Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement: Understanding the Medicalization of Domestic Violence

该项目探讨医疗化过程-或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选、干预和治疗家庭暴力受害者的最佳方法进行辩论。本研究探讨这些辩论及其对家庭暴力幸存者的影响？经历过创伤的概念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宣传领域。这项研究探讨了自20世纪70年代以来，创伤的概念如何改变了反暴力政治，以及这些政治如何影响家庭暴力幸存者在寻求虐待资源时。这项研究将有助于医疗化的社会学理论，同时也回应了在家庭暴力领域关于反暴力和医疗工作之间的矛盾关系的新兴政策辩论。最终，这项研究的目的是联系历史和当代的医疗过程与受害者？在不平等和暴力的条件下管理日常生活。这项研究假设，家庭暴力的医疗话语和治疗的兴起改变了受害者对虐待的理解和寻求帮助的方式。该项目有三个中心目标：1）描述将女权主义与医学联系起来的历史变化; 2）探索医疗化过程如何改变家庭暴力服务和宣传; 3）解释家庭暴力受害者如何参与创伤的概念，无论是在解释他们的虐待还是在与医疗保健提供者的互动中。数据收集涉及三个部分的定性方法的使用：1）档案研究将编织在一起的医学和反暴力社会运动之间的历史关系，以及创伤话语在这两个领域的兴起; 2）与反暴力和创伤领域的专业人士的访谈，预计将展示如何在专业实践中产生的混合女性主义-科学的创伤概念; 3）通过对家庭暴力受害者的访谈，了解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职业实践。总的来说，该项目力求了解家庭暴力日益医学化对受害者和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.