Identifying community risk factors for violence against indigenous women: A framework of historical oppression and resilience

Abstract

Violence against Indigenous women tends to be disproportionately high, yet little is known about the historical and community factors that may exacerbate and perpetuate intimate partner violence (IPV). Using a framework of historical oppression, the purpose of this article is to uncover community‐level risk factors identified by Indigenous women who have experienced IPV, and the professionals who work with them. As part of a larger critical ethnography, this study focused on data derived from 49 semistructured interviews with Indigenous women who had experienced IPV and the professionals who work with those affected by IPV. Critical thematic analysis identified various themes related to historical oppression, including cultural disruption, IPV imposed and then internalized as a community norm, community divides, and community inequity, which likely exacerbated or perpetuated IPV. Given the causes of IPV have historical and structural roots, interventions and solutions must be designed with these structural determinants in mind.

Feminist Perspectives on Disaster, Pandemics, and Intimate Partner Violence

“…"84 percent of Native American and Alaskan Native women have experienced violence, 56 percent have experienced sexual violence, and, of that second group, over 90 percent have experienced violence at the hands of a non-tribal member" (Gilpin 2016, p. 1). Colonial attitudes toward indigenous women account for the high percentage of their sexual assaults being committed by non-indigenous men (Burnette and Hefflinger 2016). Native women also experience intimate partner violence at high rates (Burnette and Hefflinger 2016;Wahab and Olsen 2004).…”

A Transdisciplinary Conceptual Framework of Contextualized Resilience for Reducing Adverse Birth Outcomes

“…Social Work and Cultural Psychology (Burnette, 2015;Burnette & Figley, 2017;Burnette & Hefflinger, 2017;Theron, Liebenberg & Ungar, 2015;Ungar, 2008Ungar, , 2011b Capacities of individuals to navigate psychological, social, cultural, and physical resources to sustain their well-being and negotiate these physical and symbolic spaces. Historical oppression is a framework of experiences of Indigenous people in relationship to contemporary and historical trauma and structural violence.…”

“…The operationalized term we are using that clarifies this process is historical oppression. Historical oppression focuses on “historically situating social problems in their structural causes, rather than inappropriately locating problems solely within the populations who tend to disproportionately experience them” (Burnette & Hefflinger, 2017; Waller, 2001). This definition also includes the internalization of historical and contemporary oppressions, hierarchical power relationships, and an understanding of the intersectionality of racism, sexism, and colonial histories of U.S. policies (Crenshaw, 1991; Ford & Airhihenbuwa, 2010; Freire, 1972).…”

“…Theoretical influences included the following foundational works on structural violence (Bourgois, 2001(Bourgois, , 2003Farmer, 2004;Peña, 2011;Pinderhughes et al, 2015), systems of power, and their mechanisms along the ecological layers (Bourdieu, 1977(Bourdieu, , 1990Foucault, 1982;Gramsci, 2011;Krieger, 2001), critical theory, critical race theory, and intersectionality (Burnette & Billiot, 2015;Burnette & Hefflinger, 2017;Chapman & Berggren, 2005;Crenshaw, 1991;Ford & Airhihenbuwa, 2010;Freire, 1972). The research team used thematic analysis to identify relevant and emerging threads from the literature reviewed and discussed.…”

“…Resilience, among the social sciences, has traditionally been defined by psychology as a personal and socially influenced trait that allows an individual to return to a normal state after adverse or traumatic events (Antonovsky, 1993; Dunkel Schetter, 2011; Dunkel Schetter & Dolbier, 2011; Eriksson, 2017; Hobfoll, 2014; Masten, 2001; Southwick, Bonanno, Masten, Panter-Brick, & Yehuda, 2014). The fields of social work (Burnette & Billiot, 2015; Burnette & Hefflinger, 2017; Ungar, 2008, 2011a, 2011b, 2012), transcultural psychology (Allen et al, 2014; Elm, Lewis, Walters, & Self, 2016; Kirmayer, Dandeneau, Marshall, Phillips, & Williamson, 2011; Kirmayer, Sehdev, Withley, Dandeneau, & Issac, 2009), anthropology (Bourgois, 2003; Castañeda et al, 2015; Farmer, 2004; Panter-Brick, 2014, 2015), public health (Krieger, 2001), and sociology (Pinderhughes, Davis, & Williams, 2015) have added contextual ecological layers to build upon how resilience can be best understood. While medicine and nursing has focused on the experiences of survivors’ resilience via connectedness (Epstein & Krasner, 2013) and how health care providers (Turner & Kaylor, 2015) buffer adverse experiences for patients while increasing positive health outcomes (see Supplementary Table S1).…”