Center for Victim Research’s webinar series, The Evidence Hour, showcases a recent systematic review* or meta-analysis about victimization, trauma, or victim services. Each webinar features an author of the research and a practitioner discussant who will review the findings and reflect on what they mean for victim service providers and researchers.
On July 27, Amber Sutton and Haley Beech
Related Research on Survivors’ Mental Health Needs:
- Mental health therapists’ perceived barriers to addressing intimate partner violence and suicide (Abstract) by J. L. Wilson et al. (2021). Families, Systems, & Health. This community-based participatory research project with a New York City community mental health center investigated therapist-identified barriers in addressing the intersection of IPV and suicide. Characteristics that created barriers to helping survivors included feelings of helplessness, a lack of appropriate training, and apprehension about “harming the therapeutic relationship by discussing IPV and suicide at length.” On a broader level, mental health professionals saw their communities as lacking local support systems and financial resources. Finally, therapists also ran into challenges with policy-related limitations on service, like short appointment times. These study findings will inform a patient curriculum for dealing with IPV and suicide. [Contact the Librarian for full-text access]
- Evaluating the Relationship Between Intimate Partner Violence-Related Training and Mental Health Professionals’ Assessment of Relationship Problems by S.C. Burns et al. (2021), Journal of Interpersonal Violence. This global survey of psychologists and psychiatrists analyzed how timing of training, hours of training, and depth of training about intimate partner violence affected their ability to identify relationship problems. Researchers found that current World Health Organization’s guidelines on IPV identification were not sufficient for mental health professionals to accurately distinguish between different types of abusive relationship problems. Recent, experiential training did improve the likelihood that clinicians could discern abuse from relationship issues.
- Women survivors’ accounts of seeing psychologists: harm or benefit? (Abstract) by S. Marsden, C. Humphreys, & K. Hegarty (2021). Journal of Gender-Based Violence. This Australian study included interviews with 20 woman survivors of intimate partner violence about their experiences seeking mental healthcare. Participants experienced both negative and positive interactions during counseling. Negative experiences tended to reflect abusive dynamics; positive experiences tended to include empowering, trauma-informed, feminist practices.
- Counseling advocacy competencies in action: Lessons learned through the See the Triumph campaign by C.E. Murray & A. Crowe, (2016) in Journal for Social Action in Counseling & Psychology. This article outlines the social media campaign led by counselors and counselor educators to end stigma around intimate partner violence. One table provides examples of how the campaign’s infographics, messaging, research, and resources align with the American Counseling Association’s Advocacy Competencies.
Related Resources from our Research2Practice Network:
- National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma & Mental Health: Online Repository of Trauma-Focused Interventions for Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence
- Recommended by Evidence Hour presenters: NHS Lanarkshire’s video “Trauma and the Brain“
- National Resource Center on Domestic Violence: #Care4Advocates: COVID-19 Resources to Support Advocates’ Well-being
What are Systematic Reviews?
- A systematic review is the process of bringing together all available studies about a well-defined question, analyzing the quality of their study methods, and summarizing their findings.
- Systematic reviews often use a statistical practice called meta-analysis. This means combining data from multiple studies, to find patterns and calculate the average effect of the intervention.
- Because systematic reviews pool results from many experiments and rate the methods of each study, these reviews increase our confidence in the quality and consistency of the evidence and what it means for the field.
Basically, systematic reviews take a large amount of information about a complex issue from multiple sources and make that information more manageable and usable. These reviews can also help make sense of conflicting findings from different studies.
Learn more from:
- Quick Reference: Systematic Reviews
- Quick Reference: Tips on Reading Research Articles
Center for Victim Research’s webinar series, The Evidence Hour, showcases a recent systematic review* or meta-analysis about victimization, trauma, or victim services. Each webinar features an author of the research and a practitioner discussant who will review the findings and reflect on what they mean for victim service providers and researchers.
On June 29, Drs.
Related Research from the Center for Victim Research:
Related Research on Elder Abuse Interventions:
- Adult Protective Services Training: A Brief Report on the State of the Nation by P. Liu & L. Ross (2021). Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect. NAPSA developed a core training curriculum of twenty-three training modules covering four areas: orientation, supervised fieldwork, core competency training, and advanced/specialized training. This report summarizes online survey responses about APS training across the United States. Researchers found a wide variation across states about the training for provided for tenured employees and for new hires. The most commonly trained core competencies were APS Overview, Agency Standards, Abusive Relationships, and Intake, which were delivered in over 40 states. The most administered core competencies for new hires were the APS Overview, Agency Standards, Documentation, Intake, and Developmental Disability.
- Help-Seeking Behavior in Victims of Elder Abuse: A Systematic Review (Abstract) by S.F. Dominguez, J.E. Storey, & E. Glorney (2021) Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. Researchers conducted a systematic literature review on victims’ help-seeking behaviors. Based on the nineteen selected studies, the most common barriers to help-seeking was the victims’ fear of consequences for themselves or the perpetrators, feelings of shame, powerlessness, and dependency on the abuser, and lack of knowledge of services or their adequacy. Being a victim of financial abuse, being separated or divorced from the abuser, and having a poor mental health-related quality of life were associated with victims’ seeking help. Older adults sought help from health professionals, victim advocates, support groups, social workers, legal professionals, police, and local councils. [Contact the Librarian for full-text access]
- Identifying Interventions and Their Efficacy as Used by a Community Agency Managing and Responding to Elder Abuse by J.E. Storey, S. Hart, & M.R. Perka (2021). Journal of Applied Gerontology. Researchers reviewed a sample of elder abuse cases reported to a community agency. They examined the interventions used and their effectiveness. Practitioners used an average of seven interventions per case. Positive intervention outcomes were the most common (35%) and included novel or effective interventions aimed at perpetrators such as physical treatment, social support, and communication. Only 1% of interventions had negative outcomes.
Related Resources from our Research2Practice Network:
- National Resource Center for Reaching Victims: Increasing Access to Healing Services and Just Outcomes for Older African American Crime Survivors – A Toolkit for Enhancing Critical Knowledge and Informing Action within the Crim Victim Assistance Field (2020)
- Urban Institute: Assessment of Administrative Data on Elder Abuse, Mistreatment, and Neglect – Final Technical Report (2021)
- National Center on Elder Abuse: Intimate Partner Violence and Elder Abuse Among Older Native Americans during COVID-19 (2020); Mistreatment of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Elders (2020); and Mistreatment of African American Elders (2020).
*What are Systematic Reviews?
- A systematic review is the process of bringing together all available studies about a well-defined question, analyzing the quality of their study methods, and summarizing their findings.
- Systematic reviews often use a statistical practice called meta-analysis. This means combining data from multiple studies, to calculate the average effect of the intervention and find patterns.
- Because systematic reviews pool results from many experiments and rate the methods of each study, these reviews increase our confidence in the quality and consistency of the evidence and what it means for the field.
Basically, systematic reviews take a large amount of information about a complex issue from multiple sources and make that information more manageable and usable. These reviews can also help make sense of conflicting findings from different studies.
Learn more from:
- Quick Reference: Systematic Reviews
- Quick Reference: Tips on Reading Research Articles
The Evidence Hour: Teen Dating Violence Help-Seeking Among Ethnically and Racially Diverse Youth
Center for Victim Research’s webinar series, The Evidence Hour, showcases a recent systematic review* or meta-analysis about victimization, trauma, or victim services. Each webinar features an author of the research and a practitioner discussant who will review the findings and reflect on what they mean for victim service providers and researchers.
On May 20 from 1:30pm-2:30pm ET, we discussed the article: “Teen Dating Violence Help-Seeking Intentions and Behaviors Among Ethnically and Racially Diverse Youth: A Systematic Review” by Diana Padilla-Medina et al. (2021) in Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. [Email the Center for Victim Research Librarian for article access]. The recording is available on our YouTube channel.
Related Research on Teen Dating Violence and Help-seeking:
- Who, When, How, and Why Bystanders Intervene in Physical and Psychological Teen Dating Violence (Abstract) by K. Debnam & V. Mauer (2021). Trauma, violence, & abuse. This scoping review summarizes research on what increases the likelihood that a teen will intervene in TDV situations. Adolescents most likely to get involved had an existing relationship with victims and believed they had a responsibility to step in and that their actions could make a difference. School climate and trusting relationships between students and teachers were important for students to feel confident in intervening to end dating violence. [Contact the Librarian for full-text access]
- Forcible Rape and Adolescent Friendship Networks (Abstract) by T.A. Tomlinson et al. & Postincident Interpersonal Difficulty Among Adolescent Victims of Violent Crime (Abstract) by J.B. Phillips (2021) in Journal of interpersonal violence. These two articles analyze how experiencing victimization effects survivors’ perceptions of their relationships with friends and families. Trauma, physical injuries, and responses to disclosure can act as barriers to social support, which is often an important component of many survivors’ coping and healing. The researchers suggest what victims and victims’ loved ones can do to counteract this impact. [Contact the Librarian for access]
- The Impact of Culturally Relevant Programs by Joan Dominguez. (2019). Center for Victim Research. This annotated bibliography emphasizes the importance of centering survivors’ complex, dynamic identities as they heal from violent experiences.
Related Resources from our Research2Practice Network:
- National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center Special Collection: For Native Teens
- National Sexual Violence Resource Center: Teen Dating Violence Prevention – 2021 Update and podcast episode on “What is an Askable Adult?”
- VAWnet Special Collection: Preventing & Responding to Teen Dating Violence
*What are Systematic Reviews?
- A systematic review is the process of bringing together all available studies about a well-defined question, analyzing the quality of their study methods, and summarizing their findings.
- Systematic reviews often use a statistical practice called meta-analysis. This means combining data from multiple studies, to calculate the average effect of the intervention and find patterns.
- Because systematic reviews pool results from many experiments and rate the methods of each study, these reviews increase our confidence in the quality and consistency of the evidence and what it means for the field.
Basically, systematic reviews take a large amount of information about a complex issue from multiple sources and make that information more manageable and usable. These reviews can also help make sense of conflicting findings from different studies.
Learn more from:
- Quick Reference: Systematic Reviews
- Quick Reference: Tips on Reading Research Articles
Center for Victim Research’s webinar series, The Evidence Hour, showcases an author of research and a practitioner discussant who will review the findings and reflect on what they mean for victim service providers and researchers.
In April, we discussed the findings from “Harris County Health & Relationship Study: Using Research-Practice Partnerships to Assess the Impact of COVID-19 on Domestic Violence Survivors” by Leila Wood, E. Baumler, et al. (2021). The recording is available on our YouTube channel.
Related Research on the COVID-19 Pandemic and Domestic Violence:
- Domestic Violence During COVID-19: Evidence from a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis by Dr. Alex R. Piquero et al., Council on Criminal Justice.
- On the Front Lines of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Occupational Experiences of the Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Assault Workforce Dr Leila Wood et al., Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
- Survivors Know Best: How to Disrupt Intimate Partner Violence during COVID-19 and Beyond by Kirkley Doyle et al., FreeFrom.
Center for Victim Research’s webinar series, The Evidence Hour, showcases a recent systematic review* or meta-analysis about victimization, trauma, or victim services. Each webinar features an author of the research and a practitioner discussant who will review the findings and reflect on what they mean for victim service providers and researchers.
In March, we discussed the article: “Association of Housing Stress With Child Maltreatment: A Systematic Review” by Caroline Chandler et al. (2020) in Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. [Email the Center for Victim Research Librarian for article access]. The recording is available on our YouTube channel.
Related Research on Child Maltreatment:
- Housing instability and child welfare: Examining the delivery of innovative services in the context of a randomized controlled trial by Cyleste Collins et al. (2020). Children & youth services review. This ongoing study followed families in a five-year “Pay for Success” program in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. The program followed a Housing First philosophy, employing trauma-informed approaches to address housing, mental health, and monetary needs to help families reunite and achieve stability. While results on program’s effect on housing stability were mixed, the program staff and evaluators found that inter-agency collaboration and flexible funding allowed “service providers to focus on the real-time needs of at-risk families, and giving workers more freedom and autonomy to deliver high-quality services…tailored to each family’s specific needs.” [Contact Librarian for article]
- Family homelessness, subsequent CWS involvement, and implications for targeting housing interventions to CWS-involved families by Jason Rodriguez et al. (2020).Child abuse & neglect. Researchers followed families over 4 years in San Francisco, California and matched Child Welfare System data with homeless shelter data. When taking other factors into account, past shelter use was not strongly associated with child removal and other substantiated Child Welfare System cases. The researchers note that perhaps: “family shelter use influences observers’ decisions to report families, independently of family safety, risk, and CWS history.” This related Research Brief recommends long-term rent subsidy programs like Housing Choice Voucher can be appropriate interventions for most families with children who become homeless. [Contact Librarian for article]
- Overcoming child maltreatment: A focus on social support and resiliency by Andia Azimi. (2019). Crime Victims’ Institute. This brief summarizes studies about what helps children adapt and adjust after experiencing child maltreatment. While other protective factors like personality traits and abuse characteristics affect outcomes, research points to interpersonal relationships as the biggest influence on children’s resiliency.
Related Resources from our Research2Practice Network:
- National Children’s Advocacy Center: Could Being a Victim of Child Abuse and Neglect Affect Adult Economic Health?
- National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center: Empowering Children in Shelter: Woksape Un Kpazo Pi (We are showing it through wisdom)
- National Resource Center on Domestic Violence: The Difference Between Surviving and Not Surviving: Public Benefits Programs and Domestic and Sexual Violence Victims’ Economic Security and Safe Housing Partnerships’ Featured Statistics
- National Sexual Violence Resource Center: Sexual Assault Survivors Have Unique Housing Needs
*What are Systematic Reviews?
- A systematic review is the process of bringing together all available studies about a well-defined question, analyzing the quality of their study methods, and summarizing their findings.
- Systematic reviews often use a statistical practice called meta-analysis. This means combining data from multiple studies, to calculate the average effect of the intervention and find patterns.
- Because systematic reviews pool results from many experiments and rate the methods of each study, these reviews increase our confidence in the quality and consistency of the evidence and what it means for the field.
Basically, systematic reviews take a large amount of information about a complex issue from multiple sources and make that information more manageable and usable. These reviews can also help make sense of conflicting findings from different studies.
Learn more from:
- Quick Reference: Systematic Reviews
- Quick Reference: Tips on Reading Research Articles
The Center for Victim Research has a new webinar series we’re calling The Evidence Hour. Every month, CVR will showcase a recent systematic review or meta-analysis about victimization, trauma, or victim services. Each webinar will feature an author of the research and a practitioner discussant who will review the findings and reflect on what they mean for victim service providers and researchers. Contact us to request any of these these articles and be added to our contact list for invitations.
Topics
- Housing Stress & Child Maltreatment with Caroline Chandler of University of North Carolina-Gillings School of Public Health and Tien Ung of Futures Without Violence.
- (Related article: “Association of housing stress With child maltreatment: A systematic review” by Caroline Chandler et al. (2020) in Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. )
- Harris County Health and Relationship Study with Barbie Brashear of the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, Abeer Monem of the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, and Leila Wood of The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB).
- (Related report: “Harris County Health & Relationship Study: Using Research-Practice Partnerships to Assess the Impact of COVID-19 on Domestic Violence Survivor” by Leila Wood et al. (2021).)
- Teen Dating Violence Help-Seeking Among Ethnically & Racially Diverse Youth with Dr. Diana Padilla-Medina of the University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work and Dr. Carolina Vélez-Grau of the NYU Silver School of Social Work.
- (Related article: “Teen dating violence help-seeking intentions and behaviors among ethnically and racially diverse youth: A systematic review” by D. Padilla-Medina et al. (2021) in Trauma, Violence, & Abuse.)
- Preventing & Reducing Violence Against Older Adults with Khiya Marshall Mullins, Dr.PH, MPH and Jeffrey H. Herbst, Ph.D. of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and
- (Related article: “Do interventions to prevent or stop abuse and neglect among older adults work? A systematic review of reviews” by et al. (2020). in Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect.)
- Helping without Harming: Educating Mental Health Professionals on Working with Survivors of IPV with Amber Sutton, MSW & Haley Beech, Ph.D. at the University of Alabama School of Social Work.
- (Related article: “Preparing Mental Health Professionals to Work With Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence: A Comprehensive Systematic Review of the Literature” by Amber Sutton et al. (2020) in Affilia.)
- Confronting School Violence and Victimization with Jillian Turanovic, Ph.D. & Krista Flannigan, J.D. at Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
- (Related article: “Individual, Institutional, and Community Sources of School Violence: A Meta-Analysis“)
- (Related article: “Individual, Institutional, and Community Sources of School Violence: A Meta-Analysis“)
- Facilitators of Help-Seeking for Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. with Kristen Ravi, Ph.D., at University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Sarah Leat, Ph.D. at University of Memphis, and Christina Cicconi, M.A., MSW., at Johnson County Family Crisis Center
- (Related article:
- Cultural Responsivity in Domestic Violence Interventions for Immigrants in the United States with Abha Rai, Ph.D., MSW at Loyola University Chicago, Kristen Ravi, Ph.D at University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and Radhika Sharma Gordon, Apna Ghar, Inc. (Our Home).
- (Related article: Culturally Responsive Domestic Violence Interventions for Immigrant Communities in the United States: A Scoping Study (Author Manuscript). Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. Available upon request.)
- Bullying as a Developmental Precursor to Sexual and Dating Violence Across Adolescence with Dorothy Espelage, Ph.D., at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. and Barri Rosenbluth, MSSW, at Expect Respect.
- (Related article: “Bullying as a Developmental Precursor to Sexual and Dating Violence Across Adolescence: Decade in Review” by D.L. Espelage et al. (2021) Trauma, Violence & Abuse.)
- Leveraging Researcher-Practitioner Partnerships to Improve Human Trafficking Prevalence Studies with Terri Galvan, MPP, at Community Against Sexual Harm (CASH), Rebecca Pfeffer, Ph.D., and Kelle Barrick, Ph.D. at RTI International.
- (Related article: “Advances in measurement: A scoping review of prior human trafficking prevalence studies and recommendations for future research” by K. Barrick & R. Pfeffer (2021). Journal of Human Trafficking. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322705.2021.1984721″)
- Violence Across the Lifecourse – Child Maltreatment, Intimate Partner Violence, and Elder Mistreatment with Todd I. Herrenkohl Ph.D. at University of Michigan, Karen A. Roberto Ph.D., at Virginia Tech, and Sandy Bromley, JD, at Shelby County Crime Victims & Rape Crisis Center.
- (Related article: “Child Maltreatment, Youth Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, and Elder Mistreatment: A Review and Theoretical Analysis of Research on Violence Across the Life Course” by T. I. Herrenkohl et al. (2022). Trauma, Violence, & Abuse)
- Social Reactions to Sexual Assault with Sarah Ullman, Ph.D. University of Illinois at Chicago and Kris Bein, at Resource Sharing Project.
- (Related article: “Correlates of Social Reactions to Victims’ Disclosures of Sexual Assault and Intimate Partner Violence: A Systematic Review” by S. E. Ullman, (2021). Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. Contact the Research Librarian for access.)
What are Systematic Reviews?
- A systematic review is the process of bringing together all available studies about a well-defined question, analyzing the quality of their study methods, and summarizing their findings.
- Systematic reviews often use a statistical practice called meta-analysis. This means combining data from multiple studies, to find patterns and calculate the average effect of the intervention.
- Because systematic reviews pool results from many experiments and rate the methods of each study, these reviews increase our confidence in the quality and consistency of the evidence and what it means for the field.
Basically, systematic reviews take a large amount of information about a complex issue from multiple sources and make that information more manageable and usable. These reviews can also help make sense of conflicting findings from different studies.
Learn more from:
- Quick Reference: Systematic Reviews
- Quick Reference: Tips on Reading Research Articles
Victim service providers have been using technologies like automatic notification systems, online education, and chat to assist victims and increase organizations’ efficiency. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent stay-at-home orders compounded the need to implement more virtual options to maintain services during disasters and to reach more victims. This annotated bibliography collects research and evaluations of technology-facilitated services for victims. Topics include using technology to provide information about violence and abuse, raise awareness of services, increase screening and assessments, provide virtual counseling and safety planning, sustain communication with existing clients, and increase collaboration between service providers. Research focused on 2015-2020 and mostly from the United States, though one evaluation from a virtual victim services program in Switzerland is included. This is not a comprehensive scan of all literature.
Search Tips
- Technology: online, virtual, internet, app, website, database, teleconference, video
conference, software, chat - Victim Services: victim assistance, safety planning, crisis counseling, peer support, mental health services
View an example search in the CVR Library.
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For the complete report with article links, download the full annotated bibliography:
Animal welfare advocates and researchers sometimes refer “The Link,” the co-occurrence of violence against humans and against animals. This annotated bibliography collects research about the connections between domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse, and pet abuse, the influence of pets on victims’ decisions about reporting abuse, leaving relationships, or seeking services, and examples of multidisciplinary collaborations in animal welfare, human services, and criminal justice for addressing violence. Research focused on 2016-2020 and includes research from the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Search Tips
- Human Services: Adult Protective Services, Child Welfare, Child Protective Services, Sheltering Animals and Families Together, victim assistance
- Pet Abuse: animal welfare, animal cruelty, violence against companion animals
View an example search in the CVR Library.
Download
For the complete report with article links, download the full annotated bibliography:
See more CVR Annotated Bibliographies.
Annotated Bibliography: Research on Involving Crime Survivors in Program Planning and Policy Making
“Service user involvement” means inviting people who have used services to discuss the design and delivery of those services. This annotated bibliography collects research about people with lived experiences participating in nonprofit committees and boards. This research may be useful for victim services organizations reviewing their governance structures and seeking insight and accountability from crime survivors. The research articles below mostly do not discuss crime victims who work as service providers or staff in victim services agency. (One summary mentions a related report about victim-practitioners’ experiences integrating personal experiences of victimization into their work). This is not a comprehensive scan of all literature. Articles included are published between 2005-2019 and mostly about services in the United States and United Kingdom. Contact the CVR Librarian to access full-text and additional articles.
Search Tips
Try the following search in CVR Library: (clients OR users OR recipients OR victims OR peers) n5 (inclusion OR involvement OR member*) AND (board OR council OR advisory OR committee) AND (social services OR victim services OR nonprofits)
- Related phrases: co-creation, expertise-by-experience, participatory governance, service user involvement, lived experience, or nothing about us without us
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See more CVR Annotated Bibliographies.
Obtaining feedback from victims about victim services is essential for refining service delivery and ensuring that services are victim-centered and meet victims’ needs. However, recruiting victims to obtain their feedback for service evaluation purposes is labor-intensive, and often difficult work (Crandall & Helitzer 2003; Koss, White & Lopez 2017; Weist et al. 2007). Sexual assault victims are considered a “hard to find” (or, “hard to reach”) research population, due in part the sensitive and traumatic nature of their victimization experiences (Campbell et al 2008).
This annotated bibliography collects research about the typical response rates for victim service client satisfaction surveys and similar surveys. Also discussed is how anonymous versus confidential surveys may impact response rates. This bibliography focused on evaluations of community-based victim services in the United States. Articles were mostly published between 2000 to 2017. Contact the CVR Research Librarian for assistance locating additional articles and for accessing full-text.
CVR staff thank principal authors Sara Bastomski, PhD, & Janine Zweig, PhD, for their work developing this annotated bibliography.
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For the complete report with article links, download the full annotated bibliography:
See more CVR Annotated Bibliographies.
