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Disclosing violence in calls for help

  • Ann Weatherall
    ,
  • Emma Tennent
  • Victoria University of Wellington
Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 5 - Gender Equality
    SDG 5 Gender Equality
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
    SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Abstract

Violence against women is a pervasive problem, both in New Zealand society and around the world. Yet assessing the scale and effects of violence is difficult, as many women face barriers to disclosure. This paper examines women's disclosures of violence in calls for help to a victim support agency. We use conversation analysis and focus on membership categorisation to describe the different ways disclosures are built and understood in situ. It was only in a minority of cases (around 20%), that callers made direct reference to violence, or categorised themselves explicitly as victims, albeit with indications of problems in speaking. However, for the majority, women did not mention the words 'victim' or 'violence' at all. Instead, culturally shared knowledge associated with categories of people (e.g. ex-partners) and places (e.g. home and jail) were used to build and interpret a description as a disclosure of violence. Our work contributes to an understanding of women's disclosures of violence by examining them directly in the setting where they occur. We discuss some of the insights gained from examining interactions in situ, and the practical applications of our work for improving services for women who have experienced violence.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 270-288

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Gender and Language (Volume 13, Issue 2)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 31/07/2019

Publication status

Published - 31/07/2019

ISSN

1747-6321

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/625688
  • Scopus: 85071447355

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