Understanding agency and resistance strategies (UNARS): Children’s Experiences of Domestic Violence
Date
2015
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Publisher
University of Northampton
Abstract
This report details and compares the policy context in the 4 European partner countries, outlining the representations of children and young people within domestic violence policy and considers the ways in which more alternative agentic representations are made possible. In addition, the report draws together material from focus groups with professional stakeholders in the 4 European countries, outlining their representations of children and young people who live in situations of domestic abuse and must navigate and negotiate pathways through the service landscape. Specific recommendations from both the policy analysis and the identified professional landscape analysis for European policy in the four participating countries of the UK, Italy, Greece and Spain are made. To work effectively with children who have experienced domestic violence and abuse, it is important to see them not as ‘exposed to’ or ‘witnesses to’ violence, but as human beings who live with, experience and make sense of domestic violence (Mullender et al., 2003; Øverlien, 2011). Research on children who experience domestic violence and abuse has tended to focus primarily on the negative impact, documenting the many ways that children are damaged by the violence that they witness. Research and professional practice that focuses on children as damaged witnesses to domestic violence tends to describe children as passive and helpless. Our study, based on interviews with more than a hundred children across four European countries, recognises the significant suffering caused to children who experience domestic violence. However, it also tells a parallel story, about the capacity of children who experience domestic violence to cope, to maintain a sense of agency, to be resilient, and to find ways of resisting violence, and build a positive sense of who they are. As part of this study, it was necessary to chart the service landscape through which children must navigate, as part of their experience of domestic violence, and their recovery from domestic violence. This included an analysis of the policy frameworks that guide our legal understanding of children who experience domestic violence, and that inform the services provided to support children and families. (Author Introduction)
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Keywords
child abuse, child witness, Intimate partner violence, family violence, resilience, resistance, coping strategies, policy, International Resources
Citation
Sixsmith, Judith ; Callaghan, Jane M.E. ; Alexander, Joanne H. (2015). Understanding agency and resistance strategies (UNARS): Children’s Experiences of Domestic Violence. Northampton, UK: University of Northampton.