Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement: Understanding the Medicalization of Domestic Violence

该项目探讨了医疗化过程——或将社会问题转化为医疗问题——如何在家庭暴力案件中发挥作用。家庭暴力政策制定者和医疗保健提供者经常就筛查、干预和治疗家庭暴力受害者的最佳方式进行辩论。本研究探讨了这些争论及其对家庭暴力幸存者的影响。生活在创伤的概念中。从联邦资助指令到基层联盟战略，创伤的语言和治疗实践注入了家庭暴力倡导领域。这项研究探讨了自20世纪70年代以来，创伤的概念是如何改变反暴力政治的，以及这些政治在家庭暴力幸存者寻求虐待资源时是如何影响她们的。本研究将对医疗化的社会学理论做出贡献，同时也对家庭暴力领域关于反暴力与医疗工作之间矛盾关系的政策辩论做出回应。最终，本研究旨在将历史和当代的医疗化进程与受害者联系起来。在不平等和暴力的条件下管理日常生活。这项研究假设，医疗话语和家庭暴力治疗的兴起改变了受害者理解和寻求虐待帮助的方式。该项目有三个主要目标：1)描述将女权主义和医学联系起来的历史变化；2)探索医疗化进程如何改变家庭暴力服务和倡导；3)解释家庭暴力受害者在解释其遭受的虐待以及与医疗保健提供者的互动时如何参与创伤的概念。数据收集涉及三个部分的定性方法的使用；1)档案研究将把医学与反暴力社会运动之间的历史关系，以及这两个领域中创伤话语的兴起编织在一起；2)与反暴力和创伤领域的专业人士的访谈有望展示如何在专业实践中产生混合的女性主义-科学创伤概念；3)对家庭暴力受害者的访谈将展示受害者如何通过与这些帮助系统的互动来经历这些历史过程和专业实践。总的来说，该项目力求了解家庭暴力日益医疗化对受害者及其治疗者的地方和更广泛的影响。

This project asks how processes of medicalization -- or the transformation of social problems into medical ones -- are at work in domestic violence cases. Domestic violence policymakers and healthcare providers engage in frequent debates about the best ways to screen, intervene with, and treat domestic violence victims. This study examines these debates and their implications for domestic violence survivors? lives through the concept of trauma. From federal funding directives to grassroots coalition strategies, the language and therapeutic practices of trauma infuse the field of domestic violence advocacy. This research asks how the concept of trauma has transformed anti-violence politics since the 1970s, as well as how those politics impact domestic violence survivors when they seek resources for abuse. This research will contribute to sociological theories about medicalization while also responding to burgeoning policy debates in the domestic violence field about the contradictory relationship between anti-violence and medical work. Ultimately, this study aims to link historical and contemporary processes of medicalization with victims? management of everyday life under conditions of inequality and violence.This research hypothesizes that the rise of medical discourses and treatments for domestic violence changes the ways in which victims understand and seek help for abuse. There are three central aims of the project: 1) to describe the historical changes that have linked feminism and medicine; 2) to explore how medicalization processes transform domestic violence services and advocacy; 3) to explain how domestic violence victims engage with the concept of trauma, both in explanations of their abuse and in their interactions with healthcare providers. The data collection involves the use of qualitative methods in three parts; 1) archival research will weave together the historical relationship between medicine and anti-violence social movements, as well as the rise of trauma discourse in both fields; 2) interviews with professionals in anti-violence and trauma fields are expected to demonstrate how the hybrid feminist-scientific concept of trauma is produced in professional practices; 3) interviews with domestic violence victims are expected to demonstrate how these historical processes and professional practices are lived by victims through their interactions with these helping systems. Overall the project seeks to understand the local and broader implications of the growing medicalization of domestic violence for victims and those who treat them.