Towards a Systemic Understanding of Honour-Based Violence: A Qualitative Study with South Asian Women in Britain.

Introduction: Honour-based violence (HBV) is a long-standing global phenomenon. Cultural expectations surrounding gender-roles are thought to contribute to its occurrence. This study focused on the South Asian community living in the UK. A review of relevant literature identified a need for research incorporating the views of South Asian women about their experiences of HBV to increase understanding of the phenomenon and address the elevated mental health concerns among such populations in response to this cultural and familial abuse. Existing research remains at a descriptive level and fails to explore the way in which survivors make sense of legal and social sanctioning of violence. At present there appears to be a gap in exploring survivor experiences of HBV in context rather than in isolation, which could help to tailor public services to protect and support these women. As such, the current study aimed to explore South Asian women's experiences of the system within which they suffered HBV. Method: A qualitative research design was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five female survivors of South Asian origin of what they classified as honour-based violence. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to interpret the data. Results: Analysis yielded three themes which were 1) "I felt caged"; 2) "Get an arranged marriage, and that's it" ; 3) "I just wanted to literally kill myself..." The themes represented control, marriage, and psychological impact respectively. Discussion: This study both supported and challenged previous research in the area. It highlighted complex power-relations and more subtle forms of abuse than previously explored in HBV research and gave an insight to perpetrator perspectives through the lens of the survivor. Findings allowed the consideration of interventions, systemic and otherwise, which could be applied when working with both survivors and perpetrators of HBV in South Asian communities in Britain, as well as ideas for further research

Towards a systemic understanding of honour-based violence : a qualitative study with South Asian women in Britain

Introduction: Honour-based violence (HBV). is a long-standing global phenomenon. Cultural expectations surrounding gender-roles are thought to contribute to its occurrence. This study focused on the South Asian community living in the UK. A review of relevant literature identified a need for research incorporating the views of South Asian women about their experiences of HBV to increase understanding of the phenomenon and address the elevated mental health concerns among such populations in response to this cultural and familial abuse. Existing research remains at a descriptive level and fails to explore the way in which survivors make sense of legal and social sanctioning of violence. At present there appears to be a gap in exploring survivor experiences of HBV in context rather than in isolation, which could help to tailor public services to protect and support these women. As such, the current study aimed to explore South Asian women's experiences of the system within which they suffered HBV. Method: A qualitative research design was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five female survivors of South Asian origin of what they classified as honour-based violence. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to interpret the data. Results: Analysis yielded three themes which were 1) "I felt caged"; 2) "Get an arranged marriage, and that's it."; 3) "I just wanted to literally kill myself ... " The themes represented control, marriage, and psychological impact respectively. Discussion: This study both supported and challenged previous research in the area. It highlighted complex power-relations and more subtle forms of abuse than previously explored in HBV research and gave an insight to perpetrator perspectives through the lens of the survivor. Findings allowed the consideration of interventions, systemic and otherwise, which could be applied when working with both survivors and perpetrators of HBV in South Asian communities in Britain, as well as ideas for further research.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Tumor grade improves the prognostic ability of American Joint Committee on Cancer stage in patients with penile carcinoma.

International audiencePURPOSE: Penile cancer is rare. Thus, predicting cancer specific mortality may be difficult. We devised an accurate and yet easily applicable predictive rule that compares favorably with 2 previous models (73.8% and 74.7% accuracy, respectively). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We identified patients treated with primary tumor excision for all stages of penile squamous cell carcinoma between 1998 and 2006. Disease stage definitions using Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results stage, American Joint Committee on Cancer stage and TNM classification, and tumor grade were used to predict cancer specific mortality. Predictive accuracy estimates were compared using the DeLong method for related AUCs. RESULTS: Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results stage alone (1 predictor variable) was least accurate (74.5%). American Joint Committee on Cancer stage with tumor grade (2 predictor variables) was the most simple and most accurate (80.9%, p <0.001). A benefit similar to that of American Joint Committee on Cancer stage with tumor grade was seen for TNM classification and TG (80.7%, p = 0.8). However, this rule (4 predictor variables) was more complex than American Joint Committee on Cancer stage and tumor grade. CONCLUSIONS: American Joint Committee on Cancer stage combined with tumor grade is the simplest, most accurate cancer specific mortality prediction rule after primary tumor excision for penile squamous cell carcinoma. This method is also more accurate than 2 previous cancer specific mortality prediction rules