Seeking the Voice of Experience: The Complexities of Researching Women’s Accounts of Their (Ex-) Partner’s Engagement with Living Free from Violence Programmes
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Date
2011
DOI
Open Access Location
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Massey University
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Abstract
Previous research into the effectiveness and impact of
domestic violence programmes has often focused on recidivism
and re-offence data or self-report measures.
Such research is constrained by a reliance on incidences
of violence being officially reported and by legal definitions
of intimate violence, limiting our understandings of
women’s lived experiences of safety. Missing voice research
is problematic because of the tensions between research
processes and the prioritisation of maintaining
women’s safety. To be able to engage in the process of
researching women’s experiences of their (ex) partners’
engagement with men’s Living Free from Violence programmes
requires an understanding of the complexities
of developing relationships and processes that privilege
and protect women’s safety throughout the research journey,
and necessitates an understanding of the barriers to
participation. This involves a collaborative and supportive
working partnership to be formed and developed between
the researcher and the community, one that at all
times maintains the awareness that women’s safety must
be the focus of research, both in outcome and process.
This paper discusses the complexities involved in our attempts
to understand how women experience issues of
change and safety as a result of their partner’s involvement
in a local Living Free from Violence programme.
Description
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Keywords
Intimate partner violence, Community collaboration, Safety, Living Free from Violence programmes