Help-Seeking Within the Context of Patriarchy for Domestic Violence in Urban Uganda

Bibliographic Data

ID12438048
AuthorsDiane Gardsbane (0000-0003-4517-498X, University of Maryland, College Park, corresponding author), Paul Bukuluki (0000-0002-5388-5469, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda), Tina Musuya (Center for Domestic Violence Prevention)
Year2021
Volume28
Issue1
Pages232-254
Publication date2021-01-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueViolence Against Women (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1077-8012 • E-ISSN: 1552-8448
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1077801220985943
PMID33513077
OpenAlexW3122141324
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited29

This study in urban Kampala contributes to a growing evidence base about the complex contexts within which women make decisions about reporting domestic violence. Based on an intersecting theoretical lens of structural violence, power, and the body, findings suggested that women reported to formal structures primarily for severe physical or economic abuse. Women did not report less severe abuse, and often abandoned reporting even severe abuse, because of the overarching structural patriarchy and violence that exists, as well as women's habitus that includes the embodiment of social norms that sanction reporting. Yet, while overwhelmingly women are discouraged from reporting domestic abuse, there were important signs of change

Context (archaeology · Criminology · Domestic violence · Geography · Habitus · Medical emergency · Patriarchy · Physical abuse · Poison control · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Structural violence · Suicide prevention · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Intimate Partner and Family Violence · Medicine · Psychology · Sex work and related issues