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

本研究调查了位于肯塔基州北部三个地理、种族和经济不同的县的三个民事法庭中关于家庭暴力家庭男性的叙述。本研究探讨了家庭暴力、家庭和父亲身份的比较叙事，以确定“家庭暴力家庭男人”可能因地理位置、种族和阶级而差异构成的方式。本研究通过考察法律制度话语在塑造性别认同定义（如“家庭暴力父亲”）方面所具有的力量，特别关注法律制度在产生和再现这些叙事中的作用。更具体地说，这项研究提出的问题是：在法律领域工作的人和遇到法律领域的人如何看待家庭暴力、家庭和父亲的交集？在保护令听证会上，对家庭暴力的父亲给予或拒绝探视决定的过程是什么？这说明了法律制度和社会如何看待家庭暴力、家庭和父亲的交集？本研究是比较研究，并将利用多方法人种学方法收集数据，包括参与观察、法庭听证会内容分析和开放式访谈。这项研究的更广泛影响包括向法律领域从事家庭暴力工作的人员提供关于家庭暴力的儿童证人和家庭暴力父亲的培训和教学。

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.