7th Global Conference
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Monday 5th May - Wednesday 7th May 2008
Budapest, Hungary
Conference Programme, Abstracts & Papers
Session 9a: Self, Other and Intimate Violence
Chair: Maya Beasley
Mental Health and Substance Use Problems: The ‘Invisible’ Scars of Intimate Partner Violence Victimisation
Marika Guggisberg
Edith Cowan University (ECU), Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia
Mental health consequences resulting from exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) have been confirmed in multiple studies. It is generally accepted that victimised individuals are at a significantly increased risk of suffering from high rates of psychological symptomatology compared to persons with no history of IPV. In addition, the link between substance use and IPV, particularly alcohol use, is acknowledged in the international literature. More recently, an association has been found not only with the perpetration of IPV but also with its experience. This relationship between exposure to IPV and increased rates of mental health problems along with harmful substance use has been found to increase the risk of further victimisation.
This paper presents preliminary findings of research that investigated the prevalence, nature and the scope of IPV victimisation, mental health and substance use problems in a cohort of adult female service users in the metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia. It presents quantitative and qualitative data elaborating on two case studies that have analysed contexts, dynamics, and motivations for substance use. Homotypic and heterotypic forms and patterns of mental health and substance use problems will be discussed along with particular exacerbating factors for IPV victimisation shedding light into the complex lives of female victims of IPV.
Raising awareness of these issues will increase professional understanding, which may lead to improved inter-disciplinary treatment-intervention and prevention efforts for women already in contact with support services. The presentation will be useful for government and non-government agencies that assist IPV perpetrators and victims, public health and criminal justice professionals, and policy makers. It will contribute to increased understanding of the different dynamics and consequences of IPV victimisation.
The Intimacy of Enmity: The Hizbullah-Israel Relation
Daniel Meier
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland
This paper aims to focus on how violence can be created and protracted in an international context, through the example of one of the most tensed situation of the Middle East crisis, the relations between Hizbullah and Israel. In this analysis, i would like to investigate this now deep link between the two enemies that started in the following of the Lebanon invasion of 1982. Questions of the genesis and the evolution of this conflict will show the importance of the history and its context for an analysis of such violence. The understanding of this process is also linked to the analysis of perceptions of the other, a sort of subjective building that lead to act in a certain way to confront such a definition of the enemy. The spill over that occurs along the time of confrontation is also part of the comprehensive aspect of violence. I will use the concept of bouble-bind to describe this step in the violence, which implies to take account of an interdependency between enemies. In a foucaldian perspective, i can illustrate the idea that the power – in the sense of action power on actions – is shared by both actors and that each of them in his very identity needs the other, to a certain degree. Finally, the behaviour on the international stage is often linked to a juncture of power that allows or not some actions or some deals. This dynamic and non-linear aspect will be explored through the notion of « figuration » (from Norbert Elias) to shed light on violent actions or reactions. So my main objective is to illustrate how intimate and close the relations between enemies are. A second objective is to show that some authors gave us some tools or concepts to think about this link. In order to reach these goals, I will choose some concrete interactions in war period (the 33-day war in summer 2006) and in peace period (from 2000 to 2006) with the exchange of prisoners in January 2004. They will permit some comparisons with the former situation, during the military occupation of south Lebanon (1978-2000).
Institutional Violence and Social Construction of Patriarchy in Nigeria: Reflections on a Girl-Child
Tunde Ogunjobi
Department of Political Science, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria.
Most available literature and studies reveal that men are much likely to commit acts of violence against women than women are against men.The argument is further expounded that if women do use violence, it is often in self-defense or as a preemptive strategy to prevent further brutalization or death.Thus, while the issue of violence has lately attracted quite a great deal of academic attention, its resolution becomes shrouded in confusion both at the levels of theory and practice. However, the fundamental question to address in the study is the method and process of reconstructing the logic and rationality of violence such that the contextual boundaries of patriarchal analysis could re-position the much-vaunted cultural imbalance. In other words, emphasis on the social construction of gender would produce a new framework that would address the pathology of institutional violence against the backdrop of the ideology of patriarchy.
An attempt is made in the study to examine power relationships within families to the levels and severity of intimate violence. Further examination in the study is why do men resort to battering when they perceive that their wives are not living up to the patriarchally ordained role prescriptions of the '' good wife. '' The central working hypothesis therefore is that the greater the economic dependence of a woman on a man, the more likely she is to experience acts of severe violence. The study adopts both primary and secondary sources of data.The sample location is south-west Nigeria, while sampling technique is random sampling.The study is expected to open more vistas for further research in the area of gender studies.
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