The 'Careful Calculus' in its structural and policy context: what does it cost to leave an abusive relationship?

家庭暴力是一种全球现象，对经历过家庭暴力的个人、其家庭和更广泛的社会都会产生深远的影响。家庭暴力的动态是复杂的，纳入了一系列个人和社会因素，这些因素构成了退出虐待关系的障碍。尽管如此，遭受家庭暴力的妇女经常被建议离开施虐者，以此作为结束虐待的一种手段。这种“逻辑”反映在社会意识中，这可以从一个常见的问题中观察到：“她为什么不离开？”正如从业者和学者早就认识到的那样，离开虐待伴侣是一个过程，而不是一件单一的事件，而且有相当多的障碍，如情感、身体和经济上的障碍，往往使离开变得不可能。这项研究涉及妇女在确定是否有可能离开施虐者时必须协商的重大财务障碍，以及在经济虐待被视为家庭暴力的一部分的情况下如何做到这一点。在决策过程中，女性必须确定离开施虐者的成本(经济上的和其他方面的)、优势和劣势，这一过程被称为“谨慎的计算”(Hamby，2013)。Hamby(2013)的作品是研究家庭暴力幸存者留下的费用的文献稀少之一。然而，她的工作只关注美国的背景，而没有解决脱欧发生的结构和政治背景。政策决定可能对幸存者离开虐待的能力产生的影响得到了很好的认识(Burman和Chantler，2005)，然而，深入研究植根于对当代政策背景的性别和结构性理解的妇女个人的“计算”是不可能的。这就是这项研究旨在解决的差距。

Domestic abuse is a global phenomenon with far-reaching consequences for the individuals who experience it, their families and society more widely. The dynamics of domestic abuse are complex, incorporating a range of personal and societal factors which present barriers to exiting an abusive relationship. Nevertheless, women experiencing domestic abuse are often advised to leave their abusers as a means to ending the abuse. This 'logic' is reflected in societal consciousness as can be observed in the commonly posed question, 'why doesn't she just leave?'As has been long recognised among practitioners and academics, leaving an abusive partner is a process rather than a singular event and there are considerable barriers such as emotional, physical, and financial which often render leaving impossible. This research is concerned with the significant financial barriers women must negotiate when determining whether it is possible to leave their abuser and how this is achieved in circumstances where economic abuse is experienced as part of the domestic abuse. The decision-making process in which women must determine the costs ( financial and otherwise), advantages and disadvantages to leaving their abuser has been coined the 'careful calculus' (Hamby, 2013). Hamby's (2013) work is one in a paucity of literature investigating the cost of leaving for domestic abuse survivors. However, her work focuses solely on the US context and does not address the structural and political context within which leaving occurs. The impact policy decisions can have on survivor's abilities to leave abuse is well recognised (Burman and Chantler, 2005) however, an in-depth examination of women's personal 'calculations' rooted in a gendered and structural understanding of contemporary policy contexts is not available. This is the gap this research aims to address.