Lisa Larance - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Lisa Larance

Talking Back to the Web of Power: Women's Legal, Child Protection, and Antiviolence Intervention Entanglement and Resistance

This dissertation asks: how do women in the contemporary United States who have had contact with ... more This dissertation asks: how do women in the contemporary United States who have had contact with antiviolence intervention experience legal and child protection systems? This question is explored through ethnographic life story interviews, participant-observation, and go-along interviews with 33 cisgender women who had contact with antiviolence intervention programming often due to court or child protective service orders for having used or allegedly used force in their relationships. My qualitative analysis of the women's interview transcripts, participant-observation notes, go-along interview notes, and research fieldnotes is grounded in Black feminist epistemology, intersectionality and standpoint theories, and informed by my social work antiviolence intervention practice experience. I argue that these women, most of whom also had domestic and sexual violence survivorship histories, experienced the legal and child welfare systems and antiviolence intervention programming as a...

BMJ Open, 2019

IntroductionThis study assesses the feasibility of the Positive Shift (+SHIFT) programme in the c... more IntroductionThis study assesses the feasibility of the Positive Shift (+SHIFT) programme in the context of legal responses and social welfare provision in the state of Victoria, Australia.The +SHIFT programme, adapted from the Vista curriculum, is a group work and case management programme for women who use force. Building on traditional survivor support group strengths, the programme facilitates participants’ engagement with viable alternatives to force while promoting healing. The study also aims to increase understanding about the characteristics and needs of women who use force in Australia.Methods and analysisThis feasibility study will assess the +SHIFT programme’s appropriateness in addressing women’s use of force in the Victorian context. Process evaluation will be undertaken to identify recruitment, retention, women’s participation, barriers to implementation, the appropriateness of proposed outcome measures and other issues. The feasibility of an outcome evaluation which w...

Affilia, 2019

Feminist praxis in conference planning and implementation may be a promising approach to addressi... more Feminist praxis in conference planning and implementation may be a promising approach to addressing the complex issue of gender-based violence in an academic setting. This “In Brief” provides an overview of how the Michigan Meeting on Ending Gender-Based Violence planning committee at the University of Michigan embraced feminist praxis by foregrounding diversity in conference presenters and topics presented; structuring the conference’s formal and free spaces; creating an inclusive, trauma-informed space where participants and presenters felt welcome; and highlighting participant feedback. By design, this focus in conference planning and implementation enabled tensions to surface between community-based practitioners and university-based researchers, while encouraging the formation of trust. The interdisciplinary conference structure also promoted and made possible greater connections and opportunities for networking and brainstorming on potential future programs and projects. Overa...

Strategically Stealthy

Affilia, 2017

Research on women who divorce their abusive husbands typically draws on the experiences of those ... more 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.

Violence against women, Jan 13, 2016

Although researchers and practitioners have established that men and women use force in their int... more Although researchers and practitioners have established that men and women use force in their intimate heterosexual relationships for very different reasons, there is a dearth of information regarding the events surrounds women's arrests and subsequent court orders to anti-violence intervention programming. This information is fundamental to improving Criminal Legal System (CLS) and community-partner understanding of and response to intimate partner violence (IPV). The authors meet this need by analyzing 208 women's descriptions of their arrests and subsequent court order to intervention programs for using force. From these, the authors frame nine categorical descriptions of women's actions. The descriptions and categories highlight areas for CLS and community-partners' growing understanding of this complex issue.

Violence Against Women, 2015

The authors highlight a community’s response to women’s use of force, detail aspects of intervent... more The authors highlight a community’s response to women’s use of force, detail aspects of intervention strategies, and introduce a conceptual model representing the women’s change process. In doing so, they encourage community partnerships, continued intervention innovation, and further research. Their observations suggest an intervention philosophy and approach that women have described as one of personal “renewal.” The community’s experiences are notable in light of national efforts to effectively meet the needs of female survivors of intimate partner violence who have used force.

Support Group Membership as a Process of Social Capital Formation Among Female Survivors of Domestic Violence

The online version of this article can be found at:

Center for Social Development BUILDING SOCIAL CAPITAL FROM THE CENTER: A VILLAGE-LEVEL INVESTIGATION OF

financial support provided by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the

Observations from practice: Support group membership as a process of social capital formation among female survivors of domestic violence

This article explores the authors’practice observations of female domestic violence survivors’jou... more This article explores the authors’practice observations of female domestic violence survivors’journey from first agency contact to active participation in a support group process. The authors have witnessed female victims of domestic violence challenging the social isolation imposed by their dominant partners as they search for meaning in their lives. As practitioners, they have observed women building trustful relation-ships and establishing supportive networks during the group process. In this article, the authors suggest that the support group process facilitates trust and network formation indicative of social capital.

Finding the Middle Ground: Reimagining Responses to Women’s Use of Force

The diversity of women's experiences navigating coercive control: voices from the United States and Hong Kong

Beyond the Victim-offender Binary: Legal and Anti-violence Intervention Considerations With Women Who Have Used Force in the U.S. and Australia

Affilia

In the United States (U.S.) and Australian contexts, the fight to achieve legal and societal reco... more In the United States (U.S.) and Australian contexts, the fight to achieve legal and societal recognition of cisgender men's violence against cisgender women operated according to an incident-based victim-offender binary. Those held accountable for the violence were seen as offenders, those who survived the violence were seen as victims. This binary persists across police, court, corrections, intervention, and child protection settings. However, work with cisgender heterosexual women with offenses of abuse and violence demonstrates that the binary does not capture their complex experiences. Instead, they have “offended” in the context of often surviving long-term harm in their families of origin and from their intimate partners. Because their experiences do not align with the binary, they are caught in ineffective and retraumatizing responses. The authors use an intersectional theoretical framework to explore how heterosexual cisgender women's use of force complicates the vic...

Tertiary Prevention Programs for Women Who Use Violence in Intimate Relationships

Emergent Research and Practice Trends in Contextually Addressing the Complexity of Women’s Use of Force

Introduction: research on women's use of violence

Violence against women, 2012

Violence Against Women, 2012

Center for Social Development Working Paper, 1998

I gratefully acknowledge financial support provided by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarsh... more I gratefully acknowledge financial support provided by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the American Association of University Women. I am grateful to Professor Muhammad Yunus, Khalid Shams, Muzammel Huq, and Jannat Quanine of Grameen Bank and ...

Understanding and Addressing Women’s Use of Force in Intimate Relationships: A Retrospective

Violence Against Women

This article surveys an evolving understanding of women’s use of force in their intimate heterose... more This article surveys an evolving understanding of women’s use of force in their intimate heterosexual relationships. It explores the common characteristics of women who use force and, using an intersectional lens, considers the experiences of women in marginalized communities. It also examines how the legal response to intimate partner violence has affected this population. In addition, the development of and best practices in community-based gender-responsive programming for women’s use of force in their intimate heterosexual relationships are overviewed. In conclusion, this work identifies challenges that still exist in effectively responding to women’s use of force.