Social Justice: Domestic Violence & Justice

Domestic violence refers to acts of violence that occur between people in an intimate relationship in domestic settings; family violence is a broader term referring to violence between family members as well as violence between intimate partners. These violent acts include physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse. This book reveals the prevalence and causes of domestic and family violence, and explains ways of dealing with domestic abuse. Domestic violence is more than a crime, it is an abuse of power by someone in a position of trust. Are you safe in your own home? Also includes: worksheets and activities, fast facts, glossary, web links, index. Titles in the Issues in Society series are individual resource books which provide an overview on a specific subject comprised of facts and opinions. The information in this resource book is not from any single author, publication or organisation. The unique value of the Issues in Society series lies in its diversity of content and perspectives. The content comes from a wide variety of sources and includes: newspaper reports and opinion pieces, website fact sheets, magazine and journal articles, statistics and surveys, government reports, and literature from special interest groups.

The concept of domestic violence refers to acts of violence and abuse of one family member over another. Family violence is an issue of major concern for psychologists and families, community and social decision-makers. It is a dramatic phenomenon, which generates pain, trauma, physical and psychological scars. This book provides an overview of the prevalence, risk factors and several perspectives of domestic violence.

Child protection and family workers can complete training without learning about how to work with domestic abuse perpetrators - but intervening at an early stage can make a real difference to increasing family safety. This concise book equips practitioners with the knowledge and techniques they need to make the most of limited client contact with perpetrators. It outlines how to briefly assess perpetrators, how to prepare them for a perpetrator programme, and describes a range of interventions that can be used to reduce the risk they represent in the meantime. Drawing on approaches from motivational work, anger management, CBT and feminist models, but written in practical and easy to follow language, the book provides guidance for carrying out interviews and assessing risk, how to use safety plans, signals and time outs, understanding the impact of abuse on victims, how to analyse incidents of abuse and how to make an effective referral. This reliable guide is a useful reference for any child protection worker wanting to make the most of the valuable opportunity they have to engage with domestic violence perpetrators.

This study examined the perceptions of officers with colleagues who perpetrate acts of domestic violence. This was a qualitative research design from a phenomenological perspective. The data was gathered by the use of face-to-face interviews using open-ended questions. The data was analyzed by the use of bracketing, horizonalization, clusters of meanings, textural and structural descriptions, and the invariant structure of the phenomena described by the study participants. Upon completion of the 30 interviews, the audio tapes were all transcribed, and loaded in to Atlas Ti for the purpose of coding the data for the major themes. A constant comparison method was used to analyze the data to help identify the similarities and differences between the study participants' perceptions with the phenomena. The five qualitative questions each depict a different area of experience with the phenomenon, to create a holistic picture of the perceptions of the thirty participants. The findings suggest that for some officers, the inability to separate their police role from their civilian role may be a factor in the perpetration of domestic violence by law enforcement officers. The findings also suggest that social workers may be able to play an important role in the remediation of the problem of domestic violence for those within and outside police social work settings.