The Impact on Midwives of Undertaking Screening for Domestic Violence: Focus Group Findings

Objective: To investigate the impact mandatory screening for domestic violence has had upon registered midwives. Design: Three phase study – Phase one involved focus group interviews. Setting: Hospitals in South-East Queensland undertaking mandatory domestic violence screening. Participants: Registered midwives undertaking screening for domestic violence. Results: Several barriers were identified that directly impacted upon the midwives' potential to screen effectively. Barriers identified were classified as intrinsic (intrapersonal and perception) and extrinsic (interpersonal, environmental and organisational infrastructure). Principle, conclusions and implications for practice: Although midwives have strong beliefs about the value of domestic violence screening, there is a negative perception about it's efficacy and an assumption of failure due to the barriers identified by the registered midwives

Bloodred: Violence on Screen

The dishonest mob boss goes down in a spray of bullets and blood; a humanoid machine meets her end amidst flying glass shards; a son smothers his mother in her hospital bed; a former assassin confronts the red in her ledger. Violence in films exists in a variety of dimensions. It can be graphic or subtle, triumphant or tragic. It can be primarily masculine and heterosexual, or it can involve other genders and sexualities. However it is portrayed, violence plays an important role in a film’s narrative and cultural messages. The four films I analyze in this essay—The Godfather (1972), Blade Runner (1982), Joker (2019), and Black Widow (2021)—represent a broad range of genres and time periods, from a crime/gangster film set in the 1940s to a science fiction film set in futuristic Los Angeles. However, these films are not completely disparate. All four feature violence as a major narrative element, with protagonists who inflict violence intentionally and repeatedly, albeit for varying purposes. This essay investigates how the differing portrayals of violence in these films contribute to the films’ implicit and explicit meanings. Violence in films plays both a narrative role, delineating elements of plot, and a cultural role, clarifying the film’s stance on issues of gender and sexuality; these, combined with a discussion of the social reception of violence, particularly as it relates to the rating system, frame this essay’s argument

Is Race a Factor in Disparate Health Problems Associated with Violence Against Women?

Research studies examining the health correlates of violence against women have consistently demonstrated associations between violence and poor health outcomes, but have not examined a disparate impact on racial minorities. Alaska Victimization Survey data (2010) were used to examine whether a disparate relationship between victimization and health problems exists for minority women relative to White women. The Alaska Victimization Survey (AVS) is a cross-sectional survey designed to provide baseline estimates of intimate partner and sexual violence for Alaskan women. Logistic regression was used to assess the odds of experiencing various health problems given race and exposure to violence status while holding age and education constant. This study found that victimization increased the odds of health problems for all women, but significantly more so for minority women. Based on allostatic load theory, minority women who are victims of violence may be more likely to experience poor health outcomes because of the compounding effects of life stressors on neural, endocrine, and immune systems. Policy and practice implications of the study findings suggest preventing and reducing violence against all women, and for informed physicians to screen patients for abuse histories and refer to appropriate counseling and other stress reduction resources.Ye

Brady Statute Data: Persons Who are Subject to a Court Order Restraining Them from Threatening or Committing Acts of Domestic Violence or Abuse

Currently, Alaska law enforcement agencies do not obtain data on four noncriminal categories prohibited by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 from obtaining firearms. This, the second of four reports on these categories, describes how persons subject to a domestic violence restraining order can be identified within an Alaska context and discusses possible procedures, problems, and solutions associated with data collection. The state is rapidly moving to the point where all individuals who meet the Brady definition for this category will be identified, the information housed in a separate database, and reported to federal agencies. AS 18.65.540 provides for a central registry of Domestic Violence Protective Orders, a product of the (state) Domestic Violence Prevention and Victim Protection Act of 1996.Bureau of Justice Statistics, United States Department of Justice Grant No. 96-RU-RX-K026Introduction / Background / Civil Protection Orders / Handgun Applications / New Policies / Conclusion / References / Appendix A: APSIN Screen

Should health professionals screen women for domestic violence? : systematic review

Objective To assess the evidence for the acceptability and effectiveness of screening women for domestic violence in healthcare settings. Design Systematic review of published quantitative studies. Search strategy Three electronic databases (Medline, Embase, and CINAHL) were searched for articles published in the English language up to February 2001. Included studies Surveys that elicited the attitudes of women and health professionals on the screening of women in health settings; comparative studies conducted in healthcare settings that measured rates of identification of domestic violence in the presence and absence of screening; studies measuring outcomes of interventions for women identified in health settings who experience abuse from a male partner or ex­partner compared with abused women not receiving an intervention. Results 20 papers met the inclusion criteria. In four surveys, 43­85% of women respondents found screening in healthcare settings acceptable. Two surveys of health professionals' views found that two thirds of physicians and almost half of emergency department nurses were not in favour of screening. In nine studies of screening compared with no screening, most detected a greater proportion of abused women identified by healthcare professionals. Six studies of interventions used weak study designs and gave inconsistent results. Other than increased referral to outside agencies, little evidence exists for changes in important outcomes such as decreased exposure to violence. No studies measured quality of life, mental health outcomes, or potential harm to women from screening programmes. Conclusion Although domestic violence is a common problem with major health consequences for women, implementation of screening programmes in healthcare settings cannot be justified. Evidence of the benefit of specific interventions and lack of harm from screening is needed

Medical curricula on intimate partner violence in Mozambique

Introduction: The aim of the study described in this paper is to screen medical curricula in relation to the attention paid to intimate partner violence, by applying a framework derived from the international literature. Material and Methods: We screened curricula of five Mozambican medical schools based on a state-of-the-art intimate partner violence curriculum framework. The latter framework was based on a review of the literature. Results: Few medical schools of Mozambique could be identified addressing intimate partner violence in their curriculum. When tackled, intimate partner violence content is mostly dealt within the context of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Community Health and Forensic Medicine rotations. Intimate partner violence contents are integrated as stand-alone modules in some specific subjects. In none of the schools, specific teachers teaching intimate partner violence could be identified. No time allocation was specified to address the topic; no teaching and learning strategies could be identified invoking awareness or supporting basic knowledge acquisition; additionally, hardly any information about related assessment methods was found. Only in one medical school was the subject part of the formal curriculum. Discussion: Intimate partner violence content is hardly and inconsistently addressed. The limited intimate partner violence content tracked in the Mozambican medical schools’ curricula, mainly addresses violence in general, for instance as identified in Orthopaedics or Surgery contexts and sexual violence in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The inclusion of elements of intimate partner violence in the curriculum remains restricted, questioning the impact of medical education of future practitioners’ competencies. Conclusion: Critical changes are needed in medical curricula to match the current epidemiology of intimate partner violence in Mozambique

The Initial Development and Validation of the Teen Screen for Dating Violence

This study was related to the initial development and validation of the instrument, the Teen Screen for Dating Violence (TSDV). The TSDV is an assessment tool that screens for adolescent dating violence perpetration and victimization. It examines perceptions, experiences, perpetration, and exposure to dating violence as well as available support systems for adolescents. Literature shows that dating violence among the adolescent population is on the rise and adolescent dating violence mimics many of the patterns of adult intimate partner violence. Children who grow up in homes with violence are more likely to continue the cycle of violence in their future relationships. Through assessment and screening for dating violence victimization and perpetration, adolescents who are high risk for continuing the cycle of violence can be identified for early intervention and prevention measures. There is a lack of assessment tools that screen for adolescent dating violence. This research study presents the rigorous development and validation processes of the TSDV. Findings outline the factor structure of the TSDV, which is supported through the use of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, as well as evidence of reliability and validity. The TSDV is an easy to use assessment tool that can be used in a variety of settings to screen and assess for dating violence

Language-GAME-Players: Articulating the pleasures of ‘violent’ game texts

Young peoples’ voices have been considered irrelevant or unreliable when it comes to discussing the influence and impact of their engagement with screen-mediated depictions of violence. Historically, such viewpoints have been derived from the controlled experimentation of modernist psychology, which constitutes the most sustained and prominent enquiries into the consequences of individual participation in, and viewing of, simulated violence. In espousing an impersonal approach, psychological research has opted not to demonstrate any understanding of the properties of the particular games or the medium its findings have been used to denigrate. Neither does its research possess broader awareness of the social dimensions of play or the productivity inherent in the practices of its surrounding cultures. This paper introduces findings taken from a two-year project that attempted to draw together what have essentially remained separate lines of inquiry – the critical and analytical scrutiny of Game Studies applied to understanding the pleasures of engagement with game violence. The aim of this research was to achieve a more contextual understanding of texts that utilise violence from the perspective of young people that opt to experience them as an entertainment form. In doing so, a range of qualitative methods were employed to encourage game players to present their viewpoints and offer a voice that is all too often absent from the ‘one-way debate’ attached to the representation of violence within games

Digital visceral: textural play and the flamboyant gesture in digital screen violence

Screen violence continues to be marked by strategies that emerged in the late 1960s – what Arthur Penn called the ‘ballet of blood’ in films like Bonnie and Clyde and the Wild Bunch – specifically, a combination of temporal elasticity, graphic detail, and the flamboyant elaboration of the physical effects of violence. Yet the affordances of computer-generated images appear to be intensifying these strategies. Today audiences are, in Sean Cubitt’s words, ‘connoisseurs of compositing’ (2013) that have a tactile understanding of the inherent discreteness of the elements of the digital composite. As a result, contemporary films are eschewing the dominant tendency of the 1990s and early 2000s to construct so-called ‘seamless’ digital composite, and producing sequences of digital screen violence that are frequently characterized by a refusal of seamlessness and an impulse towards increased flamboyance, abstraction and textural play that is more familiar from histories of exploitation cinema and the repeatable logics of videogame violence and YouTube mash-ups. This paper will analyse the aesthetic characteristics and the phenomenological appeals of this recent evolution in screen violence, mapping an audio-visual field that is persistently marked by a textural dissonance between haptic imagery and geometric abstraction

Adverse Impact of a History of Violence for Women with Breast, Cervical, Endometrial, or Overian Cancer

The experience of physical and sexual violence (victimization) is common among U.S. women and is associated with adverse health consequences. The study objectives were to estimate the prevalence of victimization in women with cancer and to examine associations with demographics, cancer screening, and cancer stage. METHODS: From 2004 to 2005, 101 women with breast, cervical, endometrial, or ovarian cancer were interviewed to collect demographics, cancer screening history, health care access/use, and violence history. Chisquare and Fisher exact tests were used test risk-factor associations. A multinomial logistic regression model was used for multivariable analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence of a history of violence was 48.5% (49/101 women), and within that group, 46.9% (23/49) had a positive childhood violence screen, 75.5% (37/49) had a positive adult screen, and 55% (27/49) reported sexual violence at any age. Women with a positive violence screen differed significantly from women with a negative screen in that they were younger (P .031), more often divorced (P.012), more likely to smoke (P.010), more often lacked commercial insurance (P.036), and had more advanced stage of disease (P.013), but they did not differ with regard to race, cancer type, education level, alcohol or drug use, or cancer screening compliance. Multivariable analysis revealed that only stage remained significant; women with a history of violence had a 2.6-fold increased chance of diagnosis in later stages (odds ratio 2.61, 95% confidence interval 1.03– 6.59). CONCLUSION: A history of violence in breast, ovarian, endometrial, and ovarian cancer patients was extremely common and correlated with advanced stage at diagnosis