Determining patterns of service usage by women victims of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in Brazil
Lia Fernald, Professor
Public Health
Closed. This professor is continuing with Spring 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Fall 2024.
Background: Every seven minutes a woman is a victim of domestic violence in Brazil. Research on intimate partner violence shows that victimization is not an isolated incident. Because of the repetition of abuse, it’s possible that some women seek assistance from multiple sectors over the course of their victimization. Other women may not feel safe reporting their experiences to the police and may solely visit medical centers. Yet it is unclear how Brazilian women use services from different sectors to address IPV. We propose to merge data at an individual level from both health and public safety sectors to better understand the typical trajectory of service use of female victims of violence. Our analysis of this data will inform policy regarding how to better integrate services across sectors to improve women’s exit from IPV. Additionally, this merged data can be used for future research projects to evaluate policy such as one-stop-shops serving women and the implementation of law requiring the health sector to inform the police of IPV.
Overall Objective: To characterize patterns of service use across the health sector and public safety sector among victims of intimate partner violence.
Specific Research Questions: Do victims turn first to the public safety sector or to the health sector? Do women use services across sectors, and if so, what is their pattern of use? Does women’s use of the health sector for injury treatment intensify or decrease after reporting IPV to the police? Do patterns of use differ between women who are murdered and women who are not? To whom do police and health service providers most often refer when referring across sectors? What are the barriers to referrals across sectors, as perceived by police & health providers?
Role: The student will survey academic articles and technical reports to prepare a literature review on what is already known about patterns of service usage across different public sectors (police, health, social services). In addition to summarizing what is already known, the student will identify areas of knowledge gaps.
Qualifications: Be able to read Spanish, Portuguese a plus. Experiencing doing literature reviews also a plus.
Hours: to be negotiated
Off-Campus Research Site: Remote work ok
Social Sciences Biological & Health Sciences