Home Truths About Domestic Violence by Jalna Hanmer Catherine Itzin

Author:Jalna Hanmer, Catherine Itzin [Jalna Hanmer, Catherine Itzin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Feminism & Feminist Theory, Women's Studies
ISBN: 9780415241564
Google: gRF6RZvKVt4C
Publisher: Psychology Press
Published: 2000-01-15T05:50:22+00:00

1

her male partner ceases his violence and lives peacefully;

2

the woman escapes to a refuge where she can live free of violence, albeit only temporarily;

3

the man is successfully evicted from the matrimonial home, remains away and does not harass her, or;

4

the woman is safely rehoused in another home and is not pursued or harassed in her new location.

The refuge is essential, but only provides temporary accommodation. To date, the overwhelming majority of men have not given up violence or managed to live without further harassment or intimidation of their female partner. This leaves eviction of the man or rehousing the woman.

Britain has been more active and innovative than North America concerning permanent housing for abused women, using legislation, public housing policy and second stage housing. Legislation was passed early in the life of the movement beginning with The Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Court Act, 1976 and The Housing (Homeless Persons) Act, 1977. For the most part, this and subsequent legislation embodied different remedies: rehousing the abused woman; eviction of the violent man; and/or arrest for breach of injunction. In the USA, there is no comparable provision for housing although the importance of permanent, affordable housing for women is recognised (US Commission on Civil Rights 1982). Despite inadequacies of housing for abused women in Britain, it has long been a part of state provision for a large sector of the community not just those in need. By contrast, public housing in the USA has generally been of an inferior standard and available only to the poorest citizens. Increasingly, this is becoming the pattern in Britain with changing policies affecting the provision of housing and responses to homelessness that reduce the number of affordable houses available for permanent accommodation (Hague and Malos 1993).

Overall, temporary refuge and permanent housing have been crucial parts of the movement to effect change in the lives of women who have been abused. They have served as vital material resources for women at a time of crisis. They have provided physical locations for mutual contact between women living and working in their temporary home rather than contact with ‘clients’ in the business office of therapists and counsellors. They have also provided sources of inspiration and visions about the problem that extended beyond an individual service to wider issues of changing women’s social, economic and political status. They have served as living laboratories of social change. Housing represents more than simply a roof over the heads of women who have been abused. It points unequivocally to one of the fundamental indicators of women’s status which leaves them dependent upon men for the material conditions necessary for life, often leaving them to choose between the unacceptable alternatives of homelessness or a life subjected to violence. In all these ways, housing provides one of the vital keys in the wider context of change for abused women and their children.

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