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Staying Home Leaving Violence: Promoting Choices for Women Leaving Abusive Partners

NCJ Number
212983
Author(s)
Robyn Edwards
Date Published
2004
Length
61 pages
Annotation
This New South Wales (Australia) study examined the experiences of 29 women who were victims of domestic violence, 9 who remained in their home and 20 who left their home; and it recommends measures that will enable victims of domestic violence to remain safely in their homes.
Abstract
The study found that many of the women who left their homes with their children to escape the abuse of their partner had significant social and economic costs related to housing problems and disruption to the lives of their children. There was also the risk that the abusive partner would continue to seek out and abuse the woman in her new location. Of the nine women who remained in their homes, none reported that an ex-partner who had been removed from the home by the authorities returned to attack her. The critical factors in enabling these women to remain safely in their homes were removal of the violent partner from the home; keeping him out of the home over time; and providing immediate and longer-term safety measures for the woman and her children. The findings support the adoption of a framework that enables women and their children to remain in their homes under the conditions that the abusive partner is removed from the home, kept out of the home over time through effective measures, and the woman and her children are provided support that prevents further violent victimization. The study was conducted from October 2002 to December 2003 (15 months). The 29 women were interviewed in depth face-to-face to determine what they had experienced in their efforts to escape from their partner's violence, whether by remaining in the home after the violent partner's removal or leaving the home with her children. 17 references