TY - JOUR
T1 - Services for Domestic Violence Victims in the United Kingdom and United States
T2 - Where Are We Today?
AU - Bates, Elizabeth A.
AU - Douglas, Emily M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The research on hotlines is limited, but in the United Kingdom, one example was a commissioned evaluation of the All-Wales Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Helpline by Cordis Bright (2014); they found a 33% increase in calls between 2008 and 2013 with an average of 762 calls per day; an average of 11.2 calls being from victim/survivors and 41.4 from agencies (the remaining were from other categories). Their online evaluation survey received responses from victims, agency representatives, and concerned others. Of the 17 victim responses, 10 reported feeling supported and safe after calling the helpline, 16 felt confident to deal with their situation. Those calling from agencies (n = 209) were positive in their response with 95% saying the quality of the service was either excellent or good, and 94% felt the helpline was a good first point of call for asking about domestic and sexual violence. There are barriers to conducting evaluation research, however. Owens and Nickson (2020), for example, conducted an Evaluability Assessment for the Live Fear Free Helpline in Wales that explored the extent to which the helpline would lend itself for a full future evaluation. Live Fear Free is a helpline run by Welsh Women’s Aid and funded by the Welsh Government. The authors identified a number of challenges for evaluation including a lack of data on how service users engage with the helpline and a lack of resources for evaluating.
Funding Information:
Some U.K. based work has focused on those who face barriers to seeking refuge support. The “No Woman Turned Away Project” is run by Women’s Aid and has been funded by the U.K. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government since January 2016. It is work that gives support to women who face barriers in accessing refuge or shelter space. Since 2017, each year a “Nowhere to Turn” annual report has been published that reveals insights into the experiences of the women these specialist practitioners have worked with. The latest report, published in the first Pdf_Folio:367 of 2020 reports on data collected between January 2019 and January 2020 and monitors and analyses the experiences of the women they work with to better understand where the biggest barriers lie; during this time there were over 423 referrals (including some repeat referrals) of women who were facing barriers to accessing a service, and 243 women had engaged with this service and completed this engagement in the time frame above (Austin, 2020). The report shows that of the 243 women who engaged, 43% were from Black and Minority Ethics backgrounds (105 out of 243) which the author said this was: “reflecting the systemic racism that Black and minoritised women continue to face when trying to access places of safety” (Austin, 2020, p. 8). The report further discussed the most common challenges to accessing support for these women, this included feeling tied to the local area, support needs for mental health, and having no recourse to public funds. For this report, 24.7% were eventually placed in a refuge; for those remaining they had support (for example) from friends and family, stayed in a hotel, but for others 8.2% were staying in the home they shared with the perpetrator of their abuse, and 1.6% returned to their perpetrator. Many of the women still described the support they received from the service as “invaluable” (p. 16) which included emotional and practical support.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright 2020 Springer Publishing Company, LLC.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Over the last 50 years, there has developed a wealth of literature that has explored the experiences of victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). This has demonstrated the adverse impact IPV has, including the impact on both female (e.g., Sarkar, 2008), and male victims (e.g., Próspero, 2007) and those within the LGBTQ+ community (e.g., Reuter et al., 2017). Over these 50 years, there has also been the development of key legislation, policy, and services to support these victims and reduce the prevalence of IPV. A comprehensive review of victim services was provided by Eckhardt and colleagues in 2013 as part of the Partner Abuse State of Knowledge project. The aim of the current article is to expand on and update this review with an international focus, drawing on both the United Kingdom and United States. Specifically, we discuss current legislation and policy and how this informs practice, what services and resources are available for victims in the two countries, and what interventions are available and what we know of their effectiveness. A final aim is to explore one of Eckahrdt et al.'s specific recommendations about what exists to support “underserved” populations, such as men and those in the LGBTQ+ community.
AB - Over the last 50 years, there has developed a wealth of literature that has explored the experiences of victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). This has demonstrated the adverse impact IPV has, including the impact on both female (e.g., Sarkar, 2008), and male victims (e.g., Próspero, 2007) and those within the LGBTQ+ community (e.g., Reuter et al., 2017). Over these 50 years, there has also been the development of key legislation, policy, and services to support these victims and reduce the prevalence of IPV. A comprehensive review of victim services was provided by Eckhardt and colleagues in 2013 as part of the Partner Abuse State of Knowledge project. The aim of the current article is to expand on and update this review with an international focus, drawing on both the United Kingdom and United States. Specifically, we discuss current legislation and policy and how this informs practice, what services and resources are available for victims in the two countries, and what interventions are available and what we know of their effectiveness. A final aim is to explore one of Eckahrdt et al.'s specific recommendations about what exists to support “underserved” populations, such as men and those in the LGBTQ+ community.
KW - domestic violence
KW - intimate partner violence
KW - underserved
KW - victim services
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85095948095&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1891/PA-2020-0019
DO - 10.1891/PA-2020-0019
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85095948095
SN - 1946-6560
VL - 11
SP - 350
EP - 382
JO - Partner Abuse
JF - Partner Abuse
IS - 3
ER -
