Abstract
In this final chapter, the key findings from the study are described in detail, as well as potential implications for policy and practice. Future areas of research are also identified, as well as the unique contribution made by the current study to knowledge about the desistance of male-perpetrated IPV.
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Notes
- 1.
There are ongoing debates regarding the suitability of including family violence and sexual violence offences within RJ programs. Concerns raised by some advocates focus on the potentially retraumatising impact on victims-survivors, particularly when the offender does not appear to want to take responsibility; the victim-survivor being coerced to participate in RJ processes by their abusers, because it may impact any ongoing criminal justice processes favourably; as well as victims-survivors being coerced into agreements and to ‘forgiving’ their abusers (Curtis-Fawley & Daly, 2005). However, practitioners and researchers have argued that, while these concerns are valid, they can be mitigated by well-trained facilitators and by ensuring that the process is always victim-centric.
- 2.
At the beginning of 2019, the Australian Commonwealth Government announced $10 million in funding for IPV victims-survivors and abusers to access counselling, which included relationship counselling. The announcement attracted criticism from IPV researchers, advocates and service providers, who argued that these responses empower abusers to continue their behaviours and make women responsible for managing their partners’ behaviours. In particular, concerns were raised about the capacity of relationship counsellors to understand and mitigate the impact of imbalanced power dynamics within counselling sessions and the potential risk to victims/survivors after sessions ended. Despite pressure from the IPV sector in Australia, the Government maintained their funding commitment. For an excellent overview of the ongoing controversies regarding relationship counselling as a therapeutic response to IPV in Australia, see Brown and James (2014).
- 3.
Attachment and gender role stress research have typically been siloed, meaning that attachment theory has rarely been examined through a gender lens. However, McDermott and Lopez (2013) suggested that there is an interrelationship between the two, with men who have dysfunctional attachment styles becoming attracted to and internalising traditional gender norms, because they provide a means by which they can manage their stress and anxiety related to emotional vulnerability within relationships, as well as controlling the outcomes of relationships – i.e. because men ‘own’ women, women cannot leave the relationship. As they noted:
Anxiously attached men may overly identify with traditional male values because they may offer some degree of protection from fears of abandonment. Likewise, avoidantly attached men may rigidly adhere to masculine gender role norms because such norms may allow them to control the level of intimacy in their relationships. Therefore, violence and coercion may be viewed by some men as an acceptable way of managing attachment-related threats to one’s masculinity. (McDermott & Lopez, 2013, p. 133)
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Boxall, H. (2023). Discussion and Conclusions: What Is the Role of Female Victims-Survivors in the Desistance of Male-Perpetrated Intimate Partner Violence?. In: Reimagining Desistance from Male-Perpetrated Intimate Partner Violence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32951-7_9
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