A Culture of Secrecy and Shame: Domestic Violence Programs' Missed Opportunities in Assessing Danger and Establishing Safety

This research draws on the experiences of eight women who are survivors of\ud domestic violence and have graduated from or are currently living in long-term\ud housing programs. Recently, research has highlighted a strong correlation between\ud domestic violence and intimate partner homicide (Campbell et al., 2003). Existing\ud efforts to assess this threat involves quantifying the problem by asking women to\ud complete "objective" risk assessment tools. What is lacking is a qualitative\ud understanding of battered women's perceptions and conceptualizations of danger that\ud holds women's meanings, perceptions, and experiences central to understanding this\ud problem. Findings from this study reveal that women engage in their own danger\ud assessment practices by socially constructing and identifying indicators of danger,\ud such as the ongoing secrecy and shame of the abuse and efforts to preserve their\ud relationships. These indications of danger, furthermore, shaped women's responses\ud to the violence. For instance, since very few individuals knew about the abuse,\ud women had limited resources and ways of protecting themselves. In their attempts to\ud the control the violence, women often physically fought back when in the presence of\ud danger. Moreover, this study uncovers that as women moved forward in healing from\ud the abuse, they socially reconstruct understandings of danger by reframing and\ud characterizing their perceptions of danger within the context of potentially reentering\ud abusive relationships in the future. This research not only renders women's\ud experiences and difficulties as significant, but it also allows programs to understand\ud how to better strengthen the safety net for victims by improving danger assessment\ud and safety planning practices in the future.Sociolog