An investigation into repeated admission of abused women with mental illness in a psychiatric institution: a case study of selected outpatients in Port Elizabeth
- Authors: Swelindawo, Monica Priscilla
- Date: 2019-12
- Subjects: Abused women , Abused wives -- Services for , Family Violence
- Language: English
- Type: Master's/Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/21092 , vital:46975
- Description: The aim of this study was to investigate causes of repeated admissions of mentally ill women in a psychiatric institution. The study was conducted in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, which comprises Port Elizabeth, Despatch and Uitenhage. A focus group and unstructured interviews were used to collect data. The focus group consisted of 9 participants, which comprised 7 family members or caregivers of mentally ill women with repeated admissions in a psychiatric institution and 2 professionals, a psychiatric social worker and a doctor. Since this is a relatively new area of study, thus a qualitative research method was used for the researcher to interact with participants in their natural habitat. Snowball sampling was used to locate members of the population. Literature review has demonstrated that continued exposure to abuse has a negative effect on the mental health of the survivor. Some of the women were mentally fit before the abuse, but due to abuse at the hands of their husbands or partners, and sometimes families, became mentally ill. Neglect, lack of understanding of mental illness, defaulting of medication and lack of trained psychiatric professionals in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality were found to be the most common reasons that led to repeated admissions. , Thesis (MSoc Sci) (Social Work) -- University of Fort Hare, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2019-12
Media portrayal of gender based violence: a perception study in Uitenhage, Eastern Cape South Africa 2
- Authors: Oladimeji Olawumi Kate https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6577-0140
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Abused women , Mass media -- Eastern Cape -- South Africa , Mass media criticism -- Eastern Cape -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/19476 , vital:43131
- Description: Gender based violence (GBV) has become a global menace. The prevalence of this violence against women and children in South Africa reveals that the country is plagued by this horror called GBV. According to the South African police crime statistics, with regards to sexual offences, the SAPS reported 64 419 (2012), 66 197 (2014), 62 226 (2013) and 53 617 (2015) cases. A government survey conducted revealed that men were the main perpetrators of this violence. For example, 76 percent of men in Gauteng, 48 percent in Limpopo and 41 percent in KwaZulu-Natal admitted to perpetrating GBV. These alarming statistics calls for the attention of the media. The media is known to be a powerful tool of influence, however in the process, the media has been criticised to portray violence in ways which can have varying effect on the behaviour of those exposed to it. This study was therefore conducted to investigate the perception of the residents of Uitenhage on the media‘s portrayal of gender based violence against women and children. The mixed method of research was used to obtain data from the participants and respondents which were residents of Uitenhage, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Non-probability sampling in the form of purposive sampling was used to select the focus group participants while probability sampling in the form of simple random probability sampling was used to select the respondents with whom the questionnaires were administered to. Quantitative data analysis for questionnaires was done using descriptive statistics and findings were presented in form of tables and pie charts while qualitative data analysis for the focus group discussions was done using thematic analysis. A final sample of 257 valid responses were analysed, representing 80 percent response rate, three focus group discussions were also analysed. The study revealed that all the participants and respondents are exposed to more than one medium of mass communication, however participants and respondents opined that the media has both positive and negative effect on different individuals. The study also demonstrated that there is an association between people‘s exposure to the media and their violent behaviour which is attributed to the messages conveyed by the media. The study recommends amongst others that the media should take a more proactive approach to the issue of VAW. , Thesis (PhD) (Communication) -- University of Fort Hare, 2018
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- Date Issued: 2018
The relationship between economic dependency and the reporting behaviours of victims of intimate partner violence: a case study of Bothaville in the Free State Province
- Authors: Mwatsiya, Innocent https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2845-5512
- Date: 2015-06
- Subjects: Wife abuse , Abused women
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/24761 , vital:63549
- Description: This research study explored the relationship between economic dependency and the reporting behaviours of victims of intimate partner violence. The study was conducted using qualitative methods. Data was gathered using semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion. Data analysis was done using thematic analysis where themes were allowed to emerge from the raw data findings. The study intended to explore the experiences; reporting behaviours; coping strategies and available sources of support for victims of intimate partner violence. The study drew mainly from literature and the tenets of the Resource Theory as well as the Learned Helplessness Theory. The study established that economic dependency supported the existence of intimate partner violence owing to the fact that victims of intimate partner violence feared financial vulnerability should they report the perpetrator resulting in his arrest. It was also established that the relationship between economic dependency and the reporting behaviours of victims of intimate partner violence was compounded by the number of children the victim had including the number of family members dependent on the victims besides her own children. More dependents were linked to a lesser likelihood of reporting intimate partner violence. This was due to the fact that more dependents translated into a greater financial burden in the absence of the source of income; the perpetrator. On the other hand, the study also established that even those victims who were employed, though earning lesser money than their partners (the perpetrators), did not leave abusive relationships. This was linked to the possibility of learned helplessness as well as the possibility of their individual incomes being too little to afford them a life away from the perpetrator. The study also established that victims of intimate partner violence experienced physical violence more than all other forms of violence. Availability of support, frequency and severity of abuse were identified as determinants of the timing for reporting. The study established that families were the most active sources of social support for victims of intimate partner violence whilst all professional networks of support were discovered to be functional. The study made several following recommendations including awareness raising, introduction of policy amendments and the inclusion of victims of intimate partner violence in income generating projects. Lastly the study concluded that little has been done and much needs to be done regarding the alleviation of the conditions of victims of intimate partner violence across the divide. , Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2015
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- Date Issued: 2015-06
Ambivalence and paradox : the battered woman's interactions with the law and other helping resources
- Authors: Labe, Dana
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: Family violence -- Law and legislation , Abused women , Wife abuse , Women -- Crimes against , Women -- Counseling of , Family violence -- Prevention
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:699 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006424 , Family violence -- Law and legislation , Abused women , Wife abuse , Women -- Crimes against , Women -- Counseling of , Family violence -- Prevention
- Description: This thesis explores how the battered woman attachment to her abusive partner impacts on her interactions with the legal system and non-legal resources. This qualitative research project is based on in-depth interviews conducted with seven abused women who procured interdicts in terms of the Prevention of Family Violence Act 133 of 1993 to restrain their husbands from assaulting them. The research reviews the nature of abuse suffered by the participants, their psychological attachments to their husbands, and their patterns of help-seeking in relation to the law and non-legal resources. Two main theoretical frameworks, psychoanalysis and feminism inform this study. The study found that the participants retained unrealistic hopes that their husbands would reform and become loving, caring partners, and that they treated their husbands with care and sympathy despite their husbands’ often brutal behaviour towards them. The findings suggest that the women’s behaviour towards their husbands was the product of two reality distorting psychological defences, splitting and the moral defence which they used to preserve their attachments to their abusive partners. These defences intersected with rigid patriarchal prescriptions of femininity which dictate that women should be stoically caring towards their husbands, and should hold relationships together no matter what the cost to themselves. The participants interactions with the legal system and with non-legal sources of help were structured by their reliance on splitting and the moral defence, and by the dictates of patriarchal ideology. Whilst it is undoubtedly true that at one level the participants sought help to get protection from abuse, the study shows that their help-seeking was motivated by their conflicting desires to punish and reform their husbands. The participants sought help in ways which enabled them to strike a compromise between expressing their anger at their husbands, whilst simultaneously preserving their psychological attachments to them. The study concludes that the women’s interactions with the law and with other helping resource reflect their attempts to preserve their paradoxical attachments to their husbands, and to stabilise their own fragile sense of self and gender identity
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- Date Issued: 2001
Ambivalence and paradox: the battered woman's interactions with the law and other helping resources
- Authors: Labe, Dana
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: Family violence -- Law and legislation , Abused women , Family violence , Wife abuse , Women -- Crimes against , Women -- Counseling of , Family violence -- Prevention
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3333 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003127 , Family violence -- Law and legislation , Abused women , Family violence , Wife abuse , Women -- Crimes against , Women -- Counseling of , Family violence -- Prevention
- Description: This thesis explores how the battered woman attachment to her abusive partner impacts on her interactions with the legal system and non-legal resources. This qualitative research project is based on in-depth interviews conducted with seven abused women who procured interdicts in terms of the Prevention of Family Violence Act 133 of 1993 to restrain their husbands from assaulting them. The research reviews the nature of abuse suffered by the participants, their psychological attachments to their husbands, and their patterns of help-seeking in relation to the law and non-legal resources. Two main theoretical frameworks, psychoanalysis and feminism inform this study. The study found that the participants retained unrealistic hopes that their husbands would reform and become loving, caring partners, and that they treated their husbands with care and sympathy despite their husbands’ often brutal behaviour towards them. The findings suggest that the women’s behaviour towards their husbands was the product of two reality distorting psychological defences, splitting and the moral defence which they used to preserve their attachments to their abusive partners. These defences intersected with rigid patriarchal prescriptions of femininity which dictate that women should be stoically caring towards their husbands, and should hold relationships together no matter what the cost to themselves. The participants interactions with the legal system and with non-legal sources of help were structured by their reliance on splitting and the moral defence, and by the dictates of patriarchal ideology. Whilst it is undoubtedly true that at one level the participants sought help to get protection from abuse, the study shows that their help-seeking was motivated by their conflicting desires to punish and reform their husbands. The participants sought help in ways which enabled them to strike a compromise between expressing their anger at their husbands, whilst simultaneously preserving their psychological attachments to them. The study concludes that the women’s interactions with the law and with other helping resource reflect their attempts to preserve their paradoxical attachments to their husbands, and to stabilise their own fragile sense of self and gender identity.
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- Date Issued: 2001