Funding: Ministry of Justice and Public Security
Project period: 2020–2024
Researchers: Anja Bredal (project manager), Lotte Andersen, Kari Stefansen
This project will contribute with updated and in-depth insight into what partner violence and related family violence looks like in today’s diverse Norway, how it is experienced and tackled, and how we can understand it.
1.The dynamics of violence. Patterns, variation and change. We want to investigate patterns and diversity in women’s experiences of violence, depending on socio-economic background, ethnicity, age / generation, etc., compared with existing scope studies. At the same time, we will try to say something about change and continuity against the background of previous research.
2. Forms and understandings. The field of violence has a number of established concepts and ways of understanding, such as the distinction between various forms of violence; i.e. physical, mental, sexual, material and economic violence. Are these perspectives still adequate in light of the experiences of victims of violence, and are they perceived as fruitful? A concept that appears particularly interesting in our material is psychological violence, which will be explored further in this project. Likewise, it is a key ambition to investigate similarities and differences between minority and majority women’s experiences of violence, and to contribute to a framework for diversity analysis of violence in close relations.
3. Experiences with support services, the police and the judiciary. Most of the women in our material have experience from one or more public bodies in connection with their being exposed to violence. Many believe that they have not been understood because helpers have seen them as resourceful, ordinary women. We will explore the constructions of victimhood both among services and the women themselves. What expectations are associated with being a victim of violence in close relations, and what opportunities and limitations do these constructions entail?
Data
The qualitative interview material was collected in the previous program period (2018-2019). The material consists of around 100 comprehensive interviews with women from all over Norway who have experienced various forms of partner violence in different phases of life and family constellations. A quarter of the women have a minority background, while the rest are majority Norwegian. We have information about the women’s life course, including migration history where relevant, their encounter with the support services / judiciary and coping and resistance strategies.