Strategically Stealthy

Abstract

Research on women who divorce their abusive husbands typically draws on the experiences of those who have had contact with formal intimate partner violence (IPV) support services. The experiences of women who have not sought such support remain poorly understood. Drawing upon a series of longitudinal, in-depth interviews with 12 women who did not seek formal IPV services, this work illuminates women’s “strategically stealthy” agency, as they navigate spousal violence, seek human connection and formal support, and eventually file for divorce. This article proposes a revision of the transtheoretical model’s (TTM) preparation stage from 30 days to a flexible time frame of months and even years, which allows a more complex, agentic understanding of IPV survivors’ actions, behaviors, and help-seeking efforts deployed in planning for divorce. By expanding the time frame of TTM’s preparation stage, this work has broad implications for social work practice.

Clustered Vulnerabilities: The Unequal Effects of COVID-19 on Domestic Violence

“…First, these victims typically experienced isolation and entrapment to such a degree before the pandemic that COVID did not dramatically change their everyday lives. As Larance, Garrison, and Seeley (2018) note, survivors often describe themselves as “stuck inside” when they are in abusive relationships. Second, COVID became part of ongoing systems-related crises in these survivors’ families, rather than changing the dynamics of their relationships directly.…”