The Subjective Court Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence Victims: Does Motherhood Matter?
Many women with children experience intimate partner violence (IPV). These survivors are particularly important to assist, because countless have complex safety concerns related to their children. Mothers' concerns about their children have been shown to impact their decision making related to abuse, but researchers have not closely explored what happens during mothers' interactions with help sources. This study examined whether women with (n = 98) and without (n = 44) children differ in a) their court experiences through their perceptions of procedural and distributive justice, and b) the context of their lives surrounding the court experience. We also explored the relationship between contextual factors and procedural and distributive justice. Results indicate participants were relatively satisfied with their court experiences, despite experiencing reabuse, danger, and fear throughout court processes. Mothers reported significantly higher levels of distributive justice and contact with the abusive partner than non-mothers. However, mothers did not differ significantly from non-mothers with regard to procedural justice, fear, danger, reabuse or reliance on the abusive partner. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated the interaction between fear and motherhood significantly predicted participants' perceptions of distributive justice, as did the interaction between danger and motherhood. In these interactions, mothers' fear and perceptions of danger were not related to their perception of distributive justice. However, non-mothers who reported higher levels of fear and danger perceived less distributive justice. Results suggest mothers and non-mothers enter the system with similar life contexts, and that these contextual factors impact their perceptions of court outcomes differently.
1 George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
Jenna M
JM
Calton
1 George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
Jessica L
JL
Grossmann
1 George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
Lauren Bennett
LB
Cattaneo
D000328:Adult; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D000066511:Intimate Partner Violence / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009035:Mothers / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010465:Perception; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D017741:Survivors / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
anything related to domestic violence; disclosure of domestic violence; domestic violence; legal intervention