Violence Never Heals: The Lifelong Effects of Intimate Partner Violence for Immigrant Women

Description

Explores experiences with disability and aging for immigrant survivors of domestic violence across the life course Across the United States, one in three women experiences violence in their intimate relationships. More resources are now being devoted to providing these women with immediate care; but what happens to survivors, especially those from marginalized communities, as they grow older and grapple with the long-term effects? In Violence Never Heals, Allison Bloom presents a life-course perspective on the disabling experience of violence in Latina immigrant communities. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork performed in a Latina program at an Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) crisis center, Bloom offers insights into the long-term effects of systemic and gender-based violence, revealing that these experiences become subtly disabling long before old age. Drawing from her own background as a practitioner, Bloom further details how current IPV services fail to acknowledge and accommodate such effects, in large part because of their disproportionate focus on younger survivors and the particular development of the domestic violence services field. She offers both scholars and practitioners concrete strategies for how they can alter their approaches to better treat and mitigate the lifelong effects of domestic violence. Violence Never Heals addresses a glaring omission in IPV scholarship, providing both an aging-focused perspective on IPV as well as laying out concrete steps for how to implement this perspective in pursuit of more comprehensive treatment. Contents Introduction: “No Te Sanas”/“You Never Heal”: The Life Course of Violence for Latina Intimate Partner Violence Survivors in the United States 1. “Like Watching a Baby Grow”: The Professionalization of Domestic Violence Services in the United States 2. “Salir Adelante”: “Moving Forward” through Violence from a Young Adult Perspective 3. “Al Medio del Océano”/“In the Middle of the Ocean”: Perspectives on Violence in Midlife 4. “Queda Como un Anciano”/“Left Like the Elderly”: Violence and Immigration in Later Life 5. “La Vida Es Pesada”/“Life Is Heavy”: Lightening the Load through Support Group Spaces Conclusion: “Mind, Body, Spirit, and Overall Well-being”: A Longitudinal Approach to Age-and Disability-Inclusive Services Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index About the Author