Semantic Network Analysis of Intimate Partner Violence Episodes on Internet Postings

• In Event: Modeling and Analytical Issues

Abstract

Narratives of experiences that victims or perpetrators had have been attentive for research in the field of criminology and criminal justice. Stories composed of words have been converted frequently into data and analyzed, but few the words themselves. Words that linked to one another configure the network and meaning, and the purpose of this study is to find out the meaning of violence by an intimate from storylines with semantic network analysis, one of text analysis methods, examining the associations among words. Using data from narratives on online postings illustrating intimate partner violence (IPV) events posted by Korean women living in the United States, this study explores how the semantic networks of words from the stories illustrate the posters’ perception of the meaning of IPV and their violent circumstances. With an event perspective, three temporalities of IPV--precursor, transaction, and aftermath--will be examined by the three topics: the themes of the occurrence of IPV, the contents of verbal exchanges, and perceived help-seeking barriers.

Author

• Sung-hun Byun, Rutgers University