Systems Entanglement: How Survivors Negotiate Their Post-Separation Cases

• In Event: Improving Domestic Violence Civil Protection Orders: Results from Projects in Four States

Abstract

Research on legal system responses to intimate partner abuse and violence (IPA/V) often focuses on one case or one system at a time. Yet survivors’ lived experiences may involve multiple cases and multiple systems (criminal and civil) simultaneously. This presentation explores survivors’ experiences with multiple cases in the criminal and civil legal systems. Data for this study were from a larger study of study of IPA/V survivors’ experiences with the civil protection order system. In-depth highly structured interviews were conducted with 172 women seeking protection orders against male ex-partners. For most participants, this was not their first experience seeking legal assistance for the violence. Nearly four in ten participants had a prior family court case, such as custody, divorce, or another protection order, while half of participants had a criminal case against their abuser. Increased rates of physical and psychological victimization are linked to more system usage, but more system usage is also linked to lower survivor satisfaction with the systems. Implications for improving legal system responses to IPA and for future research on service systems will be discussed.

Authors

• Ruth Fleury-Steiner, University of Delaware

• Susan L. Miller, University of Delaware

• M. Kristen Hefner, The Citadel