Domestic Violence Advocacy

Domestic Violence Advocacy: Complex Lives/Difficult Choices, Second Edition is a comprehensive and highly practical resource for anyone working with domestic violence victims. The essential elements and values of the victim-defined approach provide the foundation for a completely revised exploration of all victims’ perspectives and advocates’ roles. Authors Jill Davies and Eleanor Lyon draw on the far-reaching progress and increased knowledge of the field and delve deeply into the experiences of victims, their perspectives and decision-making, culture, and risks. Attentive to the real- world context of limited time, resources, and options for victims and for advocates, this enlightening text focuses on what is feasible and offers ideas for working within such constraints.

Domestic Violence Advocacy: Complex Lives/Difficult Choices, Second Edition is a comprehensive and highly practical resource for anyone working with domestic violence victims. The essential elements and values of the victim-defined approach provide the foundation for a completely revised exploration of all victims’ perspectives and advocates’ role. This Second Edition draws on the far-reaching progress and increased knowledge of the field and delves deeply into the experiences of victims, their perspectives and decision-making, culture, and risks. Attentive to the real world context of limited time, resources, and options for victims and for advocates, this enlightening text focuses on what is feasible and offers ideas for working within such constraints

Safety Planning with Battered Women introduces a new model of ôwoman-definedö advocacy that is designed to bridge the gap that sometimes occurs between a battered womanÆs perspective and a victim advocateÆs perception. Created to improve service delivery to women who are victims of domestic violence, this new model emphasizes placing attention on the victimÆs assessment of the risk in a violent relationship and in her decision making. Authors Jill Davies, Eleanor Lyon, and Diane Monti-Catania strive to help advocates better understand battered womenÆs decisions, including the decision to remain in an abusive relationship; to improve advocacy for victims with varying cultural backgrounds and experiences; and to provide advocates with assistance in redesigning their services, so they may better meet the needs of battered women. Since there are no quick fixes to the problems encountered in cases of domestic violence, it is vital that victims be provided with a real understanding of their options and the opportunity to implement those safety plans they deem most feasible. Safety Planning with Battered Women helps advocates tailor alternatives that will enhance the safety of battered women based on the individual realities of battered women. This book is both enlightening and highly practical and is a must read for anyone working with domestic violence victims. By introducing a woman-defined model and offering a new approach to advocacy, Safety Planning with Battered Women will compel readers to reexamine current approaches and examine the future provision of services to domestic violence victims, making it a valuable resource for students, researchers, academics, professionals, and practitioners.

This volume examines sentencing hearings in criminal court and the presentation of victim impact statements, as well as child protection cases in juvenile court and the recommendations of guardians ad litem (GALS). Through interviews, observations, and textual analysis, all deeply grounded in an innovative court watch program, the authors illuminate the most effective persuasive practices of victim advocates and GALS as they help protect the rights and needs of victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse. Mary Lay Schuster and Amy D. Propen offer nuanced interpretations of these strategies in the courtroom setting and provide an understanding of how to develop successful advocacy for vulnerable parties in the legal arena.

The authors aim to help advocates better understand battered women's decisions to improve advocacy for victims with various cultural experiences and backgrounds, and to provide advocates with assistance in redesigning their services so they may better meet the needs of battered women

Feminist Advocacy: Gendered Organizations in Community-based Responses to Domestic Violence examines victim advocacy through a gendered organizations perspective. This monograph draws from in-depth interviews with twenty-six domestic violence victim advocates to examine their experiences with gendered policies and practices in the justice system, child protective services, and shelters. Andrea J. Nichols explores justice system interventions related to pro-arrest, dual arrest, no-drop prosecution, protective orders, and the actions of police and judges. In addition, she examines policies and practices related to child protective services that negatively affect battered women, such as charges for failure to protect and lost custody. Nichols also explores the most contentiously debated shelter policies, including curfew, confidentiality, substance abuse, entrance requirements, admitting adolescent boys, and mandatory classes. Drawing from advocates’ narratives of their experiences, Feminist Advocacy bears significant implications for policy and practice in community-based responses to domestic violence. This book will prove especially valuable to anyone who studies or works in the fields of social work, human services, criminal justice, or criminology, including advocates, practitioners, students, academic researchers, and those interested in intimate partner violence.

Since its initial publication, this far-reaching reference has provided professionals and victims of abuse with guidance on everything from indicators of an abusive relationship to domestic violence legislation, from antiburnout tips for helpers to advice on leaving an abusive partner. This updated edition addresses new research and programs, adding information on date rape drugs, stalking, cyber-stalking, pregnancy and domestic violence, and the effectiveness of batterer intervention programs. Current controversial social and legal issues such as mutual battering, child welfare and "failure to protect" policies, child custody and visitation rights for batterers, mandatory arrests, and welfare reform are also covered. Two new chapters devote attention to domestic violence in the military and to the challenging and rewarding role of those who work with battered women and their children. New resources have been included to reflect the ever-evolving wealth of books, web sites, and agencies available to both helpers and those in need.

Moral Wages offers the reader a vivid depiction of what it is like to work inside an agency that assists victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Based on over a year of fieldwork by a man in a setting many presume to be hostile to men, this ethnographic account is unlike most research on the topic of violence against women. Instead of focusing on the victims or perpetrators of abuse, Moral Wages focuses exclusively on the service providers in the middle. It shows how victim advocates and counselors—who don't enjoy extrinsic benefits like pay, power, and prestige—are sustained by a different kind of compensation. As long as they can overcome a number of workplace dilemmas, they earn a special type of emotional reward reserved for those who help others in need: moral wages. As their struggles mount, though, it becomes clear that their jobs often put them in impossible situations—requiring them to aid and feel for vulnerable clients, yet giving them few and feeble tools to combat a persistent social problem.

Responding to Domestic Violence explores the response to domestic and intimate partner violence by the criminal justice system as well as public and non-profit social service and health care agencies. Thoroughly revised by an expert author team, this book provides a thorough exploration of modern strategies to address the realities and needs of all survivors.