ADVANCE programme – substance use and IPV

The Drive Project has been coordinating a cross-sector call to action, calling on the government to publish a comprehensive domestic abuse perpetrator strategy for England and Wales. This is being supported by many voluntary sector organisations, such as Respect, SafeLives, Women’s Aid, AVA and Standing Together as well as a number of police forces, including MOPAC, and academics.

Please email Daniella.porano@safelives.org.uk who can add you to the list and you can access a copy of the call to action here.  Please bear in mind that there is a deadline for logos to be included on the printed document of Tuesday 22nd October, so time is tight. This  document can influence the ongoing Domestic Abuse bill. However, support is gratefully received whenever it comes.

 

 

 

 

 

The paper asks What Role Does Substance Use Play in Intimate Partner Violence? and includes a Narrative Analysis of In-Depth Interviews With Men in Substance Use Treatment and Their Current or Former Female Partner.

Few studies have examined intimate partner violence (IPV) in relationships where one or both partners are in treatment for substance use, from the perspectives of both members of a couple. This study used thematic and narrative analysis of the accounts of 14 men recruited from substance use services and 14 women who were their current or former intimate partners. Separate researchers interviewed men and women from the same dyad pair. The psychopharmacological effects of substance use (including intoxication, craving, and withdrawal) were rarely the only explanation offered for IPV. Violence was reported to be primed and entangled with sexual jealousy, with perceptions of female impropriety and with women’s opposition to male authority. Both partners reported adversities and psychological vulnerabilities that they considered relevant to conflict and abuse. Male participants were more likely to describe IPV as uncharacteristic isolated events that arose from specific disputes—either aggravated by intoxication or withdrawal or about substance use and its resourcing—whereas women described enduring patterns of abusive behaviour often linked to intoxication, craving, withdrawal, and to disputes linked to raising funds for substances. In relationships where both partners used substances, men described the need to protect their partners from addiction and from unscrupulous others while women described highly controlling behaviour. In relationships where women were not dependent substance users, they reported the combined effects of psychological and financial abuse often linked to recurring patterns of substance use and relapse. These findings highlight the challenges faced by practitioners working with male perpetrators who use substances as well as the need of those working with women who have been abused to engage with the ways in which hesitance to leave male abusers can be complicated by shared drug dependency.

You can access the article here