Guide to Information Resources

INFORM Workshop Training Materials Gender-Based Violence Resources

Gender-Based Violence Resources

Gender-based violence is a major public health problem around the world and the subject extensive research, policy formulation, and action programmes. This guide is aimed at helping students, teachers, and researchers who are concerned with this topic to find relevant information resources efficiently

Complications regarding terminology

Finding information about gender-based violence—within individual websites and in catalogues or databases—is complicated by three factors.

 GBV can be hyphenated (gender-based violence) or not (gender based violence). In some databases, the search results for the two forms are significantly different.

 Searches for GBV in medical databases can bring up publications on the GB Virus. There are also other terms that can be shortened to GBV.

 Gender-based violence is part of a large group of social behaviours, and the line between these behaviour categories is often hazy. Because of this, publications about GBV may be catalogued or indexed using subject headings and keywords other than ‘gender based violence’, such as ‘violence against women’, ‘spouse abuse’, ‘wife abuse’, ‘spouse rape’, ‘domestic violence’, ‘family violence’, ‘partner violence’, and ‘intimate partner violence’.

 Searches in a variety of catalogues and databases reveal that different phrases are most effective in different resources. Furthermore, the search resulting in the largest number of references does not necessarily include the results of other search strings. In some cases there may be a great deal of overlap between the INFORM Workshop Training Materials Gender-Based Violence Resources

search results, but sometimes the different search phrases are yielding almost completely different sets of references.

Because of all these complications, a thorough search for literature on this topic requires:  Searches in multiple sources  Searches using many different search strings  Searches using Boolean operators

Books, reports, and other major publications

Violence against women is the subject of many hundreds of books, which vary considerably in content and intended audience. Just a few recent titles are given on the following pages. Note that some publishers, including Sage and Springer, have special book series on violence against women or domestic violence. References for a few selected publications are given below.

General coverage, reference handbooks, and training guides

Gondolf, Edward. 2002. Batterer intervention systems: issues, outcomes, and recommendations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Hamberger, L Kevin, and Mary Beth Phelan. 2004. Domestic violence screening and intervention in medical and mental healthcare settings. New York: Springer.

Jordan, Carol E. 2004. Intimate partner violence: a clinical training guide for mental health professionals. New York: Springer.

Kendall-Tackett, Kathleen A., editor. 2005. The handbook of women, stress, and trauma. New York: Brunner-Routledge.

Liebschutz, Jane M, Susan M Frayne, and Glenn N Saxe, editors. 2003. Violence against women: a physician's guide to identification and management. Philadelphia: American College of Physicians.

Renzetti, Claire M; Jeffrey L. Edleson, and Raquel Kennedy Bergen, editors. 2001. The sourcebook on violence against women. Thousand Oaks, CA and London: Sage.

Renzetti, Claire M, and Raquel Kennedy Bergen, editors. 2005. Violence against women. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.

Reyes, Carolina; William J Rudman, and Calvin R Hewitt, Calvin R, editors. 2002. Domestic violence and health care: policies and prevention. Series on women and health; v. 35, no. 2/3. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Medical Press.

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Shipway, Lyn. 2004. Domestic violence: a handbook for health professionals. London and New York: Routledge.

Internationally oriented

Many of the internationally-oriented books on violence against women have been produced by organizations that have programmes for prevention of GBV or advocacy programmes for battered women or are involved with the issue of violence against women refugees and other women in humanitarian situations. In some cases these publications can be accessed as on-line full text. The following are a few examples.

Amnesty International. 2004. It's in our hands: stop violence against women. London: Amnesty International. (Go to web.amnesty.org/library/index/engact770012004 and click on pdf file.

Bott S; Guedes A; Claramunt MC; Guezmes A. 2004. Improving the health sector response to gender-based violence: a resource manual for health care professionals in developing countries. New York: International Planned Parenthood Federation [IPPF], Western Hemisphere Region [WHR].

Garcia-Moreno, Claudia. 2002. Violence against women: consolidating a public health agenda. In Gita Sen, Asha George, and Piroska Ostlin, editors. Engendering international health: the challenge of equity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Giles, Wenona, and Jennifer Hyndman, editors. 2004. Sites of violence: gender and conflict zones. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Jacobs, Gloria; et al., editors. 2003. Not a minute more: ending violence against women. New York: United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM). (Available on-line at www.unifem.org/campaigns/november25/resources.php.)

Kishor, Sunita; and Kiersten Johnson. 2004. Profiling domestic violence: a multi- country study. Calverton, MD: MEASURE DHS+, ORC Macro. [Statistical information]

Reproductive Health Response in Conflict Consortium. 2004. Gender-based violence tools manual for assessment and program design, monitoring and evaluation in conflict- affected settings. New York: Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, Reproductive Health Response in Conflict Consortium. Available as on-line text at www.rhrc.org/pdf/GBVsingles.pdf. . Spindel, Cheywa; Elisa Levy and Melissa Connor. 2000. With an end in sight: strategies from the UNIFEM trust fund to eliminate violence against women. New York: United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). [Available at www.unifem.org/. Includes case studies of effective interventions in various countries.]

Sweetman, Carolina, Editor. 1998. Violence against women. Oxford: Oxfam. [Includes chapters with a global perspective as well as specific countries or cultures.]

UNFPA. 2001. A practical approach to gender-based violence: a programme guide for health care providers and managers. New York: UN Population Fund. (Available on- line at www.unfpa.org/publications/detail.cfm?ID=69&filterListType=3.)

Velzeboer, Marijke. 2003. Violence against women: the health sector responds. Washington, D.C.: Pan American Health Organization. Occasional publication no. 12.

Focused on specific regions or countries

Printed materials about GBV in specific regions and countries are largely publications produced by national research and advocacy organizations. Many of these publications are ‘grey literature’ and therefore may be more difficult to obtain than true books. Examples are publications such as these:

Effah-Chukwuma, Josephine, and Ngozi Osarenren. 2001. Beyond boundaries: violence against women in Nigeria. Lagos, Nigeria: Project Alert on Violence Against Women.

Ezeh, Alex Chika; and Anastasia Gage-Brandon. 2000. Domestic violence in Uganda: evidence from qualitative and quantitative data. Nairobi: African Population & Health Research Center. Working papers no. 18.

Journals and journal articles

The first place to look for articles about the health implications of violence against women is, of course, Medline/PubMed. Try many search strings in order to find at least most of the relevant articles, and then narrow the search by adding additional search terms and/or limits. The additional search terms should refer to a specific aspect of GBV, such as ‘birth outcome’ or ‘reproductive health’.

Limits to consider using in PubMed searches include language, dates, and type of publication—it is always good to check out the recent review articles. Another way to search in PubMed is to use the clinical queries and systematic reviews options. You can click on these in the column to the left on the PubMed search page.

Popline at db.jhuccp.org/popinform/basic.html is another good source. It contains over 600 pieces on violence against women published during the past five years. A fair number of these are not journal articles and therefore are not included in PubMed. Examples are commission statements, statistical reports, materials from United Nations agencies, and so forth. Some items in the Popline database can be accessed free-of- charge from the original producer. If so, the web address is included in the bibliographic

4 INFORM Workshop Training Materials Gender-Based Violence Resources information. Other items can be ordered as reprints or as email attachments—free to researchers in developing regions.

In looking for journal articles, remember that much of the research will be published in journals oriented toward the social sciences rather than toward medicine. It may be worthwhile to search through such journals on-line. Even if you cannot get to the full text, you can usually get an abstract. Here are some journals to explore: Journal of interpersonal violence (jiv.sagepub.com/) Violence against women (vaw.sagepub.com/) Journal of social and personal relationships (spr.sagepub.com/) Violence and victims (www.springerpub.com/journals/violence_&_victims/contents.htm)

The following are a few examples of recent articles on health consequences of violence against women, including violence against pregnant women. Some are review articles.

Boy A, Salihu HM. 2004. Intimate partner violence and birth outcomes: a systematic review. Int J Fertil Womens Med 49(4):159-64.

Briere J, Jordan CE. 2004. Violence against women: outcome complexity and implications for assessment and treatment. J Interpers Violence 19(11):1252-76.

Coker AL, Sanderson M, Dong B. 2004. Partner violence during pregnancy and risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 18(4):260-9.

Dunn LL, Oths KS. 2004. Prenatal predictors of intimate partner abuse. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs. 33(1):54-63

Hathaway JE; Willis G; Zimmer B; Silverman JG. 2005. Impact of partner abuse on women's reproductive lives. Journal of the American Medical Women's Association. 60(1):42-45.

Plichta SB. 2004. Intimate partner violence and physical health consequences: policy and practice implications. J Interpers Violence 19(11):1296-323.

Resick PA. 2004. A suggested research agenda on treatment-outcome research for female victims of violence. J Interpers Violence. 19(11):1290-5.

Terry G. 2004. Poverty reduction and violence against women: exploring links, assessing impact. Development in Practice 14(4):469-480.

Uribe-Elias R. 2003. Sexual violence and the obstetrician / gynecologist. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 82(3):425-433.

Watts C; Zimmerman C. 2002. Violence against women: global scope and magnitude. Lancet 359(9313):1232-7.

On-line resources

Many WWW sites have materials about gender-based violence. To find them, try using the advanced search at Yahoo or Google and typing in a search for an exact phrase (with ‘violence against women’ or another search phrase) plus other appropriate terms in the line ‘all of these words’. The following are a few of the more important sites.

 World Health Organization at www.who.int. Go to health topics and then both to ‘violence’ and ‘gender based violence’.

 Amnesty International at web.amnesty.org/actforwomen/index-eng. This is the organization’s own campaign to stop violence against women.

 United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, at www.unifem.org/. Check under both ‘Women’s human rights’ and ‘Resources’.

 End Violence Against Women, www.endvaw.org is a resource centre at Johns Hopkins University. Produces a catalogue of materials on GBV.

 The Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research at www.gfmer.ch provides links to guidelines regarding violence against women and domestic violence. Click on ‘databases, links’, then on ‘obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive health’ and then on ‘violence’ or the subcategories.

Martha J Garrett INFORM Faculty of Medicine, Uppsala University Uppsala, Sweden June 2005