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    Police discourses on policing domestic violence : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2001) Oliver, Debra Lee
    Explicit statements regarding the unacceptable use of violence against intimate partners have been advanced within New Zealand society in recent years. The adoption of an arrest policy in 1987 by the New Zealand Police, the Domestic Violence Act 1995 and an extensive media campaign all unequivocally asseverate such violence is a crime and will not be tolerated. However, domestic violence continues to be a serious problem in New Zealand. This research forms part of a larger, ongoing research project, which addresses domestic violence from the perspective of its victims, offenders and other service and intervention providers. This project explores police officers' experience of policing domestic violence using discourse analysis. The methodological approach stems from a social constructionist paradigm, which postulates that language is active and constructive in maintaining, contesting and transforming social reality. To this end, 12 front line officers were interviewed to discuss domestic violence, the Family Violence Policy, and some of the controversial issues that have arisen from previous research in this area that have plagued the policing of domestic violence. The interviews were transcribed and a discourse analysis was used to identify shared social resources or discourses used by police officers in their understanding of domestic violence, the people encountered in its policing and the problems experienced in relation to the pro-arrest policy. Officers made use of a variety of, often contradictory, discourses in their understanding of domestic violence, the people involved in it and their role in policing it. While the analysis suggests officers continue to draw on discourses that blame victims and exonerate offenders, it also points to a discursive shift in police discourses on policing domestic violence, particularly with regard to its seriousness and dangerousness, the importance of policing it and the utility of arrest.
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    Identifying and assessing risk in men who have a history of violence towards their female partners : a thesis submitted to Massey University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work
    (Massey University, 1997) McMaster, Kenneth James
    The general aim of this study was to explore how workers in National Network of Stopping Violence Services (NZ) Inc./Te Kupenga Whakoati Mahi Patunga member groups assess risk of repeated violence in men accessing stopping violence programmes. Increasingly with implementation of legislation such as the Domestic Violence Act 1995, and increasing referrals from Community Corrections, workers engaging with men who are violent towards their female partners will be increasingly asked to make predictions of current and future levels of risk of repeated violence. These predictions of risk are central to accountability processes developed by National Network of Stopping Violence Services (NZ) Inc./Te Kupenga Whakoati Mahi Patunga. This study reports on risk factors identified within a sample of 373 men accessing a New Zealand based stopping violence programme. A consistency between factors identified within the international literature and within the local sample was found. A survey of workers running stopping violence programmes was undertaken to see if the risk factors that they saw as salient, were consistent with those identified in other research. Twenty-three (23) workers responded to the survey and the results indicate a tendency to focus upon contextual indicators of risk at the expense of dispositional, historical and clinical indicators. The results also show that there are a number of constraints to the thorough assessment of risk in men presenting at stopping violence programmes which include; lack of time, competing demands on time, lack of training in risk prediction, and a lack of consistent tools to undertake the task.
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    The psychological impact of partner abuse on women and their relationships : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology
    (Massey University, 1996) Verzyde, Kimberlee H
    Psychosocial and relationship factors were investigated in relation to partner abuse in a survey of 104 New Zealand female tertiary student volunteers. Using the Conflict Tactics Scales partner abuse was categorised in four ways: verbal and physical abuse occurring within the year preceding the study, and verbal and physical abuse occurring prior to that. Compared to non-abused students, students who had been verbally abused during the year preceding the study used exit more as a problem-solving style, and rated themselves less effective in problem-solving, less committed to the relationship, less satisfied with the relationship, more attracted by alternatives to the relationship and more inclined to have an external locus of control for relationship satisfaction. Students who were verbally abused during the year preceding the study were also subject to more general feelings of distress and to negative affect, while rating their partners less effective in problem-solving, and more repressive of their autonomy and relatedness needs. Students who had been verbally abused prior to the year leading up to the study differed from non-abused students in sociability. Students who were physically abused during the year preceding the study differed from non-abused students in their perceptions of the effectiveness of their approach to problem-solving, and in closeness to their partner. Students who had been physically abused prior to the year leading up to the study differed from non-abused students in ratings of their partner's use of hostile control. These results support the findings of studies carried out across clinical samples, and indicate that abused women do differ from non-abused women across a range of psychosocial and relationship factors.
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    Police discourse on policing domestic violence : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1996) Pinkus, Jennifer Anne
    This research looks at how six police officers talk about policing domestic violence. The analysis is based on interview data collected in 1993-4, in Palmerston North, New Zealand. A 'discursive approach' was adopted in analyzing the texts. The central assumption was that the meanings given to events and people are likely to influence policing practice. Two main areas were looked at: the first was the social construction of policing domestic violence; the second was how the officers talk seemed to position people as either deserving or undeserving of police 'discretion'. Gender, race, and class assumptions influenced these decisions. Women who were about to leave or had attempted to leave a violent relationship were seen as more deserving of police time. Women generally were negatively constructed in the talk of them, and no excuses or justifications were given as explanatory accounts for their actions. By contrast, excuses and justifications were often offered for some men to account for their violence. This tended to be more evident if the offender was a white middle-class male. Thus, some forms of violence and abuse seemed to be condoned, and no action was taken. Maori and Pacific Island men, in contrast, were viewed as the 'type of guys' most likely to beat their wives. Generally, though, domestic violence still seemed to be viewed as a 'private' matter or a 'relationship' issue. This interpretation appeared to function in a way to place domestic violence in the category of 'not real police work', thereby decreasing the likelihood that action would be taken in the form of an arrest. This is contrary to a policy that endorses arrest and the criminalization of male violence in the home.
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    Difficulty with detecting : metanarratives and a discourse analysis of general practitioners' talk about domestic violence : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2000) Aldridge, Amy
    This research project aims to report and analyse the texts of interviews with doctors as they talk about their experience of detecting domestic violence against women who are their patients. The doctors stories of their experiences are summarised and presented as a metanarrative to provide an understanding of their experiences. A discourse analysis of the transcribed interviews identifies and explores the linguistic resources available to doctors and used in common by them in constituting their experiences, themselves, and their women patients who are victimised by violent male partners. The effects and implications of these resources is discussed. The doctors reported difficulty detecting and dealing with domestic violence as experienced by their women patients. Their accounts support existing research findings. Discourse analysis identifies a discourse of discovery and a discourse of confession realised in the doctors' talk about detection. In the doctors' talk about violence and women who are victimised by their male partners, a liberal humanist discourse, psychological discourses, and discourses of love and commitment were identified The implications of these discourses used together in the context of medical practice are discussed. In co-articulation with medical discourse, these discourses realised by the doctors simultaneously perpetuate the difficulty detecting domestic violence, and make this difficulty comprehensible.
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    Women's experiences of their partner's attendance at a Men for Non Violence programme : their stories and a discourse analysis : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1996) Towsey, Frances
    This study aims to report and analyse the texts of interviews with eleven women participants as they talk about their experience of their relationships during and after their partners' attendance at a Men For Non Violence (MFNV) programme. The women's partners, from whom they subsequently separated, had attended a MFNV programme while they were living together. Firstly, the women's stories of their private experience are summarised to provide new knowledges of the problem and in turn to be constitutive of a developing public understanding. Secondly, the commonalities in the women's experience, particularly in relation to the MFNV programme, are presented. Finally, a discourse analysis of the transcribed interviews illuminates the socially available linguistic resources used in common by the women in constituting their experiences and selves, with the effects and implications of these being discussed. The majority of the women reported temporary reductions in physical violence with associated increased levels of psychological violence from the time their partners attended a MFNV programme, which supports existing findings. The discourses available to and drawn on by the women reproduce and perpetuate men's non responsibility for their violence and maintain responsibility for women to end the violence, thereby reinforcing an ideology of male dominance.
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    Men against violence : a post-structuralist critique of the science and practice of stopping men's violence to women in an applied community setting: a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1997) O'Neill, Damian; O'Neill, Damian
    This research project begins with a post-structuralist critique of the social science theoretical literature surrounding wife abuse. Within this most controversial area of the social sciences five discourses were found to be operating in and informing the field, between them affording a diverse array of theoretical accounts and intervention strategies. These underlying discursive resources are the Liberal humanist 'instrumental' position, the Romantic 'expressive tension' position, Tabula rasa 'learning' theory, Medical 'pathology' and the Structuralist 'social systemic' account. The history and implications of each discourse are discussed. In a second study a participant observation strategy explored how the Manawatu Men Against Violence collective (MMAV), in the face of this diverse and conflicting field, work to stop men's violence in the community. Through participating in a MMAV 'Stopping Violence' programme, observations concerning the discursive content and structure to the programme were made. It was found through this exercise that MMAV employed four of the five discourses identified in the scientific literature and omitted one; 'pathology'. This was a strategic move on MMAV's part, enabling a variety of intervention strategies, dominated by a Liberal humanist construction of events, around which the remaining discourses were couched. The implications of this discursive structure to the programme are discussed. A third study explored how the MMAV programme impacts upon participant's subjectivity. Semi-structured interviews prior to and following participation in a MMAV Stopping Violence programme recorded narratives of the men as they accounted for their violence, the violence of others in the community and described their intimate relationships. It was found that exposure to the discourses imparted by MMAV had had an impact upon the men's accounting practices as distinct shifts as well as consistencies in subject positionings were apparent in the post-course interview comparison. Results demonstrated that the men had interacted with the course material and that this had several effects upon their sense of agency. The implications of such shifts and continuities are discussed and recommendations for future research are made.
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    The legal response to men's violence against women (ex-)partners : narrative representation of women's experiences and discourse analysis of lawyer's talk : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Turitea Campus, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2003) Pond, Rachael Lynn
    Men's violence towards women within the context of intimate relationships is a complex and serious social problem. Particularly problematic are its prevalence and its extensive deleterious effects on women and children's health and psychological wellbeing. The present research was interested in New Zealand's legal response to domestic violence. More specifically, it explored how well the legal system serves the needs of women who experience abuse from their male partners and ex-partners, and how lawyers make sense of partner violence and the legal response to it. Feminist poststructuralism was a useful theoretical stance for the research. Feminist poststructuralism argues that there are multiple truths and realities, some that are hegemonically authorised as truth, and others that are marginalised and rejected. This stance also theorises that our sense of self, and understandings of phenomena like domestic violence and the legal response to it, are socially constructed by culturally and historically specific discourses. To create space for women to voice their experiences of the legal response to domestic violence, I interviewed ten women, and represented their individual accounts using narrative methodology. Collectively, the women's narratives suggest that the legal system does not consistently serve the needs of women seeking protection from partner violence; many women were dissatisfied. Women did not always feel that judges, lawyers, and other legal personnel treated their experiences of violence and psychological abuse seriously or empathetically. Some women also encountered resistance when they attempted to protect their children through supervised access. In the second phase of the research, I interviewed eighteen lawyers working in the area of domestic violence, and analysed their transcripts using discursive methodology. Lawyers utilised many discourses to make sense of and constitute domestic violence and the legal response to it. Some discourses were consistent with holding perpetrators accountable for their violence, and with protecting women and children. However, many discourses minimised and detracted attention away from men's violence towards women, marginalised women's experiences of abuse and violence, and undermined women and children's protection and safety. In this way, the legal system maintains and perpetuates gender bias and oppression against women.