Women Leaving Violent Men: Crossroads of Emotion, Cognition and Action

This thesis addresses battered women’s leaving processes. Leaving is conceptualised in a wider sense, i.e. as disentanglement from violent relationships beyond the physical break-up. The general aim of the thesis is to study how emotion and cognition are shaped around the act of leaving. Feminist theory on violence against women and the sociology of emotions are the main theoretical frameworks used to enhance understanding of women’s exiting from violence. The thesis is built on two sets of qualitative interview material with women who have left abusive heterosexual relationships. The material consists of a total of 49 interviews. In Paper I, Why Does She Leave? The Leaving Process(es) of Battered Women, three overlapping leaving processes are described: Breaking Up, Becoming Free and Understanding. Breaking Up covers action, i.e. the physical breakup. Becoming Free covers emotion and involves release from the strong emotional bond that battered women may develop to their batterers. Understanding covers cognition and is a process that entails women defining the relationships they have lived in as abusive and themselves as victimised. In Paper II, A Fool to Keep Staying” – Battered Women Labelling Themselves “Stupid” as an Expression of Gendered Shame, the informants labelling themselves “stupid” is investigated. Feeling stupid for staying in the abusive relationship and “allowing” oneself to be mistreated are the main themes. It is proposed that feeling – and labelling oneself – stupid is an expression of gendered shame and reflects unfinished Understanding processes. In Paper III, Leaving Jekyll and Hyde – Emotion Work in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence, battered women’s emotion work is investigated. The results suggest a process in which victims initially conceptualised abusers as good, but subjection to violence led to a cognitive-emotive dissonance responded to by emotion work. Over time, conceptualisations of abusers shifted from good to bad and efforts were made to change emotions from warm to cold. In Paper IV, Jekyll and Hyde or “Who is this Guy?” – Battered Women’s Interpretations of their Abusive Partners as a Mirror of Opposite Discourses, the informants’ interpretations of their abusers as “Jekyll and Hyde” are analysed against the background of two opposite discourses: the pathology/deviance discourse and the feminist/normality discourse. Complex mixes and combinations of understandings were found in the informants’ interpretations which were, however, dominated by the pathology/deviance discourse. During analysis of the material, a third image emerged, beyond Jekyll and Hyde, i.e. the abusers as “hurt boys”; it was argued this image might prolong the Becoming Free process and serve as a direct impediment to leaving. The results of the thesis indicate that emotion and cognition are interconnected and in process around the act of leaving

Ett litet ord betyder så mycket : Alliansregeringen, Handlingsplanen och betydelseförskjutningarav begreppet mäns våld mot kvinnor

A little word may mean so much: Changed meanings of the concept men’s violence against women This article concerns the process of policymaking in the Swedish political system with a focus on the concept of men’s violence against women. The material analyzed is based on interviews with key civil servants and the Minister of Equality responsible for the ”Action Plan for Combating Men’s Violence Against Women” launched by the right wing government in 2007. The article shows how a shift in the concept of men’s violence against women is achieved through complex negotiations involving the administration staff as well as the political representatives.The outcome is a change from an understanding of the issue as a structural gender power relation problem, to explaining it as related to individual deviations. This change has been made by re-wording and editing out earlier understandings of men’s violence against women as a structural gender power concern in policies and guidelines, so that the concept is framed as something pertaining to groups of vulnerable women with specific individual obstacles. The political goals are then expressed along the lines of providing support for each group’s designated problems, but the connection to gendered power structures is made invisible.Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv</p

Ett litet ord betyder så mycket : Alliansregeringen, Handlingsplanen och betydelseförskjutningarav begreppet mäns våld mot kvinnor

A little word may mean so much: Changed meanings of the concept men’s violence against women This article concerns the process of policymaking in the Swedish political system with a focus on the concept of men’s violence against women. The material analyzed is based on interviews with key civil servants and the Minister of Equality responsible for the ”Action Plan for Combating Men’s Violence Against Women” launched by the right wing government in 2007. The article shows how a shift in the concept of men’s violence against women is achieved through complex negotiations involving the administration staff as well as the political representatives.The outcome is a change from an understanding of the issue as a structural gender power relation problem, to explaining it as related to individual deviations. This change has been made by re-wording and editing out earlier understandings of men’s violence against women as a structural gender power concern in policies and guidelines, so that the concept is framed as something pertaining to groups of vulnerable women with specific individual obstacles. The political goals are then expressed along the lines of providing support for each group’s designated problems, but the connection to gendered power structures is made invisible.Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv</p

Health care utilization, mental disorders and behavioural disorders among perpetrators of intimate partner homicide in 2000-2016: A registry-based case-control study from Sweden.

Little is known about intimate partner homicide (IPH) perpetrator´s healthcare contacts and mental health problems before the killing. The aim was to compare male and female IPH perpetrators with matched controls from the general population by analysing differences in healthcare utilization and mental and behavioural disorders. This study includes 48 males and 10 females who perpetrated IPH between 2000 and 2016 in the Västra Götaland Region of Sweden. Controls (n = 458) were randomly selected from the general population and matched for sex, birth year and residential area. Data were retrieved from the Swedish National Patient Register and the Western Swedish Healthcare Register. Mental and behavioural disorders were classified according to ICD-10 (F00-F99). The Mann-Whitney U test was used to test for differences in health care utilization and mental and behavioural disorders. Compared to their controls, male perpetrators had more registered contacts with primary care ≤ 30 (p = < .001) and ≤ 365 days (p = .019), respectively, before the homicide; with specialist outpatient care ≤ 30 (p = < .001) and ≤ 365 days (p = < .001), respectively, before the homicide: and with inpatient care ≤ 30 (p = < .001) and ≤ 365 days (p = .024), respectively, before the homicide. Female perpetrators had more specialized outpatient care (p = .040) and inpatient care (p = .003) contacts ≤ 365 days before the homicide, compared to controls. Male perpetrators had at least one mental or behavioral disorder diagnosed in any studied healthcare setting except in inpatient care ≤ 30 days before homicide. Female perpetrators had more mental health disorders diagnosed in specialized outpatient care ≤ 365 days before the homicide (p < .001). Perpetrators had more healthcare contacts and mental disorders one year and one month prior to the homicide compared to their controls. Health care professionals should obtain necessary skills in routinely enquiring about intimate partner violence perpetration

The killing and thereafter : intimate partner homicides in a process perspective, part II

This article puts intimate partner homicide (IPH) into a process perspective, and describes the latter two stages of the IPH process, that is, ‘changing the project’ and ‘the aftermath’. The focus of analysis is on the moment when the perpetrator chooses to kill the victim, and what s/he does and says in the wake of the killing. Fifty court files, from cases involving 40 male and 10 female perpetrators, underwent thematic analysis. Regarding the final trigger pertaining to changing the project, some situational factors that trigger male-perpetrated IPH seem to differ from the corresponding factors in female-perpetrated IPH. Feelings of rejection and jealousy seemed to be more common as triggers to kill for men than for women, while some cases of female-perpetrated IPH were linked to self-defence in response to IPV. Moreover, as noted previously, no female perpetrators displayed possessiveness

Bereaved by Intimate Partner Homicide: Consequences and Experiences of Support

The aim of this qualitative study is to present the experiences of family members bereaved by intimate partner homicide (IPH). The focus is on immediate and long-term consequences of the killing, and on the participants’ experiences of subsequently offered information and support. This includes interactions with healthcare, social services, the criminal justice system, and the media. Twenty-two interviews with parents, siblings, and adult children of IPH victims underwent thematical analysis. The bereaved mainly described the social support following the IPH as lacking or inadequate, and recounted that they had been left alone with handling practical and emotionally difficult tasks, such as cleaning up after the killing. More specifically, they felt that institutional responses had been lacking with regard to information, understanding, coordination between professionals, continuity, professionalism, and redress. These results indicate that a coordinated response to people bereaved by IPH is necessary and, if lacking, must be developed

Recorded healthcare contacts among female perpetrators (n = 10) of Intimate partner homicide and their matched controls (n = 100) in Sweden 2000–2016.

Recorded healthcare contacts among female perpetrators (n = 10) of Intimate partner homicide and their matched controls (n = 100) in Sweden 2000–2016.</p

Recorded healthcare contacts among male perpetrators (n = 48) of Intimate partner homicide and their matched controls (n = 480) in Sweden 2000–2016.

Recorded healthcare contacts among male perpetrators (n = 48) of Intimate partner homicide and their matched controls (n = 480) in Sweden 2000–2016.</p

Diagnosed mental and behavioural disorders among male perpetrators (n = 48) of Intimate partner homicide and their matched controls (n = 480) in Sweden, 2000–2016.

Diagnosed mental and behavioural disorders among male perpetrators (n = 48) of Intimate partner homicide and their matched controls (n = 480) in Sweden, 2000–2016.</p