Conventional wisdom suggests that women usually kill their spouses in
self defence or as a final, desperate reaction to chronic battery, the
burning-bed syndrome that is sometimes cited as a defence in murder
trials. A new Canadian study, however, suggests that barely a quarter of
husband-killers are victims of domestic abuse, less than half suffer
from any identified psychological problem, and fewer still have had
trouble with police.
The majority of the slayings – perpetrated by knife, gun and
strangulation — appear generally unheralded, suggests the analysis of 20
years of Quebec homicide files.
"Women rarely gave a warning before killing their mates,” concluded
the study, co-authored by Dr. Dominique Bourget, a forensic psychiatrist
at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. “In the vast majority of
cases of women who killed their mates, there were very few indicators
that might have signalled the risk and helped predict the violent,
lethal behaviour.”
Women who end their partners’ lives have been an under-examined
group, the researchers note, given they represent a minority of the
total partner homicides. Almost 80% of the 738 spousal killings in
Canada between 2000 and 2009 were committed by men, who the study said
are also responsible almost exclusively for bloody massacres where
children, as well as the partner, are murdered in one act.
Read on...
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Showing posts with label intimate partner violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intimate partner violence. Show all posts
Domestic violence costs Canadians $6.9 billion a year: Study
VANCOUVER — The aftermath of abusive relationships is costing Canadians an estimated $6.9 billion a year, according to new research out of the University of British Columbia.
The study, published in a recent issue of Canadian Public Policy, found that women who have ended relationships involving "intimate partner violence" continue to face persistent health issues, legal troubles and economic burdens, totalling $13,162 annually per woman — a cost spread across private and public domains.
The assumption has always been that when a woman leaves an abusive relationship "things ought to get better," said the lead researcher, UBC nursing Prof. Colleen Varcoe. "But we didn't know that."
It turns out that many consequences continue to plague abused women well after their relationships are over, disrupting their own lives, but also straining public coffers.
The other side of the story on domestic abuse
Remarkably, a PhD student in Criminology at the University of Toronto, Alexandra Lysova, has been awarded one of 14 2011 scholarships from the prestigious Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.
I say "remarkably" not because Ms. Lysova herself is unworthy -on the contrary -but because of the nature of her research project. Of which more anon.
According to the Foundation's spokesperson, "The Trudeau Foundation rewards excellence [in the humanities and social sciences] and provides young researchers with the best conditions to ground their work in the real world."
In academia, for ideological reasons, there have always been, and continue to be, areas where "the real world" makes an uncomfortable fit with sacred myths based in theory, not evidence. One such theory is that in domestic violence -or "intimate partner violence (IPV)," as it is now called -women always are either passive victims of male aggression or violent only in self-defence. This myth has so permeated the academy, social service agencies, charities, schools, the police and the legal system, that the truth about the "real life" of intimate partners caught up in dysfunctional scenarios has been ignored, suppressed or attacked to the point that most researchers stay far away from it.
Alexandra is a PhD student at the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies. Tom
Women Fight to Put Violence on Global Agenda
by Monika Manke
UNITED NATIONS - Joyce and Tanya -- two women of different ages, nationalities, cultures and religions -- share something: both became victims of a missing goal.
Combating violence against women is what Inés Alberdi, executive director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), calls the missing goal, because it is not an issue addressed by the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
But it is an issue with a lot of faces, like Joyce, who was raped during the post-election violence in Kenya, and Tanya, who is a survivor of domestic violence in New York City.
"My husband beat me when I was pregnant with his son. He isolated me from my family and held me like a hostage in our home," 42-year-old Tanya told IPS. After about four years of fear and suffering, when her husband killed the dog and threatened her children, she left.
U.N. officials point out that the fight against gender-based violence is making progress on some fronts. "More governments than ever are having violence against women on their agenda," Maria José Alcalá, a senior advisor at UNIFEM, told IPS.
Read on...
UNITED NATIONS - Joyce and Tanya -- two women of different ages, nationalities, cultures and religions -- share something: both became victims of a missing goal.
Combating violence against women is what Inés Alberdi, executive director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), calls the missing goal, because it is not an issue addressed by the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
But it is an issue with a lot of faces, like Joyce, who was raped during the post-election violence in Kenya, and Tanya, who is a survivor of domestic violence in New York City.
"My husband beat me when I was pregnant with his son. He isolated me from my family and held me like a hostage in our home," 42-year-old Tanya told IPS. After about four years of fear and suffering, when her husband killed the dog and threatened her children, she left.
U.N. officials point out that the fight against gender-based violence is making progress on some fronts. "More governments than ever are having violence against women on their agenda," Maria José Alcalá, a senior advisor at UNIFEM, told IPS.
Read on...
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