dc.contributor.advisor | Cala Carrillo, María Jesús | es |
dc.contributor.advisor | Trigo Sánchez, María Eva | es |
dc.contributor.advisor | Barberá Heredia, Ester | es |
dc.creator | García Jiménez, María | es |
dc.date.accessioned | 2020-06-17T11:12:32Z | |
dc.date.available | 2020-06-17T11:12:32Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2020-06-01 | |
dc.identifier.citation | García Jiménez, M. (2020). Mujeres que se recuperan de la violencia de género en la pareja: análisis de la relación entre el proceso de liberación psicosocial de las víctimas y su participación en el procedimiento judicial contra su agresor. (Tesis Doctoral Inédita). Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla. | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/11441/97940 | |
dc.description.abstract | Background: One aspect of interest in the study of intimate partner violence has to do
with the reasons why victims do not continue their participation in prosecution after a
complaint has been filed against their abusers. Over the six studies presented in this thesis,
not only do we deepen our understanding of this phenomenon in the Spanish context but
we also present predictive models of female victims’ withdrawal from prosecution.
Although previous literature had studied different psychological variables, no previous
research has included victims’ recovery and liberation from violence as a process
affecting their decision to disengage from legal proceedings. Hence, we studied the
relationship between the process women go through to end the abuse and their decision
to drop the charges pressed against their partners and ex-partners.
Methodology: The methodology varied from one study to another as they derived from
different larger projects. During the first project, it was developed the main questionnaire
to gather information and identify potential predictors of women’s withdrawal from
prosecution, for which we selected different items as variables to be analysed depending
on the aim of each study. These variables were divided into two sets: psychological,
emotional, and motivational variables; and variables related to the legal proceedings and
the professionals involved. For this project, we collected data from 763 female victims,
but we only knew whether they had dropped the charges in 345 finalized cases. These
retrospective data were analysed in Publication 1. In addition, for those retrospective
cases in which we knew the timing of withdrawal from legal proceedings (105), we ran
some exploratory analyses which were presented in Publication 5. In a second project, we
completed the dataset for those remaining 418 women (393 after lost cases) by collecting
data on whether they had dropped charges. These prospective data were analysed in
Publication 2 and in the first set of analyses in Publication 3. Prospective (393) and
retrospective data (345) were compared in Publication 2 to explore probable changes
within the psychological and emotional variables, and they were also considered together
in a single dataset (738) in Publication 3 to develop a logistic regression model to predict
the likelihood of disengagement from prosecution. This model included all relevant
psychological and legal variables. New data from 80 women involved in legal
proceedings against their ex-partners were collected in Publication 6 as we analysed the
relationship between the likelihood of disengagement and their level of psychosocial
liberation from the violent relationship. In Publication 4 we synthesized the process of
liberation from the violent partner and the stages of this process by combining different
theoretical models.
Results: Results highlighted two variables related to the legal system predicting victims’
withdrawals: not being granted a protection order and women’s feeling that they were not
involved in the decision-making process with their lawyers throughout the legal process.
Both variables predicted disengagement using retrospective (Publication 1) and
prospective data (Publication 3). However, the comparison of the psychological and
emotional variables based on the retrospective versus prospective data did show important
differences (Publication 2). Women from the prospective dataset had less contact with the
2
abuser after filing the complaint, thought less about going back with him, felt less guilty,
and had less psychological support during the legal proceedings than women from the
retrospective dataset. Of all of these variables, shown in previous research as good
predictors of disengagement using solely retrospective data, only contact with the partner
was capable of predicting victims’ withdrawals with prospective data, as well as the
interaction between contact and the idea of going back with the abuser (Publication 2).
The resulting integrative predictive model developed in Publication 3 included all six
variables shown as relevant predictors in the previous studies but considering together
both the retrospective and prospective datasets. Publication 4 describes the complexity of
the process of recovery and leaving the abusive relationship through different stages,
identifying different indicators of the progress from one stage to the next. In addition, the
results in Publication 5 concerning the timing of withdrawal showed that those variables
indicating a still incipient process of liberation were significantly more present in women
dropping charges at the beginning of the legal procedure. In this publication, we also
developed a statistical model capable of predicting the timing of withdrawal from the
prosecution process, on the basis of the victims’ expectations regarding protection and
their request for protection from the justice system. Finally, the main results in Publication
6 showed that the higher the psychosocial separation from the aggressor (the more
liberated from the relationship) the lower the likelihood of disengagement from the legal
proceedings.
Discussion: Deciding whether to participate in the prosecution process against women’s
abusers has been shown to be a complex process in which multiple factors intervene.
Those factors related to the legal system and professionals, which do not seem to vary
over the course of the legal procedure, underline how important it is that the criminal
justice system protect victims and ensure that women are actively involved in the
decision-making process during the legal procedure. The emotional and psychological
factors, which do seem to change as the legal proceedings progress, highlight the impact
of the process of liberation from the partner, according to the results in Publications 5 and
6. The results are discussed extensively in terms of the need to detect all the relevant
variables, focusing particularly on the importance of professionals’ specialization and
empathy. Training on this topic is fundamental if professionals are to comprehend the
reasons that may lead female victims to disengage from prosecution while respecting
women’s agency, as their decisions come from the rational evaluation of their particular
situation and needs. | es |
dc.format | application/pdf | es |
dc.format.extent | 223 p. | es |
dc.language.iso | spa | es |
dc.rights | Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional | * |
dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ | * |
dc.title | Mujeres que se recuperan de la violencia de género en la pareja: análisis de la relación entre el proceso de liberación psicosocial de las víctimas y su participación en el procedimiento judicial contra su agresor | es |
dc.title.alternative | Women’s journey towards recovery from genderbased intimate partner violence: analysis of the relationship between female victims’ process of psychosocial liberation and their participation in the legal proceeding | es |
dc.type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis | es |
dcterms.identifier | https://ror.org/03yxnpp24 | |
dc.type.version | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion | es |
dc.rights.accessRights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess | es |
dc.contributor.affiliation | Universidad de Sevilla. Departamento de Psicología Experimental | es |
dc.publication.endPage | 213 | es |