The truth told by the body: Swiss medicolegal responses to intimate partner violence from a gender perspective | Amsterdam University Press Journals Online
2004
Volume 24, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 1388-3186
  • E-ISSN: 2352-2437

Abstract

Abstract

This paper offers new insights on the practical consequences of a gender-neutral framing of Intimate Partner Violence in a specific institutional context, showing how it results in differentiated recognition of victims of IPV. Through an ethnographic case study conducted in a medicolegal centre in French-speaking Switzerland, I show how the focus has shifted from a problem defined as a form of violence against women to a gender-neutral representation of a familial problem of ‘domestic violence’ in which neither perpetrators nor victims are named. This outcome is linked to political decision-making at the cantonal level that privileges a gender-neutral reading of IPV, which is no longer conceived in terms of male violence perpetrated against women. The paper foregrounds the specific ways in which the support provided to victims of IPV by a public health institution have been impacted by and contributed to this changing agenda. Its findings show that, by certifying physical forms of violence, while excluding psychological violence, medicolegal expert knowledge ultimately legitimises some victims while excluding others from receiving its support.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.5117/TVGN2021.2.007.KHAZ
2021-07-01
2024-04-25
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/13883186/24/2/07_TVGN2021.2_KHAZ.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.5117/TVGN2021.2.007.KHAZ&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Adams, A.E., Sullivan, C.M., Bybee, D., & Greeson, M.R.(2008). Development of the scale of economic abuse. Violence Against Women, 14(5), 563–588.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Bacchi, C.L.(2009). Analysing policy: What’s the problem represented to be?Frenchs Forest: Pearson.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Boeije, H.(2010). Analysis in qualitative research. London: Sage Publications.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. DeKeseredy, W.S., Schwartz, M.D., Fagen, D., & Hall, M.(2006). Separation/divorce sexual assault: The contribution of male support. Feminist Criminology, 1(3), 228–250.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Dobash, R.P., Dobash, R.E., Wilson, M., & Daly, M.(1992). The myth of sexual symmetry in marital violence. Social Problems, 39(1), 71–91.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Fassin, D., Bouagga, Y., Coutant, I., Eideliman, J-C., Fernandez, F., Fisher, N., & Brown, P.(2015). At the heart of the state: The moral world of institutions. London: Pluto Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Fassin, D., & D’Halluin, E.(2005). The truth from the body: Medical certificates as ultimate evidence for asylum seekers. American Anthropologist, 107(4), 597–608.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Gloor, D., & Meier, H.(2012). Evaluation du degré de gravité de la violence domestique: Rapport de base du point de vue des sciences sociales. Bern: Bureau fédéral de l’égalité entre femmes et hommes.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Hanmer, J., & Itzin, C.(Eds.). (2001). Home truths about domestic violence: Feminist influences on policy and practice: A reader. London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Hearn, J.(2013). The sociological significance of domestic violence: Tensions, paradoxes and implications. Current Sociology, 61(2), 152–170.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Hearn, J., & McKie, L.(2009). Gendered and social hierarchies in problem representation and policy processes: ‘Domestic violence’ in Finland and Scotland. Violence Against Women, 16(2), 136–158.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Hofner, M-C., & Viens Python, N.(2014). Violences domestiques: prise en charge et prévention. Lausanne: Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Johnson, M.P.(1995). Patriarchal terrorism and common couple violence: Two forms of violence against women. Journal of Marriage and Family, 57(2), 283–294.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Juston, R.(2016). Comment une tache de sang devient-elle une preuve? Ingrédients et recettes des preuves médico-légales. Droit et société, 93(2), 395–416.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Khazaei, F.(2019). Manufacturing difference: Double standard in Swiss institutional responses to intimate partner violence (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Lieber, M.(2003). La double invisibilité des violences faites aux femmes dans les contrats locaux de sécurité français. Cahiers du Genre, 35(2), 71–94.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Lieber, M., & Roca i Escoda, M.(2015). Violences en famille : Quelles réponses institutionnelles. Revue Internationale Enfances Familles Générations, 22, i–xiii.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. O’Reilly, K.(2005). Ethnographic methods. London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Perona, O.(2017). Le consentement sexuel saisi par les institutions pénales : Policiers, médecins légistes et procureurs face aux violences sexuelles (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Piispa, M.(2002). Complexity of patterns of violence against women in heterosexual partnerships. Violence Against Women, 8(7), 873–900.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Porret, M.(2010). La preuve du corps. Revue d’histoire des sciences humaines, 1(22), 37–60.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Römkens, R.(2016). Bestemd voor binnenlands gebruik. Sociologie, 12(3), 295–319.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Romito, P.(2008). A deafening silence: Hidden violence against women and children. Bristol: Policy Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Stark, E.(2013). Coercive control. In N.Lombard & L.McMillan (Eds.), Violence against women: Current theory and practice in domestic abuse, sexual violence, and exploitation (pp. 17–33). London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Stark, E.(2007). Coercive control: The entrapment of women in personal life. New York: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Walby, S., & Allen, J.(2004). Domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking: Findings from the British Crime Survey. London: Home Office Study.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Withaeckx, S.(2013). Inleiding: Het belang van een genderperspectief voor het begrijpen van de ervaringen van vrouwen en mannen met geweld. In G.Coene & S.Withaeckx (Eds.), Van de liefde geslagen? Nieuwe vormen van intrafamiliaal geweld. Brussel: VUB Press.
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.5117/TVGN2021.2.007.KHAZ
Loading
/content/journals/10.5117/TVGN2021.2.007.KHAZ
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error