Threats and Acts of Intimate Partner Violence Reported by Users at Norwegian Women’s Shelters

Abstract

Women (n = 87) at women's shelters in Norway, a country of high welfare and gender equality, reported a multitude of severe threats and actual acts of physical, sexual and psychological violence. An individual threatening to kill his partner represented a significant increased risk for experiencing serious acts of violence, especially when the threats were repeated. A self-administered questionnaire was sent to all the women's shelters. Experiences of violence were measured by The Severity of Violence against Women Scale (SVAWS) and the Psychological Maltreatment of Women Index (PMWI).

Acts of Intimate Partner Violence and Feelings of Danger in Battered Women Seeking Help in a Spanish Specialized Care Unit

“…When a woman reports having experienced feelings of danger or having felt her life to be threatened, we must become alert because it is likely she will eventually be the target of violent behaviors. Our results clearly point in the same direction as Alasker et al (2011), who found threats of being killed posed an increased risk of experiencing serious acts of violence. Similarly, Campbell (2004) suggest women's risk of being murdered rises with the number of violent acts experienced, and women often underestimate the severity of the situation.…”

“…In line with the study by Alasker et al (2011), our study captures the different abusive acts experienced by the women who came to a specialized care service for battered women and reveals being in a situation where a partner indulges in abuse suggesting a threat to life increases the relative risk of experiencing severe violence. As Straus et al (2009) suggest, perceived danger has important implications in considering IPV victims' perceptions of their situations relative to danger, not just the levels of abuse they are experiencing.…”

“…Even though, overall, the prevalence of sexual abuse was lower than other kinds of violence, the figure of 23 % of the women in our sample who had suffered from sexual abuse is similar to that in the study by Pico-Alfonso (2005) in which 32 % of a group of 75 women who went to an emergency care facility for abused women had experienced sexual abuse. In the study conducted with 87 abused women in shelters in Norway, the prevalence of having suffered acts of sexual violence more than once was 33.2 % (Alasker et al 2011).…”

“…The examination of a woman's perceived sense of danger in a relationship is of interest to be able to further understand the repercussions experiencing feelings of danger may have on the woman and her environment. Alasker et al (2011) carried out an interesting study with battered women residing in shelters in Norway, and found receiving threats of death increased the risk of experiencing severe acts of violence. This suggests if violence is more severe, the sense of danger is likely to augment.…”

Sexual assault and other types of violence in intimate partner relationships

“…Reliability coefficients (Cronbach's α) ranged from 0.67 for symbolic violence to 0.72 for acts of ‘minor violence’ in our study and, for the six items in the sexual violence category, 0.81. More details about the categories and results of the physical violence experienced have been presented in a previous article (16). As the SVAWS does not have any questions about pregnancy and violence, we added one question: ‘Have you been exposed to violence directed at your abdomen when pregnant?’ and we used the four‐point scale.…”