VAWnet is a project of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence. “Violence during pregnancy is a critical concern because it is often frequent and severe in nature. Pregnant abused women tend to report experiencing more severe violence compared to non-pregnant abused women (Campbell, Oliver, & Bullock, 1993; McFarlane, Parker, & Soeken, 1995). In addition, pregnant violence survivors o...

In Battered Women and Sleeping Abusers: Some Reflections, Professor Joshua Dressler offers cogent criticism of the application of self-defense to battered women who kill their abusers under “nonconfrontational” circumstances, such as when the abuser is asleep. Dressler is critical of using evidence that the defendant suffered from “Battered Woman Syndrome” (“BWS”) to establish the requisite def...

Four facets of leaving an abusive relationship are reviewed: (a). factors related to initially leaving an abusive partner; (b). the process of leaving an abusive relationship; (c). the psychological well-being of survivors after leaving; and (d). the predictors of this well-being. The conceptual and methodological limitations of studies in each of these areas are presented. Consistently found p...

An online experiment was conducted among a convenience sample of college students (N = 219) to explore the effects of narrative perspectives (first-person vs. third-person) and gender similarity to a victim on sympathy and support for aid to people in need. To be specific, the study examined the influence of telling a story of an abused woman from a first-person perspective as opposed to a thir...

OBJECTIVE To examine prevalence rates and psychosocial correlates of clonidine use in a sample of opiate-dependent pregnant women. METHODS Clonidine use was assessed in 90 treatment-seeking, pregnant, opiate-abusing women using both self-report and urinalysis toxicology. Clonidine-positive and -negative subjects were compared for selected demographic, substance use, and psychosocial measures....

Approximately 15% of married or cohabiting women and as many as 60% of battered women are raped at least once by their partners. This study compared community-based counseling outcomes of battered women with outcomes of women who were both raped and battered by their partners. Over time, both groups improved in wellbeing and coping. Although those both battered and raped progressed more in coun...

This thesis investigates the importance of higher education for women of Babati, Tanzania. The research has been carried out by focusing three research questions; What does an education at the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) mean for the female students on a personal level? What is the female students’ perception on the importance of women’s higher education for development? How can the femal...

BACKGROUND Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women can result in serious health problems. The objectives of this study are to analyse the association between the different types of IPV and women's physical health, and to examine whether this association varies depending on the intensity, duration and timing of the violence. METHODS A sample of 1402 randomly selected women attending 23 f...

BACKGROUND Intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with poorer health, yet pathways through which IPV affects either mental or physical health are not well characterized. METHODS Structural equation modeling was used to test a model in which physical-IPV and battering were considered as separate independent variables. The sample included 191 women currently experiencing either physical ...

Greater training and specialization in working with children exposed to domestic violence has resulted in new policies, interagency protocols, and legislation in many states. This paper examines court-related responses in criminal, child protection, and family court custody proceedings, which highlight legislative changes and resulting systemic change. Although this legislation originated with ...