Victims' Emotional Attachment to Their Perpetrators- New Perspectives

没有被广泛接受的理论可以解释为什么一些受害者（而不是其他人）对他们的肇事者有强烈的情感依恋（Reid等人，2013年）。形成一个强大的理论的困难可能与先前研究中存在的导致错误推理的偏见有关。没有研究探讨那些仅仅因为浪漫原因而与虐待伴侣在一起的受害者的经历。此外，没有研究探讨创伤联结的肇事者的经历，忽略了他们在创伤联结形成和维持中的“投入”。这种知识上的差距使人们难以理解问题的真正动态。使用混合方法接近这个博士学位。项目旨在提出一个受害者对施虐者的依恋模式，该模式具有预测和解释能力，可外推到类似的情况。此外，提出正式的概念定义oftrauma bonding和开发测量工具，允许有效评估受害者的专业背景。一个强有力的理论和适当的测量工具将有助于为受害者和肇事者制定和评估有效的干预措施。这可能有助于解决与重复家庭暴力有关的问题，目前英国公众每年花费660亿英镑。

There is no widely accepted theory that could explain why some victims (and not others) experience strong emotional attachment to their perpetrators (Reid et al., 2013). Difficulties in formulating a robust theory might be related to thesampling bias present in the previous research that lead to faulty reasoning. There is no research exploring the experiences of victims who remain with their abusive partners for romantic reasons only. Moreover, there is no researchexploring the experiences of perpetrators of trauma bonding, omitting their 'input' in the formation and maintenance of trauma bonding. This gap in knowledge makes it difficult to understand the true dynamics of the problem. Using a mixedmethods approach this Ph.D. project aims to propose a model of victims' attachment to their abusers with a predictive and explanatory power that could be extrapolated to similar contexts. Also, to propose formal conceptual definitions oftrauma bonding and to develop measurement instruments allowing for effective assessment of the victims within the professional context. A robust theory and adequate measurement tool will aid the creation and evaluation of effectiveinterventions for the victims and perpetrators. This might help to address problems associated with repeat domestic violence, which currently costs the British public £66 billion per year.