Ravi K. Thiara

Neither justice nor protection: women’s experiences of post-separation violence

Post‐separation violence is an issue for a significant group of domestic violence survivors (and their children) leaving abusive relationships. This article draws on research conducted with women who have experienced post‐separation violence. It explores definitions and the nature of post‐separation violence experienced by women and often their children. More than three‐quarters (76 per cent) of the 161 separated women in the study initially suffered further abuse and harassment from their former partners. Much of the violence ceased after the first 6–12 months, often due to the woman moving. However, more than one‐third (36 per cent) of the women suffered continued post‐separation violence. Against this background, womens experiences of legal routes to protection are examined and the effectiveness of the law in tackling the issue of post‐separation violence explored. In so doing, post‐separation violence is used to exemplify and further explore Smarts contention that there are many contradictions and complexities in the practice of the law, particularly as it relates to the on‐going oppression of women (1995: 145). For a group of women, violence escalated over time. These women and their children were seriously at risk of harm. Poor law enforcement, the ineffectiveness of civil protection orders and inadequate prosecution and sanctions left these women (and their children) vulnerable to further assaults and harassment. Child contact was a point of vulnerability for on‐going post‐separation violence and abuse. The implications for future policy and practice are highlighted.

Losing out on both counts: disabled women and domestic violence

The links between disability and domestic violence have been under-examined to date, leading to the marginalisation of disabled women affected by domestic violence in theory, politics, and practice. This paper draws on the findings from the first national study in the United Kingdom of the needs of disabled women experiencing domestic violence and of the services available to meet these needs. Utilising the concept of intersectionality to locate abused disabled women along axes of oppression/domination, the paper highlights the complex nature of women’s abuse experiences as well as the inadequacy of professional responses which leave women without support and protection.

Absent presence: the ongoing impact of men's violence on the mother–child relationship

ABSTRACT This paper draws from interviews with 45 mothers and 52 children who participated in an action research project to develop activities to support women and children in the aftermath of domestic violence. A thematic analysis was used to analyse the data and explore the question: In what ways does the perpetrator of abuse remain present in the lives of women and children following separation? The paper invites workers to recognize the distortions created by domestic violence that may need to be identified and addressed in the aftermath of violence. The ways in which past trauma, erosion of self‐esteem and the undermining of the mother–child relationship continues to create a shadow across the present relationship are identified. The continued presence of the perpetrator of abuse through child contact arrangements and ongoing harassment is also highlighted. The ‘absent presence’ of the abusive partner is posited as a concept to assist workers with a framework through which to understand problems in the mother–child relationship which emerge when living with and separating from a violent partner. The paper has implications for social workers orientating practice to focus on perpetrator accountability and support strengthening the mother–child relationship.

Disabled Women and Domestic Violence: Making the Links, a National UK Study

This article reports on the first-ever national study of domestic violence and disability in the United Kingdom. The multi-method study used the social model of disability and was mainly qualitative in design. It reports distressing findings of the abuse which disabled women may experience, confirming similar findings in Australia and other countries. Less provision than that available proportionally to non-disabled women is accompanied by a greater need for such focussed and specialist services. Disabled women in the United Kingdom therefore lose out on both counts. The paper concludes that a cultural shift or sea-change is required in relevant service provision at both management and operational levels, informed by disabled women themselves wherever possible. The study made wide-ranging recommendations at both the strategic level across localities and for relevant agencies in the United Kingdom. These recommendations have wide relevance in other countries.

Muslim women and gender based violence in India and the UK

This article examines how the marginality of Muslim communities in India and the UK intersects with gender based violence (GBV) in Muslim communities. We briefly outline the socio-economic positioning of Muslims and then move on to (i) discuss communalism in India and radicalisation in the UK and (ii) consider personal laws in India and the call to Sharia law in the UK to elucidate the ways in which these wider policies, legislation and discourses impact on Muslim women experiencing GBV in both contexts. We conclude that there is a continuum between state responses and community responses, and personal and criminal law in entrenching GBV at a structural and interpersonal level in both India and the UK and that the current socio-political context further limits public spaces available to Muslim women to access support for GBV.