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

家庭虐待是一种全球现象，对遭受家庭虐待的个人、其家庭和更广泛的社会都有深远的影响。家庭虐待的动态是复杂的，包括一系列个人和社会因素，这些因素对摆脱虐待关系构成障碍。然而，经常建议遭受家庭虐待的妇女离开施虐者，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，可以从人们经常提出的问题中观察到，“她为什么不离开？”“正如从业人员和学者们长期以来所认识到的那样，离开虐待伴侣是一个过程，而不是一个单一的事件，而且有相当大的障碍，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决定是否有可能离开施虐者时必须克服的重大经济障碍，以及在经历经济虐待作为家庭虐待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（经济和其他方面）、利与弊，这一过程被称为“仔细计算”（Hamby, 2013）。Hamby（2013）的工作是调查家庭暴力幸存者离开成本的文献不多的研究之一。然而，她的作品只关注美国的背景，并没有涉及到移民发生的结构和政治背景。政策决定可能对幸存者摆脱虐待的能力产生的影响是公认的（Burman和Chantler， 2005）。然而，基于对当代政策背景的性别和结构理解，对女性个人“计算”的深入研究是不可用的。这是本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.