MINCAVA News Online
To read this publication online, go to: http://www.mincava.umn.edu/newsletter/Summer2009.html
The Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse (www.mincava.umn.edu), under the direction of Jeffrey L. Edleson, Ph.D., works to increase knowledge on violence against women and children through research, education and free access to high-quality information.
MINCAVA staff have been busy creating new online and print materials related to violence against women and children. Here are some recent developments that are happening:
Violence Against Women: Classic Papers, edited by Raquel Kennedy Bergen, Jeffrey L. Edleson and Claire M. Renzetti was published by Pearson/Allyn and Bacon in 2005. The original content of this book, that includes personal reflections by some of the world’s leading researchers and advocates for battered women on their early work, is now freely available on MINCAVA’s website at http://www.mincava.umn.edu/classics/.
Prof. Jeffrey Edleson, MINCAVA Director, and his colleague Prof. Richard M. Tolman of the University of Michigan School of Social Work have launched the Global Research Program on Mobilizing Men for Violence Prevention. This project will develop and test early prevention strategies to engage new fathers and non-violent men in preventing violence against women and children. The project website is: http://www.mincava.umn.edu/mmvp/. A research team will begin significant work on these projects starting in September 2009.
MINCAVA staff has been working on the new study called the Children’s Perception of Parents (CPP). The study aims to improve our understanding of how 8 to 16 year old children’s exposure to domestic violence affects their perception of both their battered mothers and the abusive males in their home. The CPP research team is collaborating with three community-based domestic violence service organizations - the Domestic Abuse Project, Tubman Family Alliance and Cornerstone - in the Twin Cities to implement this study. If your organization is also interested in participating please contact Narae Shin at shinx077@umn.edu.
Jeff Edleson, Jennifer Witt, and Sheetal Rana edit a series of user-friendly applied documents on domestic violence for the VAWnet Applied Research Forum. VAWnet is an online resource for advocates working to end domestic violence, sexual assault, and other violence in the lives of women and their children. The Applied Research Forum is a component of VAWnet that provides applied research information to VAWnet users.
The following VAWnet Applied Research documents and a special collection were recently published:
Battered Women's Protective Strategies by Sherry Hamby with contributions from Andrea Bible (July 2009). This Applied Research paper adopts a holistic approach to understand battered women's protective strategies, reviewing a wide range of strategies used by women to cope with numerous threats posed by battering, not just the threat of bodily harm. http://new.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/AR_BWProtStrat.pdf
Parental Alienation Syndrome and Parental Alienation by Joan Meier (January 2009): This VAWnet document provides a historical and research overview of Parental Alienation Syndrome and Parental Alienation, identifies strategic issues for advocates working with victims, and offers guidelines to improve courts’ treatment of these issues. http://new.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/AR_PAS.pdf
Restorative Justice and Domestic Violence by James Ptacek and Loretta Fredericks (January 2009): This Applied Research document discusses the role of victims within restorative justice, reviews the research on restorative justice, and discusses the potential harms and benefits of using restorative justice in cases of intimate partner violence. http://new.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/AR_RestorativeJusticeIPV.pdf
Immigrant Women and Domestic Violence (March 2009): This special collection highlights the common experiences of immigrant women who are in abusive relationships, the legal protections and public benefits available, and practices and suggestions for increasing the effectiveness of services provided to immigrant women. http://new.vawnet.org/category/index_pages.php?category_id=908
Violence Against Women Online Resources (VAWOR) is a collaborative project between MINCAVA and the Office on Violence Against Women at the U.S. Department of Justice. It has recently expanded and now is developing the following four projects:
Rapid Response – A national network of experts is being created to respond to current violence-related issues. The Rapid Response Project can quickly provide accurate information to legislators, reporters and policy makers whose work affects the anti-violence movement. We are excited to link so many researchers and practitioners – and to ensure that their voices are heard in policy and media coverage of violence.
In-Briefs – A series of four page “In Brief” documents, both online and in print that will provide concise information on new research, best practices, emerging policies and other issues to policymakers and practitioners nationwide. In consultation with academics and practitioners, our team has written In-Briefs, on Domestic Violence, Sexual Violence, Teen Dating Violence, and Stalking. The team is awaiting final approval from the OVW to publish these documents. Our team has also created the process through which the next eight topic-based In-Briefs will be produced, and is excited to begin engaging national experts in the areas of the economy and domestic violence, child custody and domestic violence, and children’s exposure to domestic violence, to name a few.
Online Library – We are currently working to create a website that will showcase OVW approved Technical Assistance Provider products such as training curricula, best practice guidelines, and documents.
Online Technical Assistance Calendar and Directory – An expansion of the online calendar and directory of Technical Assistance Providers will soon include online hyperlinks to TA materials related to specific providers and the trainings they have listed on the calendar.
The Advocacy Learning Center is a free 2-year experiential course created by Praxis International to examine the vision, identify the principles and knowledge, and practice the skills and qualities that make advocacy a powerful force in the movement to end violence against women. Ongoing skill practice is built in so participants can transform new learning directly into real-world advocacy. For more details on this program, please visit their website: http://www.praxisinternational.org/pages/alc/alc.asp
The MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse began in 1994 when Dr. Jeffrey Edleson of the University of Minnesota loaded a copy of a Web browser onto his home computer. In the following weeks he copied HTML code from the Web pages he found and created a page with links to the few Internet resources on domestic violence that were available at that time. As the Web site grew, it became highly used by both those teaching courses on violence against women and the grassroots advocacy community. The Clearinghouse users shaped its content by submitting information for posting and consequently supplied new resources to people across the globe. Over time, the Clearinghouse has evolved to be one of the most comprehensive and widely used resources on domestic violence material on the Internet. MINCAVA is considered by some to be the “Wikipedia for violence and abuse related resources”. The Clearinghouse receives over 1.25 million visits a year. We thank you all for your continued support that makes the Clearinghouse a widely used tool for advocates, students, professionals, and persons needing information for their loved ones!
Raquel Kennedy Bergen, Jeff Edleson and Claire Renzetti are co-editing a Second Edition of the Sourcebook on Violence Against Women to be published by Sage Publications in early 2010. The Sourcebook is widely used as a textbook in undergraduate and graduate courses across North America. The completely revised Second Edition will include widely updated information and a greater emphasis on global efforts to end violence against women. The website for the Sourcebook is http://www.sagepub.com/booksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book9801
.