The Multiple Meanings of Domestic Violence: A Constructivist Inquiry

THE MULTIPLE MEANINGS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: A CONSTRUCTIVIST INQUIRY MONICA RENE LEISEY Master of Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2002 Bachelor of Arts, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, 1988 A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2007 Director: Mary Katherine O’Conner, Ph.D. Professor, School of Social Work Spurred by the work of the Battered Women’s Movement, domestic violence has been responded to since it emerged as a problem in the 1970s. At first the response was providing places for victims to stay and recover from the violence while also providing x opportunities for consciousness raising and empowerment work. As domestic violence became a more recognized problem, policies were created and enacted to end the problem. Through the 1980s and 1990s, changes in federal policies in regards to domestic violence were incorporated. The criminal justice system began incorporating such policies as mandatory arrest and no-drop prosecution policies as well as using batterer intervention programs (BIPs) to provide services to those accused of domestic violence charges. In Virginia, domestic violence advocates, batterer intervention program service providers and members of the criminal justice system worked together to create coordinated community responses with the stated goals of safety for domestic violence victims and accountability for perpetrators of domestic violence. The coordination, however, seemed to be fraught with difficulties, as domestic violence advocates, BIP providers, and the criminal justice system continued to struggle with the implementation of the standards. It seemed that although all three groups were able to agree upon the goals of accountability and safety, there were underlying issues of difference that were not being considered. The participants of this inquiry had congruent understandings of the term domestic violence; however their understandings of the social problem domestic violence were quite different. Because the way a social problem is understood influences policy as it is created, implemented, and experienced, it is important to strive for clarity concerning the social problem to which the policy is responding. xi This inquiry is an exploration of the multiple understandings of the social problem domestic violence as understood by those who participated in the inquiry. The tentative findings, or lessons learned, are not to be understood as generalizable findings, but as the unique, co-created understandings of the multiple meanings of the social problem domestic violence as understood by the participants and the inquirer. Chapter 1: An introduction I provided services to domestic violence survivors and their children for many years before considering the implications of the services I was providing. In the extensive training I received, the theoretical and ideological roots for domestic violence were explicit – domestic violence was a consequence of the hierarchical and patriarchal system within which we all live. It was a logical outcome to the socialization that we experienced as young women. What was needed to fix the problem was empowerment, consciousness raising, and additional services for survivors. It was not until my second year internship during my Masters in Social Work program that I began to consider the implications of those underlying assumptions. My Experiences My internship placement was at a domestic violence resource center housed within a community corrections department. I was working for the system – a problematic situation for a feminist raised, and trained, to believe that the system was the problem. It was there I began to question the theoretical basis for the services as well as the actual services I had been providing domestic violence survivors for many years. During my internship I had the opportunity to begin attending a meeting of individuals who focused not on providing services to victims, but on providing services to batterers. I also had the opportunity to speak with police officers and parole officers who provided supervision to individuals charged with and convicted of domestic violence offenses.