Suchergebnisse

Domestic violence against women is a significant social issue within the United Kingdom, across Europe and globally. However, it is often difficult to research given the hidden nature of the violence, and the need for many women to continue to keep their experiences secret. This article presents research on women's relocation journeys, using administrative data from a funding programme which required England-wide monitoring from 2003 to 2011 on housing-related support services. This provided a sample of approximately 18,000 relocation cases per year – a total of over 140,000 journeys to access services – until the data became unavailable due to the end of the funding programme. The article presents some of the substantive findings on domestic violence journeys: the numerical scale and gendered nature of the journeys, the pattern of spatial churn across the country, the geographical scale and administrative boundary issues, and the evidence that women are often on the move both before and after accessing services. The article concludes that administrative data from services could and should be de-identified and used as a safe way to research women on the move due to domestic violence, and enable services and authorities to make better decisions on meeting their needs.

Women's journeys to escape domestic violence can be understood as an active strategy to achieve safety and as forced migration during which women experience force from the abuser and the impact of agencies and authorities. This article explores the diverse trajectories of individual women's journeys from abuse, drawing on a mixed methods research project within the UK. It involved analysis and mapping of six years of administrative data from housing-related support services, interviews with 20 women in seven locations in the Midlands, Southern England and London, groupwork with nine women in the Midlands and South Coast, surveys with 34 women in domestic violence services and on 267 calls to the National Domestic Violence Helpline, and interviews with workers in services in eight locations. Drawing on 20 women's narratives and journey graphs over time and distance, it presents details of three women's journeys to illustrate how complex, segmented journeys are often made more fragmented by aspects of policy and practice. More effective responses could mean that women and children only make the journeys that are strictly necessary, and are more smoothly and swiftly able to move to where they can settle and rebuild their fragmented lives.