Justice ‘dialogues’: the experiences of intimate partner abuse victims

• In Event: Victimological futures: Exploring new approaches to victimisation and justice

Abstract

Recent work has highlighted the shortcomings of linear and dichotomous understandings of justice, emphasising the fluidity and ever-changing nature of victims’ conceptualisations. This paper explores ‘justice’ from the perspective of women victimised by their intimate partners. It discusses the various aims of justice expressed by women as they experienced it (or not) in their dialogues and interactions with different actors, including justice systems, abusive partners, communities, family members, friends, among others. Based on interviews with fifty-six women in England and Portugal, this paper argues that that justice is developed dialogically and relationally – in relation to these different actors and women’s dialogues with them.

Author

• Joana Ferreira, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath