i.e., education, raising awareness). The study results demonstrate that people use TikTok as a platform to share their messages about sexual violence-related topics, underscoring the potential of this platform for prevention and recovery messages targeted toward individuals who directly or indirectly experience sexual violence.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) and coercive control are prevalent across Canada; these experiences are exacerbated by regionality with women in rural areas disproportionately affected. This study explores rural women's experiences of IPV and coercive control, drawing on qualitative interviews with rural women in Saskatchewan who experienced IPV and focus groups with service providers who work with survivors. Our findings suggest rurality magnifies conditions of coercive control through physical elements of normative rurality, such as isolation that restrict women's space for action. Our participants’ experiences of coercive control were exacerbated by the geographic reality of living in a rural/remote location.

Financial abuse is a form of violence that can extend well beyond intimate partner relationship breakdown. A survey of 540 Australian separated parents examined how financial abuse was perpetrated, with a focus on child support and other government systems. Women reported that their ex-partners minimized and withheld child support payments to inflict direct financial harm, while interactions between the family court, taxation, and benefit payment systems were taken advantage of to threaten or control them. Findings revealed how the mandatory and complex Australian child support system provided perpetrators with a useful means of perpetrating financial abuse across households.

Increased concern was raised globally at the outbreak of COVID-19 that victims of domestic violence would be even more at risk when isolated with a violent partner and out of reach of support due to restrictions. Swedish staff in violence against women services prepared for increased calls for help. Instead, a worrying silence arose in a time and place of high uncertainty. This article analyzes the narratology of risk, when staff members in violence against women services, reflect upon their accounts, responses, and experiences, during the pandemic. The analysis is based on three themes, accounting for expected increased influx, making sense of silence and accounting for mobilization. The findings are discussed by applying the relational theory of risk.

This study analyzed the experiences of 20 survivors of violence by partners with penal protection orders (POs) issued against them to explore the extent to which, how, and when POs (dis)empower. The results show that the extent to which POs result in survivors’ enhanced sense of safety and ability to move on with their lives is dependent on specific circumstances and the PO impact on their sense of self-efficacy, including whether they obtain PO-related knowledge, report violations, refrain from contact with the ex-partner, and expect and received support from the criminal justice system and others. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Data on effects of strangulation in victims with a disability are lacking despite this population experiencing intimate partner violence at higher rates than women without a disability. A retrospective review was conducted on medical records of patients seeking care at a community-based, forensic nurse examiner program following an intimate partner violence-related strangulation event. The presence of disability was not associated with differences in reporting other types of victimization, additional abusive events, perpetrator characteristics, strangulation actions, or injury findings. Patients with a disability were more likely to report experiencing anoxic, hypoxic, and other physical symptoms following strangulation compared to patients without a disability.