'Fear is What Weighs Most...' Experiences of Women in Situations of Violence in Accessing Support Services in Brazil

This paper seeks to fill a knowledge gap relative to the low uptake of services for women living in situations of violence. The phenomenon is observed in many countries, including in Brazil, despite its robust legal framework to prevent and protect...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Machado, Ana Luiza, Muller, Miriam, Van Wie, Sara
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/399411584370993665/Fear-is-What-Weighs-Most-Experiences-of-Women-in-Situations-of-Violence-in-Accessing-Support-Services-in-Brazil
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33447
id okr-10986-33447
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-334472022-09-20T00:12:44Z 'Fear is What Weighs Most...' Experiences of Women in Situations of Violence in Accessing Support Services in Brazil Machado, Ana Luiza Muller, Miriam Van Wie, Sara VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN MARRIAGE DISSOLUTION DOMESTIC ABUSE MARIA DA PENHA LAW ACCESS TO SERVICE JUSTICE This paper seeks to fill a knowledge gap relative to the low uptake of services for women living in situations of violence. The phenomenon is observed in many countries, including in Brazil, despite its robust legal framework to prevent and protect women from domestic violence. Through qualitative research, this paper explores the experience of women survivors of violence against women (VAW) in seeking help to exit abusive relationships, with the aim of identifying avenues to strengthen service delivery and violence prevention policies. The experiences of research participants demonstrate that a complex set of issues related to social norms, individual agency and institutional weaknesses serve as strong barriers for service uptake. These include women's personal preparedness to seek support; the catalyzing or constraining function that families, friends, peers and people in authority can play; external barriers to accessing services; and the availability and quality of services in different settings. Data from this research also highlight the importance of psycho-social support services that help survivors make informed decisions about how to exit abusive relationships, to rebuild their emotional stability and self-esteem, establish economic autonomy, pursue justice, and ultimately reconstruct their lives. 2020-03-19T18:16:38Z 2020-03-19T18:16:38Z 2020-03 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/399411584370993665/Fear-is-What-Weighs-Most-Experiences-of-Women-in-Situations-of-Violence-in-Accessing-Support-Services-in-Brazil http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33447 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9186 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Latin America & Caribbean Brazil
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
MARRIAGE DISSOLUTION
DOMESTIC ABUSE
MARIA DA PENHA LAW
ACCESS TO SERVICE
JUSTICE
spellingShingle VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
MARRIAGE DISSOLUTION
DOMESTIC ABUSE
MARIA DA PENHA LAW
ACCESS TO SERVICE
JUSTICE
Machado, Ana Luiza
Muller, Miriam
Van Wie, Sara
'Fear is What Weighs Most...' Experiences of Women in Situations of Violence in Accessing Support Services in Brazil
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Brazil
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9186
description This paper seeks to fill a knowledge gap relative to the low uptake of services for women living in situations of violence. The phenomenon is observed in many countries, including in Brazil, despite its robust legal framework to prevent and protect women from domestic violence. Through qualitative research, this paper explores the experience of women survivors of violence against women (VAW) in seeking help to exit abusive relationships, with the aim of identifying avenues to strengthen service delivery and violence prevention policies. The experiences of research participants demonstrate that a complex set of issues related to social norms, individual agency and institutional weaknesses serve as strong barriers for service uptake. These include women's personal preparedness to seek support; the catalyzing or constraining function that families, friends, peers and people in authority can play; external barriers to accessing services; and the availability and quality of services in different settings. Data from this research also highlight the importance of psycho-social support services that help survivors make informed decisions about how to exit abusive relationships, to rebuild their emotional stability and self-esteem, establish economic autonomy, pursue justice, and ultimately reconstruct their lives.
format Working Paper
author Machado, Ana Luiza
Muller, Miriam
Van Wie, Sara
author_facet Machado, Ana Luiza
Muller, Miriam
Van Wie, Sara
author_sort Machado, Ana Luiza
title 'Fear is What Weighs Most...' Experiences of Women in Situations of Violence in Accessing Support Services in Brazil
title_short 'Fear is What Weighs Most...' Experiences of Women in Situations of Violence in Accessing Support Services in Brazil
title_full 'Fear is What Weighs Most...' Experiences of Women in Situations of Violence in Accessing Support Services in Brazil
title_fullStr 'Fear is What Weighs Most...' Experiences of Women in Situations of Violence in Accessing Support Services in Brazil
title_full_unstemmed 'Fear is What Weighs Most...' Experiences of Women in Situations of Violence in Accessing Support Services in Brazil
title_sort 'fear is what weighs most...' experiences of women in situations of violence in accessing support services in brazil
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2020
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/399411584370993665/Fear-is-What-Weighs-Most-Experiences-of-Women-in-Situations-of-Violence-in-Accessing-Support-Services-in-Brazil
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33447
_version_ 1764478783326257152