Violence to women from known men: policy development interagency approaches and good practice. Policy and Implementation Seminars final report.

This paper provides findings from 2 research studies and summaries of 5 seminars and agency contacts with battered women and offending partners. One study replicated for a British population a social psychological study conducted in the US on stress coping processes among 60 battered women who were assaulted by men with whom they lived and were now living in a shelter. The other study examined men who have been violent to known women. Findings are reported on the pattern of contact with governmental or nongovernmental agencies. Summaries are provided of 5 seminars that highlight the critical relationship with agencies when women are trying to leave violence. The summary of policy implications for agencies working with men who perpetrate violence indicates that agencies tend not to focus on countering mens violence. Women describe agency contacts as "pinballing through the system slipping through the net and passing the buck." The studies were conducted during 1991-93. Policy forums took place during 1993-94. The studies included in-depth interviews among 60 battered women living in west Yorkshire: 30 Asian and 30 British women. The British findings do not replicate fully the US findings. Personal resources and frequency of violence were related to battered women in the US and offending men in Yorkshire. Men accounted for the violence through denial forgetting blacking out exclusion and inclusion of types of violence excuses justifications confessions and combinations of the aforementioned features.