Effective Advocacy in Rural Domains: Applying an Ecological Model to Understanding Advocates' Relationships.
Past scholarship has explored the ecological model as it pertains to intimate partner violence from the victim's perspective. Missing from this literature is the application of the ecological model to victim advocates, specifically rural victim advocates. This article explores the microsystem and exosystem levels of the ecological model to understand victim advocates' relationships with their clients and criminal justice personnel. To investigate these relationships, we used a sample of rural advocates located within the Mississippi Delta Region. The findings from the interviews and focus group indicate that the density of rural relationships both help facilitate and create barriers to effective victim advocacy. Social capital specific to the rural domain is being generated by the advocates to benefit themselves and their clients.
University of South Carolina-Aiken, USA melenciaj@usca.edu.
Melencia
M
Johnson
University of Alabama-Birmingham, USA.
Shelly A
SA
McGrath
University of South Florida, Tampa, USA.
Michelle Hughes
MH
Miller
ecological model; interpersonal violence; rural advocacy