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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Jacquelyn C. Campbell, PhD, RN, FAAN, School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, 525 N. Wolfe St. RM 436, Baltimore, MD 21205-2110, 410-522-7087, jcampbel@son.jhmi.edu
Domestic Violence or intimate partner violence is increasingly being conceptualized as a “women’s health issue” in the US, leading to what some advocates believe is a problematic “medicalization” and loss of gender perspective in addressing the problem. Internationally, domestic violence is more likely to be perceived as a human rights or women’s rights issue, thus the more frequent use of terminology such as “gender based violence.” Some health experts and professionals believe that an increased emphasis on the women’s health aspects of domestic violence would increase attention to the problem in a wider variety of venues with less resistance and “backlash” in international settings. In contrast, some gender experts and domestic violence and women’s rights advocates fear that such applications are too often accompanied by concessions to the biomedical perspective that effectively dilute the empowerment goals of the intervention. How the issue of domestic violence is being addressed by the medical establishment and how appropriate gendered approaches and interventions are to same-sex relationship violence are inter-related issues that are currently under debate in the US. In contrast, in the developing world, domestic violence is much more likely to be viewed as a women’s rights issue by health professionals and women's advocates and the prevalence of violence in same-sex relationships is a less frequently addressed issue. This paper will examine some of the advantages and disadvantages of each viewpoint both analytically and pragmatically, in terms of developing programs for domestic violence in health care settings.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Women, Violence
Related Web page: www.son.jhmi.edu/research/violenceprevention/
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.