Kate Cavanagh

Separate and Intersecting Realities: A Comparison of Men's and Women's Accounts of Violence Against Women

The authors seek to contribute to a fuller understanding of mens violence against women in intimate relationships by comparing mens and womens accounts of the violence, injuries, and controlling behavior used by men against women partners. Although men and women inhabit a shared physical and social space within the home, their lived experiences and perceptions of such relationships often differ. Despite this, many studies do not consider what effect such gender differences might have on accounts of violence against women and, instead, assume that mens and womens accounts are basically unproblematic. The authors ask whether this is so. Based on findings from an in-depth interview study of 122 men who had perpetrated violence against a woman partner and 144 women who had been the victims of such violence, the results show that women and men provide significantly different accounts of mens violence, controlling behavior, and injuries. These results make problematic the assumption that mens accounts of their own violent behavior can be used uncritically and without reference to womens accounts of mens violence.

Not an Ordinary Killer— Just an Ordinary Guy When Men Murder an Intimate Woman Partner

The Murder in Britain Study was designed to examine in detail different types of murder. Using a subset of case files from this study, men who murder other men (MM;n = 424) are compared with men who murder an intimate partner (IP;n = 106) to reflect on the relative conventionality of each group. In terms of many of the characteristics of childhood and adulthood, the IP murder group differs from theMMgroup and appears to be more “ordinary” or “conventional.” However, the IP group is less conventional in that they are more likely to have intimate relationships that had broken down, to have used violence against a previous woman partner as well as against the victim they killed, and to “ specialize” in violence against women.

Lethal and Nonlethal Violence Against an Intimate Female Partner Comparing Male Murderers to Nonlethal Abusers

Mens lethal and nonlethal violence against an intimate female partner are compared. Various risk factors are examined to compare mens lethal and nonlethal violence against an intimate woman partner. Relative to abusers, men who kill are generally more conventional with respect to childhood backgrounds, education, employment, and criminal careers, are more likely to be possessive and jealous, and are more likely to be separated from their partner at the time of the event. Men who kill are more likely to have used violence against a previous partner, to have sexually assaulted and strangled the victim, and to have used a weapon or instrument. However, they were less likely to have been drunk at the time of the event and/or to have previously used violence against the woman they killed. Overall, the findings do not support the notion of a simple progression from nonlethal to lethal violence and raise some dilemmas for the growing area of risk assessment.

A Research Evaluation of British Programmes for Violent Men

In the last two decades there have been a number of social, medical and legal initiatives in the UK and elsewhere to provide assistance to women who suffer violence from their partner. The most recent innovations focus on responding to the men who perpetrate this violence. In this article we present the initial results of the first British study of programmes for violent men. The three-year study used a longitudinal method to compare the effects of two court mandated programmes with other, more orthodox, forms of criminal justice intervention (fines, admonishment, traditional probation, prison). Here we describe the mens programmes, locate the current study in the context of existing evaluations of similar programmes operating in North America, outline the methods employed, present the results of the post-hoc matching used to assess the probable effects of selection bias and using subsequent prosecutions and the accounts of women, compare the impact of different criminal justice interventions. The results indicate that twelve months after the criminal justice intervention a significant proportion of the Programme men had not subsequently been violent to their partner. This was in contrast to men sanctioned in other ways (the Other CJ group) who were much less likely to have changed their violent behaviour.

Protection, Prevention, Rehabilitation or Justice? Women's Use of the Law to Challenge Domestic Violence*:

This article addresses the neglected question of what women who experience ‘domestic violence’ want from the law and examines the ways in which women actively engage with the legal system. Viewing women as agents trying to survive abuse, we examine their interaction with both civil and criminal legal systems as part of their ‘active negotiation and strategic resistance’ to mens violence. This represents a break from the tradition which has tended to view women survivors as passive recipients of the law and has focused on outcomes of legal intervention to the exclusion of process. Using data from a British evaluation of criminal justice responses to domestic violence, we analyse legal processes which support or fail to support women and argue that legal interventions can contribute to womens improved safety and quality of life.

“Out of the Blue” Men Who Murder an Intimate Partner

It came “out of the blue” is often said when a man with no known history of criminality kills his intimate partner. This reflects a belief that a “conventional man” without a criminogenic past or a problematic personal history would not commit murder. Casefiles from the Murder in Britain Study are used to compare men with no previous conviction (NoConvict, n = 25) with men with at least one previous conviction prior to the murder (PrevConvict, n = 79). The groups differed in childhood and adulthood with problematic lives and offending among the PrevConvict group and more “conventional” profiles among the NoConvict group but were similar in terms of circumstances at the murder and cognitions about the victim, especially possessiveness, jealousy, separation, empathy and remorse. The similarities challenge the notion that the murder comes “out of the blue” and underscore the relevance of gender and a feminist analysis of IPmurder

Helping others or a rewarding career? Investigating student motivations to train as social workers in England

• Summary: Understanding why people want to be social workers is important both for developing social work education and for the profession as a whole. This article presents evidence about the motivations of students enrolled on social work degree programmes in England and draws on data from 3000 responses of three successive intakes of students responding to six online surveys and 26 focus group interviews involving 168 students from nine different social work programmes in six case study sites. The article locates these data in the context of earlier studies of social workers’ motivations, the changing policy context and the changes introduced by the new degree. • Findings: Similar to previous studies, the current analysis shows that altruistic motivations dominated, but students were also influenced by career issues and the day-to-day aspects of social work. The data highlight continuities with the former qualification in social work in the UK (the DipSW) and provide evidence that the introduction of the social work degree has not dramatically changed the underlying motivations of social work students. • Applications: Understanding student motivations is important in terms of recruitment to social work qualifying programmes and subsequent retention within the profession. Social work educators and employers need to pay attention to the consequences of mismatches between motivations and expectations about what professional practice involves.

Onset of Offending and Life Course Among Men Convicted of Murder

Although the developmental perspective has become a leading paradigm in criminology, little attention has been paid to the onset of offending and life course of murderers within this tradition. We use bivariate and Multiple Correspondence Analysis to investigate the life course and criminal careers of three onset groups among a UK sample of 786 men convicted of murder. The early-onset group (20% of the sample) is more likely to have experienced significant problems in childhood and adulthood. The no-offending group (10% of the sample) is the least likely to have had problematic backgrounds. The childhoods of the late-onset group (67% of the sample) resemble the no-offending group (with few problems) but in adulthood they more closely resemble the early-onset group (with many problems). The implications of these findings for developmental criminology and homicide research are discussed.

The Evaluation of the New Social Work Degree Qualification in England: Wider Perspectives

The phased introduction of the new degree level professional qualification in the United Kingdom provides an ideal opportunity for ensuring that debates about social work education in the UK are set within a broader European perspective. Until now, the refusal of the UK government of the time to make changes in line with a European Union (EU) directive of 1989 which declared common recognition for all social work courses of minimally three years study in higher education at degree level leading to entry to a regulatory profession, meant that British social work awards were not recognised in other EU countries. Ironically, faced with a recruitment crisis at home, social work employers have been recruiting internationally qualified social workers from overseas and, since 1990, nearly 10,000 such social workers have applied to have letters of verification to allow them to practise in the UK.