Advocacy Responses to Intimate Partner Stalking: Micro, Mezzo, and Macro Level Practices
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Advocacy Responses to Intimate Partner Stalking: Micro, Mezzo, and Macro Level Practices A. J. Nichols 1
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Domestic violence victim advocacy is an integral part of the response to intimate partner stalking (IPS). However, research specifically examining the strategies that advocates use to support survivors of stalking is limited. The present study aims to expand the knowledge base on advocates’ practices with survivors of IPS. Through inductive analysis of interviews with 26 domestic violence victim advocates, advocates’ responses to IPS were examined. Findings indicated that advocates used macro, mezzo and micro level practices to respond to IPS. Micro level responses included advising clients to create logs of stalking behaviors, keeping detailed case notes of stalking behaviors disclosed in meetings with clients, and engaging in survivor centered safety planning that considered both emotional and physical well-being. Mezzo level responses involved working in communitybased response models to improve justice and child welfare system responses to IPS. Macro level responses included successfully advocating for changes to state law to incorporate stalking behaviors as criteria for obtaining and enforcing orders of protection. Implications for advocacy include engaging in survivor centered safety planning and working collaboratively with survivors to gather evidence of stalking, developing policies mandating education about intimate partner violence in child welfare systems, establishing cross-training and informal relationships with law enforcement and CPS caseworkers, and mentorship and coalition building to facilitate legislative advocacy. Keywords Stalking . Intimate partner violence . Domestic violence . Victim advocacy
The last 20 years have seen research and legislative advancements in the area of intimate partner stalking (IPS) in the United States (Auchter and Backes 2013; Backes et al. 2020; Campbell and Moore 2011; Cho et al. 2012; Diette et al. 2014; Kropp et al. 2008; Kropp et al. 2011; Logan 2010; Logan and Walker 2009, 2017, 2018a, b; Rosenfeld and Harmon 2002; Tjaden and Thoennes 1998; Tjaden et al. 2000; Wright et al. 1996). Such efforts include heightened justice system responses, as well as an expanded body of research examining the nature and extent of stalking. These research advancements suggest a need to further understand the ways domestic violence victim advocates engage in responses to IPS in regard to safety planning as well as interagency responses. Yet, such understandings are limited in the
* A. J. Nichols [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Women Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, Washington University in St. Louis, 212 McMillan Hall, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
extant literature. In fact, very few studies examine social service responses to IPS, and even fewer draw from the experience, expertise and perspectives of domestic violence victim advocates (Kulkarni et al. 2015
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