This book offers insights and perspectives from a study of "Cultural Encounters in Intervention Against Violence" (CEINAV) in four EU-countries. Seeking a deeper understanding of the underpinnings of intervention practices in Germany, Portugal, Slovenia and the United Kingdom, the team explored variations in institutional structures and traditions of law, policing, and social welfare. Theories of structural inequality and ethics are discussed and translated into practice.
Using a shared qualitative methodology, space was created to listen to professionals discussing the challenges of intervention and as well to hear voices of women who had escaped domestic violence or trafficking for sexual exploitation and of young people who had been taken into care due to abuse or neglect. Voices of professionals as well as of women and young people who have experienced intervention illuminate how and why practices may differ.
The authors examine how existing theories can illuminate complex inequalities or encompass the experiences of minorities against the background of European colonial history, and what streams of ethical theory apply to the dilemmas and challenges of intervention practice. Analytical descriptions of the legal-institutional frameworks for each of the three forms of violence set the stage for comparison. Drawing on a rich store of empirical data, five chapters discuss key issues facing policy-makers and practitioners seeking effective strategies of intervention that can diminish violence while strengthening the agency of women and children.
Unique among comparative studies, CEINAV integrated creative art workshops into the research and involved both professionals and survivors of violence in the process. "Reflections" include a discussion of different intervention cultures in Europe, alongside working with different voices and making cultural encounters visible through art. Overall the authors argue that overcoming violence cannot be achieved by standardising procedure but require an ethical foundation, for which they offer a proposal.
SECTION ONE: APPROACHING INTERVENTION: THE ARENA
Crafting methodology for an innovative project
Theorising complex inequalities of gender, generation, race and minority status and how they interact with rights
Theorising the postcolonial foundations of Europe and their implications for cultural encounters in responses to violence
Approaches from ethical theory to guide intervention against violence
SECTION TWO: UNDERSTANDING THE FRAMEWORKS THAT SHAPE INTERVENTION
Information, intervention, and assessment - Frameworks of child physical abuse and neglect interventions in four countries
Redress, rights, and responsibilities - Institutional frameworks of domestic violence intervention in four countries
Trafficking for sexual exploitation: The price of human rights
SECTION THREE: KEY ISSUES IN INTERVENTION
Encounters with cultures: Reflections on a category and its implications for interventions on violence and abuse
Information sharing: when without consent?
Protection and self-determination
The responsibilisation of women who experience domestic violence: A case study from England and Wales
Empowerment approaches
SECTION FOUR: REFLECTIONS
Intervention cultures and the concepts of family violence and gender-based violence
Working with voice in research and practice
Making visible: employing arts in research while rethinking cultural encounters in intervention against violence
Reading ethics into interventions on violence
Transnational foundations for ethical practice in interventions against violence against women and child abuse
