Search Results (869)

Understanding the scope of cyberviolence against women and girls in adolescents and the differences between girls and boys is a fundamental starting point for its prevention. This study analyzes the experiences of cyberaggression and cybervictimization perpetrated and suffered by 762 adolescents (399 girls and 363 boys) aged 14 and 15 in the Balearic Islands (Spain) through a diagnostic study of an electronic survey administering the Gender Violence 2.0 questionnaire. The descriptive results show that, in general, the majority of boys and girls do not commit or suffer from sexist behaviors in digital environments. A crosstab analysis (p < 0.001) confirms that, as expected, girls commit less cyberaggression and suffer more cybervictimization, while boys were more often the cyberaggressors and less frequently the victims. Specifically, boys claim to be cyberaggressors more often than girls, especially in relation to cybervictimization associated with sexual violence, impositions of beauty standards, and anti-patriarchal manifestations; girls claim to be cybervictims more often than boys, primarily experiencing cyberviolence related to partner cyber control and beauty standards. These results reinforce the need to design differentiated programs for the prevention of this cyberviolence: for boys, it should be focused on the cyberaggression committed, and for girls, it should be focused on identifying and coping with cyberaggression received. Full article

The article examines the support structures available to Roma women faced with domestic violence, focusing on the role of the church as a sanctuary. The research includes a case study of the Roma community in Međimurje County, Croatia, which is characterized by (Catholic) religious homogenization. Analysis reveals that Roma women who fear the perpetrator prefer confidentiality, anticipate disbelief, or feel they are themselves to blame are more likely to seek support from the church. The findings show that Roma women who report domestic violence to the police are also likely to turn to the church for help. The research further examines the correlation between different types of violence and the likelihood of Roma women contacting the church for support. Full article

(1) Background: Domestic violence (DV), including intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy and the puerperium, represents a major public health issue, significantly affecting maternal and child health. (2) Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis, conducted according to PRISMA 2020 guidelines, aimed to identify screening tools used to detect DV and IPV among pregnant and postpartum women and to estimate DV prevalence. The protocol was published in PROSPERO in advance (CRD42023473392). (3) Results: A comprehensive literature search across PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, and Web of Science was conducted on 1 January 2024, resulting in 34,720 records; 98 studies met the inclusion criteria. The included studies were conducted in over 40 countries, and most were cross-sectional. Commonly used screening tools included the WHO Women’s Health and Life Experiences Questionnaire, the Abuse Assessment Screen, and the WHO Violence Against Women Instrument. Meta-analyses showed that 10% of women experienced physical violence, 26% psychological violence, 9% sexual violence, 16% verbal violence, and 13% economic violence. The overall prevalence of IPV during pregnancy and the puerperium was 26%. Despite the widespread use of validated instruments, substantial heterogeneity was observed, underscoring the need for standardization. (4) Conclusion: These findings underline the urgent need to integrate routine IPV screening into maternal care pathways using validated, culturally adapted tools, ensuring women’s safety and confidentiality. Full article

This study aimed to analyze the perception of women who were victims of rape about the care provided at a teaching hospital located in the northeast of Brazil. A qualitative study was conducted with seven women. The interviews took place in a trustworthy and confidential environment in the presence of a psychologist. The data were analyzed through content analysis, evidencing the women’s perceptions. The sample was achieved by convenience sampling and was homogeneous, with a profile of women who were young, white/black, and single, with low education and a history of sexual violence. Positive views about the care provided at the hospital included its status as a reference center, motivating women to seek health services. The legitimization of women’s rights, effective care, and the possibility of having a legal abortion were also mentioned. The challenges reported included the need for a prepared health team and more humanized and multidisciplinary care. Women who had suffered rape sought medical assistance for support, guidance, and a humane approach to understanding their rights, often finding a compassionate response from the teaching hospital staff. Despite advances in care, challenges remain, such as perceived judgment regarding legal abortion, highlighting the need for policies that better meet the needs of victims. Full article

This article aims to analyze the conditions that contribute to the sustainability of violence against women in Bulgaria, an EU member state with high rates of this phenomenon. The analysis is based on data obtained through qualitative and quantitative methods, including in-depth interviews and focus groups with experts from state institutions (the police, prosecutors, courts, and social services), politicians, journalists, and from non-governmental organizations working with victims, as well as a nationwide sample survey of the adult population of Bulgaria. The qualitative data were analyzed through thematic analysis. The article demonstrates that cultural, ideological, and structural conditions in Bulgarian society facilitate the sustainability of violence against women. These include patriarchal norms prevailing in the family, specific characteristics of the popular culture, the neoliberal ideology of extreme individualism, the withdrawal of the state from its obligations, and ineffective institutional response. These conclusions point to the need to enhance the state’s capacity to counteract the phenomenon as well as the need to address ingrained cultural norms of conduct. Full article

Gender-neutral terms such as “sex work” and “sex worker” have gained prominence in academic, activist, and policy discourses. Unlike terms such as ‘prostitutes’ and ‘prostitution,’ these terms serve to reduce stigma and emphasize the labor involved in sex work. However, numerous studies suggest that these terms carry different meanings across cultural contexts, and their impact is experienced differently by various sub-groups of sex workers. Although originally coined by American activist Carol Leigh to unify sex workers across genders and sectors, these terms are, in some settings—including Kolkata, India—met with silence, coded language, or secrecy, particularly among transient sex workers, including cisgender and transgender women. As researchers with two decades of ethnographic research with 46 cisgender and 37 transgender women engaged in sex work in Kolkata and Eastern India, the authors argue that such silence and non-verbal forms of communication should not be interpreted merely as ignorance or disengagement but rather as strategic/willful acts of agency or resistance. These practices enable sex workers situated in different contexts to navigate unequal power dynamics within NGOs, manage respectability, mitigate structural violence, and foster communal identity. By examining how diverse groups of sex workers employ silence and secrecy, this study contributes to a more nuanced and empathetic understanding of the complexities surrounding the former’s lives and their agency. The study results indicate that it is essential for scholars, advocates and activists to employ strengths-based, context-specific language and research practices to be able to hear the stories of subaltern groups like commercial sex workers. It is also suggested that training of service providers and helping professionals focus on accepting and honoring the language people use to identify themselves in varied spaces and contexts. Full article

The global Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19 pandemic drew attention to the urgency of addressing entrenched structural dynamics such as racialization, gender, and colonization shaping health inequities for diverse racialized people. Canadian community-based research with racialized immigrant women recognized the need to enhance service provider capacity using a strengths-based activism approach to support client health and wellbeing. In this study, we aimed to understand the impacts of this mental health promotion practice on service providers and strategies to support them. Through purposeful convenience sampling, three focus groups were completed with 19 service providers working in settlement and mental health services in Toronto, Canada. Participants represented varied ethnicities and work experiences; most self-identified as female and racialized, with experiences living as immigrant women in Canada. Postcolonial feminist and critical mental health promotion analysis illuminated organizational and structural dynamics contributing to burnout and vicarious trauma that necessitate a focus on trauma- and violence-informed care. Transformative narratives reflected service provider resilience and activism, which aligned with and challenged mainstream biomedical approaches to mental health promotion. Implications include employing a postcolonial feminist lens to identify meaningful and comprehensive anti-oppression strategies that take colonialism, racialization, gender, and ableism and their intersections into account to decolonize nursing practices. Promoting health equity for diverse racialized women necessitates focused attention and multilevel anti-oppression strategies aligned with critical mental health promotion practices. Full article

Where we find and form identity and belonging, meaning and purpose, is often entangled in the dynamics that play out between people and place, and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, the legacy and ongoing experience of invasion and colonisation. Place-based understandings of identity and its importance in shaping young people’s experience of what is possible and probable in their futures might be critical to framing cross-cultural work with young people impacted by violence and trauma. This paper draws on practitioner reflections of work with young Aboriginal women both on, and off Country, highlighting common and distinct themes related to identity formation and migration in navigating new futures. These include connection to Country and spiritual connection, family and kinship relationships, Women’s Business and felt cultural safety. The findings illustrate a meaningful parallel instructive to practice; for both young women and practitioners, access to cultural knowledge and connection is strengthened by endorsement and in turn strengthens understanding and experienced safety. This work emphasises the importance of creating culturally connected opportunities, sensitive to dynamics of place, to support positive identity expression and wellbeing. Full article

Henri Lefebvre’s “right to the city” has rarely been examined through an intersectional feminist lens, leaving unnoticed the uneven burdens that urban design and policy place on women. This article bridges that gap by combining constitutional analysis, survey data (n = 736), in-depth interviews, and participatory observation to assess how Quito’s public spaces affect women’s safety and mobility. Quantitative results show that 81% of respondents endured sexual or offensive remarks, 69.8% endured obscene gestures, and 38% endured severe harassment in the month before the survey; 43% of these incidents occurred only days or weeks beforehand, underscoring their routine nature. Qualitative narratives reveal behavioral adaptations—altered routes, self-policing dress codes, and distrust of authorities—and identify poorly lit corridors and weak institutional presence as spatial amplifiers of violence. Analysis of Quito’s “Safe City” program exposes a gulf between its ambitious rhetoric and its narrow, transport-centered implementation. We conclude that constitutional guarantees of participation, appropriation, and urban life will remain aspirational until urban planning mainstreams gender-sensitive design, secures intersectoral resources, and embeds women’s substantive participation throughout policy cycles. A feminist reimagining of Quito’s public realm is therefore indispensable to transform the right to the city from legal principle into lived reality. Full article

In West Africa, there is a very close link between the phenomenon of trafficking and migrant smuggling. This article will analyze the pressure elements and the causes that drive sub-Saharan people to migrate, placing themselves in the hands of criminal networks that end up exploiting them—women and minors sexually, and men through forced labor. The main corridors departing from West Africa and the characteristics of the criminal groups exercising criminal governance will also be addressed. This research has used both primary and secondary sources, as well as empirical fieldwork consisting of interviews with security force officials, international humanitarian aid organizations, and academic experts on migration issues related to trafficking and smuggling. Our research reveals that the origin of migration is multifactorial. The violence experienced in West Africa, but also the misgovernance, the lack of opportunities for a very young population with limited prospects, and the human insecurity affecting the entire region, are the main reasons that compel people to migrate. In these migration processes, the safety of migrants is compromised as they are forced to start their journey through clandestine means, which exposes them to trafficking networks and thus to violence and exploitation. It is along the migration routes where trafficking and migrant smuggling converge. Full article

This study examines how U.S. immigration policies enact legal violence and multigenerational punishment through the spousal reunification process, particularly in mixed-status, transnational families. Building on the concept of “deportability,” we introduce “importability” to describe a beneficiary’s potential to secure permanent residency, which varies according to social markers such as race, gender, and region of origin. Drawing from a content analysis of threads on the Immigration Pathways (IP) web forum, we analyze discussions among U.S. citizen petitioners navigating marriage-based green card applications, with a focus on experiences involving administrative processing (AP) (i.e., marriage fraud investigations). Our findings show that couples who do not align with the state’s conception of “proper” family—particularly U.S. citizen women petitioning for Black African partners—face intensified scrutiny, long delays, and burdensome requirements, including DNA tests and surveillance. These bureaucratic obstacles produce prolonged family separation, financial strain, and diminished sense of belonging, especially for children in single-parent households. Through the lens of “importability,” we reveal how legal violence and multigenerational punishment of immigration policies on mixed-status families beyond deportation threats, functioning as a gatekeeping mechanism that disproportionately affects marginalized families. This research highlights the understudied consequences of immigration policies on citizen petitioners and contributes to a broader understanding of inequality in U.S. immigration enforcement. Full article

This study analyses algorithmic biases in AI-generated images, focusing on aesthetic violence, gender stereotypes, and weight discrimination. By examining images produced by the DALL-E Nature and Flux 1 systems, it becomes evident how these tools reproduce and amplify hegemonic beauty standards, excluding bodily diversity. Likewise, gender representations reinforce traditional roles, sexualising women and limiting the presence of non-normative bodies in positive contexts. The results show that training data and the algorithms used significantly influence these trends, perpetuating exclusionary visual narratives. The research highlights the need to develop more inclusive and ethical AI models, with diverse data that reflect the plurality of bodies and social realities. The study concludes that artificial intelligence (AI), far from being neutral, actively contributes to the reproduction of power structures and inequality, posing an urgent challenge for the development and regulation of these technologies. Full article

This study investigates how demographic characteristics, severity of intimate partner violence (IPV), social support, gender equality awareness, and demographic factors (e.g., living with children at home) influence help-seeking behaviors among 2527 IPV-experienced women in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Drawing on the help-seeking model and conservation of resource theory, the study distinguishes between formal (e.g., police, legal aid) and informal (e.g., family, friends) help-seeking. Logistic regression results reveal that greater violence severity, stronger perceived social support, and higher gender equality awareness significantly increase both formal and informal help-seeking. Notably, living with children is associated with a higher likelihood of seeking formal help, possibly due to increased concerns for children’s safety and the desire to change the abusive environment. While help-seeking behavior is on the rise overall, particularly among women with strong support networks and progressive gender attitudes, structural and cultural barriers remain. The findings underscore the need to improve public education, reduce stigma, and enhance accessibility of support systems. This study contributes to the growing literature on IPV in China and provides evidence for refining policy interventions and service delivery. Full article

Background: The prevalence of mental health problems among young adults has increased exponentially worldwide, with significant implications for public health. This study explores the structural and intermediate social determinants of health associated with emotional well-being and distress in Colombian young adults. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1232 university students aged 18–28 years residing in Cali, Colombia. The Social Determinants of Mental Health Questionnaire for Young Adults (SDMH) was administered to assess structural and intermediate determinants. Participants were categorized into two groups: those with mental health diagnoses (n = 252) and those without (n = 980). Descriptive, comparative association and predictive analyses were conducted. Results: Significant differences were found between groups, with diagnosed participants showing higher exposure to violence and suicidal ideation. Women with diagnoses predominantly presented anxiety and depression, while men showed more externalizing symptoms. Violence experiences emerged as the strongest predictors of emotional distress in both groups. Psychosocial life skills and perceived social support were the most robust protective factors for emotional well-being, regardless of diagnostic status. Conclusions: This study reveals that multiple risk factors accumulate rather than single extreme factors characterizing mental health vulnerability. Violence prevention, life skills development, and social support enhancement should be prioritized in public health interventions for young adults. The findings emphasize the need for multisectoral approaches addressing social determinants to promote youth mental health. Full article

This study examines the emotional responses of Black women in Missouri regarding incidents of racial violence in the United States. Grounded in an analysis of self-reported emotions, this study explores how Black women (n = 384, M_age = 37) express their emotional experiences in response to racial violence. Utilizing the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist-Revised (MAACL-R), sentiment analysis was used to assess the overall emotional tone of participants’ responses, while emotion analysis was used to identify specific emotions expressed. The findings highlight the complexities of Black women’s emotional responses, considering factors such as coping mechanisms, racial identity beliefs, spirituality and religiosity, and resilience and strength. By applying computational methods to analyze these emotions, this study reveals how racial violence shapes sentiment and emotional expression patterns. Furthermore, it highlights the significance of acknowledging the complex ways Black women navigate and process racial violence. Full article