Suchergebnisse

Research on dating violence has tended to focus on North American college students. This study innovates with data collected in Switzerland from a sample of 132 school pupils and vocational education students aged 14 to 22 using a self-administered questionnaire. The study investigates relationships between attitudes and experiences about dating violence and the effect of gender. Biases against women were common in the sample. Females reported less endorsement of patriarchal attitudes about women's roles, but both genders reported similar levels of disparagement of women. Participants reported high rates of physical violence perpetration (41.9 percent) and victimization (48.8 percent). Pro-violence attitudes were related to psychological and physical perpetration as well as physical victimization. For female respondents, essentialist beliefs about women's innate abilities appear more persistent than beliefs about appropriate roles. Male participants endorsed both types of gender stereotypes at high rates. Male-perpetrated violence was perceived less favorably than female-perpetrated violence. Our data suggest that general attitudes toward violence are the most consistent predictor of physical and psychological aggression within dating relationships. More attention needs to be paid to subtypes among attitudes on women and violence, which past research assumed were monolithic. This study shows the need for prevention programs to address pro-violence attitudes. Adapted from the source document.

Interest in the topic of violence against women has grown strongly over the last two decades. During the nineties, and following studies on the subject in Canada and the United States, the focus has shifted to violence against women in general, and no longer exclusively on domestic violence against women. Following the preparatory work of two UN institutes (UNICRI in Turin and HEUNI in Helsinki), and once the method had been standardized (identical questionnaire and survey method), national studies on this issue have been planned in approximately 30 countries.
The Swiss survey is based on a telephone interview, between April and August 2003, of 1975 women aged 18 to 70 living in the German-speaking and the French-speaking parts of Switzerland. The sample thus obtained is representative of the female population. The method used was the computer-assisted telephone survey, which had already proved adequate in previous victimization surveys. This choice was also motivated by the great complexity of the questionnaire. The latter should indeed allow to apprehend different categories of violence, relating to different types of relationship between the author and his victim (marriage, cohabitation, former partners, colleagues, strangers) since the age of 16 years (experiences lived in childhood are not taken into account).
There are several objectives for this study:
- to increase the awareness of this problem among the authorities and the public
- to promote prevention
- to provide reliable information for the development of legislation, policies and means of assistance to victims
- to set up an internationally comparable database
- to help the police in their work practices concerning violence against women
- to formulate and test certain hypotheses
On thjs basis, here are the hypotheses and research questions:
- What is the extent of this type of violence in Switzerland, compared to other countries? How to explain these differences?
- How has the situation of domestic violence evolved since the study by Gillioz et al. (1994)?
- How important are various factors, including situational and biographical, in experiences of violence?
- What is the influence of the past and current criminal history of men on their tendency to domestic violence?
- What particular interaction effects are revealed among the variables studied?
- How is the role of the police perceived among the victims?
- Does (institutionalized) aid to victims achieve its objectives?

Cet article présente quelques résultats de l'étude qui, pour la première fois en Suisse, a permis de chiffrer l'ampleur de la violence exercée contre les femmes au sein des couples. Après avoir livré quelques considérations théoriques et méthodologiques, les autrices exposent quelques résultats de la partie quantitative de l'étude relatifs à la prévalence du phénomène et aux situations sociales et familiales porteuses de risque. Une deuxième partie analyse les résultats de l'enquête qualitative sous deux angles. D'une part, un type de violence restée occultée dans les études sur la violence conjugale, à savoir la violence sexuelle, est mis en lumière. D'autre part, les stratégies des femmes subissant des violences sont analysées, les résultats remettant en question l'idée convenue de la passivité des victimes.

"Research on dating violence has tended to focus on North American college students. This study innovates with data collected in Switzerland from a sample of 132 school pupils and vocational education students aged 14 to 22 using a self-administered questionnaire. The study investigates relationships between attitudes and experiences about dating violence and the effect of gender. Biases against women were common in the sample. Females reported less endorsement of patriarchal attitudes about women's roles, but both genders reported similar levels of disparagement of women. Participants reported high rates of physical violence perpetration (41.9 percent) and victimization (48.8 percent). Pro-violence attitudes were related to psychological and physical perpetration as well as physical victimization. For female respondents, essentialist beliefs about women's innate abilities appear more persistent than beliefs about appropriate roles. Male participants endorsed both types of gender stereotypes at high rates. Male-perpetrated violence was perceived less favorably than female- perpetrated violence. Our data suggest that general attitudes toward violence are the most consistent predictor of physical and psychological aggression within dating relationships. More attention needs to be paid to subtypes among attitudes on women and violence, which past research assumed were monolithic. This study shows the need for prevention programs to address pro-violence attitudes." (author's abstract)

Evidence to inform assessment of needs of children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) in health settings is limited. A Swiss hospital-based medico-legal consultation for adult victims of violence also detects children's exposure to IPV and refers cases to the Pediatrics Child Abuse and Neglect Team. Based on a conceptual ecological framework, this study examined the nature and circumstances of children's exposure to IPV described in accounts collected by nurses in consultations with adult IPV victims. From 2011 to 2014, 438 parents (88% female) of 668 children aged 0 to 18 sought medico-legal care from the Violence Medical Unit in Lausanne Switzerland following assaults by intimate partners (85% male). As part of the consultation, nurses completed a semi-structured questionnaire with victimized parents, recording their answers in the patient file. Victims' statements about the abuse, their personal, family and social contexts, and their children's exposure to IPV were analyzed. Descriptive statistics and qualitative thematic content analyses were conducted to identify, from the victimized parents' accounts, elements useful to understand the nature and circumstances of children's exposure and involvement during violent events. Parent statements on specific violent events described children being present in 75% of the cases. Children were said to be exposed to, and responded to, severe physical violence, serious threats and insults, in the context of repeated assaults and coercive control. Families, especially mothers, were often coping with additional socio-economic vulnerabilities. Implications for further developing assessments of children living with IPV, especially in health settings were identified.