Figure 1 - uploaded by Alex Walker
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
This article seeks to understand the experiences of bystanders to domestic violence and abuse (DVA) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wales. Globally, professionals voiced concern over the COVID-19 restrictions exacerbating conditions for DVA to occur. Yet evidence suggests this also increased opportunities for bystanders to become aware of DVA and t...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... included warning signs for DVA (for example, someone behaving worried and fearful all of the time), coercive control, abuse of a vulnerable person, verbal abuse of a LGBTQI+ person for their sexuality, threats of abuse, actual physical abuse and sexual abuse. Coercive control was the most witnessed DVA behaviour, reported by 90 per cent of participants, twice the amount of physical abuse (45%), followed by warning signs (71%) (Figure 1). Three quarters (77%) of respondents reported having witnessed more than one category of DVA behaviour. ...
Citations
... Previous studies suggest that intervention in IPV is driven by bystanders' concern for the victim (Casper et al., 2021;Walker et al., 2021). Survey research among intervening bystanders indicates that they felt responsible, recognized the behavior as problematic, and empathized with the victim (Walker et al., 2021). ...
... Previous studies suggest that intervention in IPV is driven by bystanders' concern for the victim (Casper et al., 2021;Walker et al., 2021). Survey research among intervening bystanders indicates that they felt responsible, recognized the behavior as problematic, and empathized with the victim (Walker et al., 2021). Casper and colleagues (2021) similarly found that general concern and universal ethical principles were important motivations to intervene in IPV. ...
... As such, the primary motivation for reporting IPV is likely related to the protection of those who are physically and/or emotionally harmed by IPV (i.e., the victim and children present in the home). Bystanders may also have specific individual or situational reasons to intervene, such as personal experience with IPV that makes them recognize the need for help more easily (Casper et al., 2021;Walker et al., 2021) or perceived escalation of abuse (Fraga Dominguez et al., 2021). Yet, the motivation (e.g., general concern) and the specific situational reasons to intervene (e.g., escalation) may differ between situations perceived as intimate terrorism and situational couple violence. ...
As intimate partner violence (IPV) often remains unknown to police, bystanders can play a crucial role in prevention and further escalation of IPV. However, little is known about what brings them into action by reporting incidents of IPV to authorities. As such, we use statements of bystanders who filed reports about IPV incidents to an official domestic violence agency in the Netherlands (N = 78), to investigate the reasoning and motivations for reporting their suspicions. Results show that the reasons for bystanders to report IPV differ depending on the relational dynamics between partners. In situations perceived as intimate terrorism, involving a hierarchical abusive relationship between a man offender and a woman victim, bystanders primarily reported when previous helping initiatives proved inefficient, and they did so to prevent further harm, often particularly in relation to the woman victim. In situations perceived as situational couple violence, involving a symmetrical abusive relationship, bystanders primarily reported when escalation appeared, and they did so to prevent further harm to involved children. We conclude that bystanders report IPV incidents when the need for help is clear, and their motivation for acting concerns the well-being of victims. Our findings add to the growing body of evidence about real-life bystander intervention in emergencies and highlight the need for understanding intervention as context-specific in order to design effective intervention initiatives.
Purpose
Over recent years, expectations for bystanders to intervene to interrupt or prevent domestic violence have increased. However, the extent of these expectations and the ways in which bystanders are supported to uphold these expectations remain ambiguous. Drawing on a scoping review methodology, this study aims to map the bystander expectations and advice contained in government policies and community resources across eight countries.
Methods
We conducted a grey-literature search to identify the three most recent and relevant policy documents from each country, as well as the three most easily-accessible online community resources. We charted key information from each policy and resource, including type of violence and level of prevention; responsibility to intervene and effectiveness of bystander intervention; recognition of danger; and recommended bystander actions.
Results
The results indicate that the government policies and community resources included in the review held high expectations for bystanders to intervene in domestic violence. However, the information provided on how to safely and effectively intervene was inconsistent in its recognition of the risk posed to bystanders, and often offered contradictory advice.
Conclusions
An examination of our findings within the context of existing evidence suggests that there are severe limitations to the messages and information presented by the policies and resources. As a matter of urgency, more empirical research is needed to inform the government policies and community resources that encourage bystanders to intervene in domestic violence.
This paper covers publication trends, co-author networks, and research keyword co-occurrences on academic research related to domestic violence between 2000 and 2023. Throughout these years, first, the number of published articles dealing with this topic was very limited, from just four articles in the year 2000 to 37 in 2013. Still, after an imposing surge in publications registered after 2013, particularly between 2020 and 2023, the numbers increased from 217 to 653, establishing a significantly increased impact on the reviewed issue at a global level. This network identifies some central figures in the research community, such as Gene Feder, Louise M. Howard, and Nicky Stanley among others. It underlines the existence of collaboration clusters around issues such as gender, domestic violence, mental health, and social work, hence emphasizing the very essence of interdisciplinary research. Through keyword co-occurrence analysis, the word cloud shows some central themes to include intimate partner violence and the effect of COVID-19 on different population focuses, including strong qualitative research methods. The second word cloud, that of author affiliation, demonstrates the concentration of research output by leading institutions, with a high volume emanating from the UK, but also global collaboration - significant contributions from universities in Australia being one of them. Domestic violence is a complicated issue that affects individuals and communities of all ages, genders, sexual orientations, educational backgrounds, and more. These terminological complications in defining domestic violence can result in confusion during the practice of identification, assessment, and intervention. This study follows a holistic approach to bibliometrics in reviewing scholarly literature on domestic violence by drawing on data from Lens.org along with the visualization tools of VOSviewer. Improvement in understanding the domestic violence research landscape, major contributors, collaboration patterns, and the gap in research is what this study attempts to address. A total of 92,443 documents in their study were filtered to 2,362 scholarly works that included research articles published from 1999 up to 2023. The findings indicate the important factors of institutions and countries, the necessity of interdisciplinary-wise collaboration, and emerging hotspots of research. A bibliometric approach emphasizes that for effective intervention and prevention, there is a need for systematic reviews and synthesis of the available literature to provide informed evidence-based policy and practice in the context of domestic violence.
