Chie Maekoya Chie Maekoya Tokiwa International Victimology Institute Tokiwa International Victimology Institute

11111thth Asian Post Graduate Course on Victimology and Victim Assistance Asian Post Graduate Course on Victimology and Victim Assistance

What is intimate partner violence (IPV)? Who are the victims of IPV? What is the dynamic between offenders and victims like? What are the impacts of IPV on victims and their children? How do victims respond to their victimization? Unique aspects of IPV (Women who use violence against their

partners) Effective psychological intervention

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DefinitionsDefinitionsA pattern of behaviors where one partner tries to maintain control over the other through the use of physical force, intimidation and/or threats.

Intimate Partner: current or former spouses, boyfriends, and girlfriends

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PhysicalPhysical 　　 　　 kicking, grabbing, punching, shoving, slapping, pushing, burning, biting, choking, use of weapons

SexualSexualforced or pressured sexual acts, criticizing her/his body parts and rape (even if married)

EmotionalEmotionalexcessive jealousy, making the victims feel crazy, isolation from family and friends, making the victim feel worthless and threatened

VerbalVerbal name calling and put-downs, yelling, blaming, minimizing, denying abuse

SpiritualSpiritualattacking the victim’s spiritual or religious beliefs or misquoting the scripture to justify the abuse

Financial/ economicFinancial/ economiccontrolling the victim’s economic status and basic needs, withholding money and prohibiting the victim to work

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Destructive actsDestructive actsdestruction of victim’s property, vandalism and harming or killing pets.

HomophobicHomophobicthreatening to reveal the victim’s sexual orientation

ImmigrationImmigrationusing fear of deportation

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Males or Females?Males or Females?

Percentages of males and females who report their Percentages of males and females who report their experience as victimsexperience as victims In the USA (in their lifetime):

7.3% males vs. 21.7% females (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000)

In Japan (in their lifetime): 17.4% males vs. 33.2% females

　 (Gender Equality Bureau, 2006)

Female victims experience more negative impacts by their partners’ violence compared to male victims (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000).

Females are more likely to …◦sustain injury ◦receive medical help◦be hospitalized ◦receive counseling ◦loose time from work◦report incident to the police

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Countries?Countries? The World Health Organization (WHO)(2005b)

measured the prevalence of IPV including physical, sexual and emotional violence in 10 countries. They focused on only violence against women.

Although there were some differences among countries, the results revealed that IPV was widespread all over the world.

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(WHO, 2005)

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(WHO, 2005) Physical violence by a male partner: ranged from 13% in Japan to 61% in Peru. Sexual violence by a male partner: ranged from 6% in Japan to 59% in Ethiopia.

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(WHO, 2005) In all countries, the interviewer was frequently the first person that the

abused women had ever talked to about their partner’s physical violence.

“My husband slaps me, has sex with me against my will and I have to conform. Before being interviewed I didn’t really think about this. I thought this is only natural. This is the way a husband behaves” (by women interviewed in Bangladesh).

“I did not know where I could go for help. Now I know where I can go. I was looking for such places. It is good to address these types of issues in a survey” (by women interviewed in Japan).

(WHO, 2005)

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Cycle of violenceCycle of violence (Walker, 1979)

It consists of three phases Tension building phase Acute battering phase Honeymoon phase

The dynamics of violent relationships between an offender and a victim is complex and makes it difficult for a victim to leave a violent situation.

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Denial

Acute Explosion

Tension Building

Honeymoon

OffendersOffendershitting, humiliating, rape,

verbal abuse etc.VictimsVictims

protect self, call police, try to calm offender,

try to reason, fight back, leave

OffenderOffender“I am sorry”, “I‘ll never do it again”,

beg forgiveness, cry, declare lovePromise to get help

VictimsVictimsagree to stay, return to offender

attempt to stop legal proceedingsfeel happy/ hopeful

OffendersOffendersmoody, nitpicking, put-down,

yelling, threatening, withdraw affection, criticized

VictimsVictimsnurturing, stay away from

family/friends, agree, try to reason, cook partner’s favorite foods,feel of walking on eggshells

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Effects of violence on victimsEffects of violence on victims◦ Depression◦ Anxiety ◦ Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)◦ Suicidal ideation

(Pico-Alfonso et al, 2006)

Long term mental health risks Five years later they are likely to have …

greater degree of depressive symptoms functional impairment low self- esteem less life satisfaction (Zlotnick et al., 2006)

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Effects of violence on childrenEffects of violence on childrenThe effects on children who witness violence between their parents are also serious and various.

Those children are likely to …◦ withdraw, being depressed and get involved with delinquent

and aggressive behaviors (Clarke et al., 2007).

◦ Get involved with bullying behaviors which are both offending and victimization (Baldry, 2003).

Being maltreated & witnessing of IPV in childhood can increase the risk of women being victimized later in adulthood (Renner & Slack, 2006).

Abused women tend to abuse their own children (Coohey & Braun, 1997).

An abusive behavior is handed down from generation to generation as an appropriate way to deal with conflict

This theory does not suggest that battering tendencies are inherited; rather, they are experienced.

Violence facilitates more violence. Cycle of violence occurs across generations.

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Witness violence between parents

Being abused byparents

Learn violenceBecoming an abusive

adult

In childhood In adulthood

Fear Low self-esteem Recognition toward violence Feeling toward partner Lack of resources Childcare need Financial problems Social embarrassment Poor social support Hopes things change

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Battered women syndromeDescribe a pattern of psychological and behavioral symptoms found in violent relationship.

Four psychological stages of battered women syndrome. Denial:Denial: refuse to admit that she has been victimized or there is a

problem. Guilt:Guilt: acknowledge and recognize that there is a problem, but still

consider herself responsible for it. Enlightenment:Enlightenment: no longer assume responsibility for her husband.

Recognize that no one deserves to be victimized. Responsibility:Responsibility: accept the fact that her partner will not/ cannot change.

No longer submit to it and start a new life. choose to take necessary step.

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Learned helplessnessLearned helplessness (originally this concept was created by Seligman)

it occurs when victims believe that they are powerless and not able to escape from their abusers and it results in them staying in violent relationships.

Try to resolve these abusive situations by separating, reporting the case and seeking help (Ruiz-Perez et al., 2006).

Becoming aggressive (Hamberger, 1997; Richardson, 2005).

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There is no single profile of a battered woman. Each individual is different in…

◦ emotional reaction (fear, anger, sadness)◦ beliefs and attitudes about self, other and the world◦ symptoms of psychological distress or dysfunction.

Their responses depends on… ◦ victimization ◦ victims ◦ context or environment in which victimization occur, victims

respond to, heal from, and based on social class, culture, social support (Dutton, 1996)

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Historically, victims of IPV have been viewed stereotypically. Females → helpless victims in IPVFocus of research ： female victims ＆ male offenders (Frieze, 2005; Robertson & Murachver, 2007).

IPV has been considered as violence from males to female partners. This perception begun to be changed after the 　　　

　　　　 first U. S. National Family Violence Survey in 1975.

“Females were as violent as males were.” (Frieze, 2005; Carney et al., 2007)

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Bi-directional violenceBi-directional violence Violence is initiated by both partners.

Mutual violence Mutual violence The more their partners use violence against female

victims, the more female victims use violence against their partners and vice versa.

→ Violence is escalated.

(For example. Graham-Kevan & Archer, 2005; Hamberger & Guse, 2002; Hendy et al., 2003; Hughes et al., 2007; Swan et al, 2005; Swan & Snow, 2003)

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Here are some facts… Mutually mild violence was the most common form of violence (Williams

& Frieze, 2005). Females’ use of violence and their partners’ use of violence appeared to

be parallel (Orcutt et al., 2005).

Being involved with a violent male partner →→ Reinforces females’ aggressive tendencies & amplify their likelihood of being offenders of IPV

Being involved with a nonviolent male partner →→ Reduces females’ violent tendencies

(Herrera et al., 2008) Females experiencing both offending & being victimized behavior are

more vulnerablevulnerable than females experiencing only being victimized (Orcutt et al., 2005).

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Both males and females likely use violence as a means to achieve their goals, but females are mostly unsuccessful in achieving their goals (Dasgupta, 2002).

Motivations Motivations Both genders

◦ controlling their partners (Hamberger et al., 1997; Dasgupta, 2002)

Males◦ trying to establish long-term authority (Dasgupta, 2002). ◦ punishment their partners’ unwanted behaviors (Hamberger et al.,

1997).

Females ◦ trying to establish short-term security (Dasgupta, 2002). ◦ Self-defense (Swan & Snow, 2003).◦ Retaliation for prior physical and emotional violence from their

partners, and escape from their male partners’ violence (Hamberger et al., 1997).

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Using violence for self defense:◦ may be effective for some victims in stopping the violence from their

partners (Swan & Snow, 2003). ◦ makes their situations worse and they may end up being more

vulnerable. Offenders’ violence get worse Victims receive more severe injuries and injuries likely to be

sustained (Bachman & Carmody, 1994; Langhinrichsen-Rohling et al., 1995; Orcutt et al., 2005)

Even though females use minimal violence against their partners who use violence, male partners respond with much more severe violence (Downs et al., 2007).

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Four non violent strategies that female victims can use to protect themselves in violent situations (Downs et al., 2007)◦ Separating themselves from their partners by running away or

locking themselves in a room ◦ Threatening to call for help such as to the police ◦ Talking the partners out of perpetrating the violence◦ Obeying their partners’ demands.

↓↓ If those strategies do not work…◦ Use violence

Usually, it results in the escalation of violence from their partners. Nonviolence strategies generally appear to be the safest and

effective option.

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Effective Intervention (Ananda et al., 2007) Exposure therapy, cognitive therapy, anxiety management, psychoeducation

PsychoeducationVictims often have maladaptive coping strategies, confusion and self-blame.

　↓↓

◦ Provide accurate information about their victimization typical responses educate healthy vs. unhealthy coping strategies (teach adaptive coping

techniques.) Empowerment

Give appropriate referrals

A condition surrounding violence may be different in each community and country because of different social situation, economies, perceptions about violence and other factors; however, it is true that violence is not an acceptable behavior and it facilitates many negative consequences.

Most of what I have mentioned about today is basically based on facts that were found in the studies done in high income and greater gender equality countries. There might be something similar and different in your countries. I hope you have found something you can apply to your community/ country or come up with new ideas to help victims.

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I personally believe that education is really important in order to raise the awareness that violence is not acceptable as the first step to reducing this kind of victimization.

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Thank you for your attention!!Thank you for your attention!!

Chie Maekoya (maekoya@tokiwa.ac.jp) Chie Maekoya (maekoya@tokiwa.ac.jp)