Does One Size Fit All? Examining Women’s Motivations for Using IPV Versus Intervention Program Curriculum

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

In Canada, the implementation of pro-charging policies and the subsequent increase in women being charged for engaging in intimate partner violence (IPV) has increased the number of women being mandated to attend IPV intervention programs. Canadian researchers have only recently begun to explore this area and have acknowledged that existing intervention programs that were originally designed to address men’s offensive actions may not be appropriate for women who have various motivations for engaging in IPV. This poster will identify the heterogeneous motivations and intersecting forms of oppression that may prompt women to use force against their partner in relation to how Ontario’s Partner Assault Response program curriculum currently addresses women’s lived realities with violence. Promoting strategies that acknowledge and seek to address women’s varied motivations may be beneficial in reducing violence in the lives of women who would otherwise be vulnerable to future incidents of IPV.

Author

• Julie Poon, University of Guelph