Social WorkSex Violence : Season 1 Episode 1
Sexual harassment is recognised as a form of gendered violence. The social norms, structures, attitudes and practices that drive violence against women are the same drivers that enable sexual harassment. Violence against women encompasses physical violence and other forms of gender-based harm including psychological harm.[31]
Social WorkSex Violence : Season 1 Episode 1
Surprisingly absent from most proposals is discussion of New Zealand's decriminalised model.w11 Decriminalisation will not completely eliminate street prostitution, which poses most dangers for women,w4 but it will enhance women's choices, and help to make the streets safer, develop community based support programmes, and improve relations between sex workers and residents.7 Policy details will need to include discussions around issues such as setting aside areas for working (managed zones)7 14 and regulation of premises. In New Zealand and parts of Australia sex work is an occupation with its own health and safety standards. Public health measures must be built on evidence based best practices. Health and social services have an ethical obligation to ensure universality of access to care, to minimise harm to all, and to be advocates for those they provide care for. Criminalisation of prostitution limits access to health and social care and contravenes United Nations' guidelines on human rights.w10 Only by moving prostitution out of the criminal justice system and focusing on public health and social care can we provide optimum support and help to break the cycle of violence.
AbstractPhysical and psychological violence that is structurally mediated by the system of law enforcement results in deaths, injuries, trauma, and stress that disproportionately affect marginalized populations (e.g., people of color; immigrants; individuals experiencing houselessness; people with disabilities; the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer [LGBTQ] community; individuals with mental illness; people who use drugs; and sex workers). Among other factors, misuse of policies intended to protect law enforcement agencies has enabled limited accountability for these harms. Furthermore, certain regulations (e.g., anti-immigrant legislation, policies associated with the war on drugs, and criminalization of sex work and activities associated with houselessness) have promoted and intensified violence by law enforcement toward marginalized populations. While interventions for improving policing quality to reduce violence (e.g., community-oriented policing, training, body/dashboard-mounted cameras, and conducted electrical weapons) have been implemented, empirical evidence suggests notable limitations. Importantly, these approaches also lack an upstream, primary prevention public health frame. A public health strategy that centers community safety and prevents law enforcement violence should favor community-built and community-based solutions. APHA recommends the following actions by federal, state, tribal, and local authorities: (1) eliminate policies and practices that facilitate disproportionate violence against specific populations (including laws criminalizing these populations), (2) institute robust law enforcement accountability measures, (3) increase investment in promoting racial and economic equity to address social determinants of health, (4) implement community-based alternatives to addressing harms and preventing trauma, and (5) work with public health officials to comprehensively document law enforcement contact, violence, and injuries.
Strategies to ensure community safety without reliance on armed law enforcement: Although greater social and economic equity is likely to lead to higher quality of life for marginalized communities, interpersonal harm will still exist, and strategies to ensure community safety will still be necessary. Alternative approaches can improve public safety without the harms associated with the system of policing. For instance, community-based violence intervention programs that detect and interrupt potentially violent conflicts, identify and address high-risk situations, and mobilize the community to change norms have significantly reduced homicides and nonfatal shootings in urban neighborhoods with the highest numbers of incidents.[98] These programs have had success employing violence interrupters and culturally appropriate unarmed street outreach workers; these interrupters have been able to defuse potentially harmful or violent situations with no, or minimal, intervention by police.[98]
Psychological and psychiatric experts have agreed since 1975 that homosexuality is neither a form of mental illness nor a symptom of mental illness (Conger, 1975). Nonetheless, there is growing recognition that social prejudice, discrimination, and violence against lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals take a cumulative toll on the well-being of these individuals. Researchers (e.g., DiPlacido, 1998; Meyer, 2003) use the term "minority stress" to refer to the negative effects associated with the adverse social conditions experienced by individuals who belong to a stigmatized social group (e.g., the elderly, members of racial and ethnic minority groups, the physically disabled, women, the poor or those on welfare, or individuals who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual).
A recent meta-analysis of population-based epidemiological studies showed that lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations have higher rates of stress-related psychiatric disorders (such as those related to anxiety, mood, and substance use) than do heterosexual populations (Meyer, 2003). These differences are not large but are relatively consistent across studies (e.g., Cochran & Mays, 2000; Cochran, Sullivan, & Mays, 2003; Gilman et al., 2001; Mays & Cochran, 2001). Meyer also provided evidence that within lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations, those who more frequently felt stigmatized or discriminated against because of their sexual orientation, who had to conceal their homosexuality, or who were prevented from affiliating with other lesbian, gay, or bisexual individuals tended to report more frequent mental health concerns. Research also shows that compared to heterosexual individuals and couples, gay and lesbian individuals and couples experience economic disadvantages (e.g., Badgett, 2001). Finally, the violence associated with hate crimes puts lesbians, gay men and bisexual individuals at risk for physical harm to themselves, their families, and their property (D'Augelli, 1998; Herek, Gillis, & Cogan, 1999). Taken together, the evidence clearly supports the position that the social stigma, prejudice, discrimination, and violence associated with not having a heterosexual sexual orientation and the hostile and stressful social environments created thereby adversely affect the psychological, physical, social, and economic well-being of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.
Week 7: Violence and Resistance in the Everyday Lives of Asian AmericansDiscussion Questions:1. In what ways do the experiences of violence that Asian Americans encounter in their everyday lives echo broader social-historical violences, and in what ways should they be seen as distinct?2. What can we learn from the acts of resistance, both large and small, through which Asian American activists have responded to violence?
Findings affirm the need to address physical and sexual violence, particularly that perpetrated by clients, as a social determinant of health for women in sex work, as well as a threat to safety and wellbeing, and a contextual barrier to HIV risk reduction.
Polyvictimization refers to having experienced multiple victimizations, such as sexual abuse, physical abuse, bullying, and exposure to family violence, and occurs when individuals experience different kinds of victimization, rather than multiple episodes of the same kind of victimization. Understanding the prevalence, occurrence, and identification of polyvictimization across all generations is essential for victim advocates and other victim-serving professionals to help ensure that the right types of assistance, support, and intervention are made available.
The negative psychological effects of surviving a mass violence incident are second only to injury and death, and these types of incidents usually have a slower recovery trajectory. Everyone who is exposed is in some way touched by what happened and may not understand their reactions. The good news is that most distress reactions are quite common and dissipate over time with good social supports and coping skills. This webinar provides psychoeducational information to assist victims and survivors in understanding their reactions and how to best cope with them. It also helps providers to understand how powerful this information is in decreasing anxiety and fear of the development of mental illness.
First, criminalization drives sex work underground and impedes public health efforts to reach sex workers and their clients with HIV prevention, treatment, care and support programs. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has documented that, in large part due to the criminalization of sex work, sex workers frequently have insufficient access to adequate health services, male and female condoms, water-based lubricants, post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) following condomless sex or rape, management of STIs, drug treatment and other harm reduction services, protection from violence and abusive work conditions, and social and legal support.
We selected the coastal counties of Kilifi, Mombasa, and Kwale for two reasons. First, previous research has found that LGBT people in the coast region are more likely to have experienced violence than in other parts of Kenya.[4] Second, all three counties have experienced mob attacks against MSM and trans women, resulting in large numbers of LGBT people fleeing their homes, going into hiding, and in some cases staying away from HIV/AIDS services and other social services.[5] 041b061a72