annotated bibliography of new zealand research into family violence

persons, Victims/survivors, Social services, Intersectoral collaborationAbstract: This report presents the discussion of a study that aimed to discover what longtermservices are available for survivors of family violence, and that aimed to identify anygaps in service provision. Interviews were held with providers and women survivors of familyviolence, and a content analysis of the data was conducted to identify common themes. Thefindings of the study show that, in general, the immediate needs of survivors were metadequately, but there were gaps in long-term provision of services. Many of the womenparticipants in the study stated that follow-up care and ongoing support would be beneficialover the long-term. Barriers to accessing services included financial constraints, lack ofchildcare services, and limited means of transport to get to the service location. Gaps inservice provision, such as counselling and support, were also identified for children andyoung persons. Greater communication and coordination between services was emphasised asessential for the continuing safety of survivors of family violence. The need for increasedservices, specifically for Maori and Pacific clients was also identified.Goodyear-Smith, F. (1997). Parents and other relatives accused of sexual abuse on the basis ofrecovered memories: A New Zealand family survey. Unpublished master’s thesis, Universityof Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.See: www.nzfvc.org.nz/13183.pubTopic Areas: Child abuse and neglect, Sexual abuse, Families, Perpetrators/offenders,Victims/survivors, Gender, Health, Prevention/intervention/treatment, Demographics/statisticsAbstract: This thesis outlines historical precedents of the ‘repressed sexual abuse memories’debate and explores the origins and meanings of ‘repression’ and ‘dissociation’. It washypothesised that although child sexual abuse is reported to be widespread throughout NewZealand social strata, families recently experiencing allegations of historical child sexualabuse based on recovered memories during adulthood belong to a specific socio-economicgroup, and accusations being levelled are very atypical with respect to known sexualoffending parameters. The objective was to provide more detailed knowledge than currentlyexists about the nature of sexual abuse allegations in New Zealand. Families were surveyedwhere the alleged perpetrator and/or other family members denied an accusation involvingchildhood molestation of one family member by another, and the accusation was based onmemories recovered in adulthood. Information on 73 subjects within the accusers’ family wascollected by questionnaire. As hypothesised, results indicated that most accusers were highlyeducatedwhite women, frequently first born or older children from relatively large families,statistically different proportions from those expected. Whilst truth or falsity of individualallegations could not be established, many involved events of low base-rate probabilityincluding satanic ritual abuse. Data comparison with surveyed British and North Americanfamilies gave similar results. All families experienced disruption. Counselling or therapyfeatured strongly in the recounting of accusations and much antipathy towards the lack ofprofessional accountability was expressed. None had reconciliative family therapy. This datasuggests that many memories of child sexual abuse recovered in adulthood may not be a truereflection of history. It is recommended that memories recovered during therapy should betreated with respect as part of patients’ narrative truth, but not assumed factually accurate.General practitioners (GPs) should validate patients’ feelings, but not the content of theirnarratives. Treatment should focus on dealing with presenting symptoms and problems, notreliving past traumas. GPs’ roles in facilitating family dialogue and reconciliation isconsidered.Source: Author’s abstract74