Doctoral Dissertation Research: Domestic Violence and the 'Family Man': Courtroom and Community Narrative About Domestically Violent Fathers in Rural, Urban and Suburban Settings

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This study examines narratives about domestically violent family men within three civil courtrooms situated in three geographically, racially, and economically diverse counties in Northern Kentucky. This research explores comparative narratives about domestic violence, family, and fatherhood in order to determine the ways in which the "domestically violent family man" may be differentially constituted by geographic location, race, and class. This study pays particular attention to the role of the legal institution in producing and reproducing these narratives through an examination of the power that legal institutional discourses have in shaping definitions of gendered identities, such as "domestically violent father." More specifically this study asks: What are people within and who encounter the legal arena saying about the intersections of domestic violence, family, and fatherhood? What are the processes by which visitation decisions are given to or denied from domestically violent fathers during protective order hearings, and what does this say about how the legal institution and society conceive of the intersections of domestic violence, family, and fatherhood? This research is comparative and will utilize a multi-method ethnographic approach to data collection including participant observation, content analysis of courtroom hearings, and open-ended interviews. The broader impacts of this research include informing the training and teaching received by those working with domestic violence in the legal arena about child witnesses to domestic violence and domestically violent fathers.