In this CVR podcast series, we talk with those doing research and serving victims and learn about the work they've done together.

Tell Us About It, Episode 3: Dr. Judy Postmus and the Violence Against Women Research Consortium

A convo with Dr. Judy PostmusDec 07Time: 21:07

For this episode, we sit down with Dr. Judy Postmus to discuss her research on physical, sexual, and economic victimization experiences of women and her development of a Violence Against Women Research Consortium, which is funded by the National Institute of Justice. Dr. Postmus is the founder and former director of the Center on Violence Against Women and Children, as well as a professor and associate dean for Faculty Development and Strategic Initiatives at the School of Social Work, Rutgers University. She is joined by Catie Buttner, the Dissemination Coordinator at the Violence Against Women Consortium, who shares her specific insights on the challenges and benefits of collecting and sharing data on this topic.
Related links:

• Learn more about the Violence Against Women Research Consortium from their website
• See more from the Center on Violence Against Women and Children
• Follow Dr. Postmus on Twitter

 

Transcript:

Susan Howley: Welcome to Tell Us About It: Victim Research Convos, a podcast from the Center for Victim Research with support from the Office for Victims of Crime. On each episode of Tell Us About It, we talked to researchers and practitioners about their work, the tools being built for use in the field, and how we can work together to build an evidence base for crime victims services. On today’s episode, I talk with Dr. Judy Postmus, Chair of the OVC-funded Violence Against Women Consortium. Judy is the founder and director of the Center on Violence Against Women and Children at Rutgers University School of Social Work. Judy is joined by Catie Buttner, the Consortium’s Dissemination Coordinator. Judy and Catie, welcome.

Dr. Judy Postmus: Thank you, Susan.

Susan Howley: To get us started, can you tell us a bit about the Violence Against Women Consortium, its vision and its partners?

Dr. Judy Postmus: Sure, I would love to tell you about the consortium. We are a group of faculty from around the country that represent academia, non-profit think tanks, as well as service providers, who come together to identify what are the gaps in the research and then to identify what are some of the research needs and to actually implement some projects to address some of those gaps. We’re focused primarily on the four main areas of domestic violence, sexual assault, teen dating violence, and stalking. And so we meet face-to-face once a year and in between, we meet monthly using technology.

Susan Howley: Great. And so what kind of activities are you doing to live out the vision and goals at the Consortium?

Dr. Judy Postmus: So some of what we’ve done is to develop working groups where we identify what the areas of or where the gaps are in the research and brought these researchers together to identify what do we know, what do we not know and what needs to be done. So we have these working groups who then identify what needs to be done and develop projects that are then proposed to the Consortium, which provides some moderate level of funding to help those projects get off the ground. And so for example, we have five different projects: one is looking at testing the campus sexual violence survey instrument that was created by BJS. And we know that it was validated on campuses, but we don’t know how it would work on a campus that was historically black college and university, one of the HBCUs. And so one of those projects in conjunction, in partnership with NIJ and CDC that they’re working on testing the instrument with that population. We have another project where we’re looking at coordinated community responses, and what do we know, what do we not know. We’re doing a comprehensive literature review synthesizing that information and then we’ll be asking key stakeholders from the various communities around the country about what do they know what works and what do they think about what we found from the research in an effort to identify what a potential research project might be. We’re doing the same thing looking at the overlap between the opioid use and violence against women and the overlap there. We have another project that’s looking at a secondary dataset on stalking and the interaction with law enforcement, as well as a project that is evaluating youth who live on the street and their interactions with law enforcement and using some qualitative data that the Urban Institute collected on another project that was funded but not done anything with. So we’re looking at trying to analyze that data to see what those experiences were like for those youth.

Susan Howley: Wow that’s a lot of variety and I love all of those topics. How did you decide how to start? I mean you just named a handful of really fabulous compelling topics. How did they rise to the top of what you’d look at first?

Dr. Judy Postmus: So some of what we did was first identify who some of these core faculty are and so there’s 13 of us around the country. There’s myself, as well as my co-PI Dr. Sara McMahon from the Center. We have Dr. Andy Peterson, who is a community psychologist and looks at prevention science work. He’s also at Rutgers University. So from the Urban Institute, we had Janine Zweig and Meredith Dank and Yasemin Irvin-Erickson. Since then, a couple of them have left, including Meredith, but we’re collaborating with the Urban Institute. We have faculty from the Institute for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault from the University of Texas in Austin. We have a faculty member from the University of Puerto Rico. We have a practitioner-researcher from Safe Horizon, one of the largest victim services agency in the country and who’s housed in New York City. We have Rebecca Dreke, who used to work at The Stalking Resource Center and is now doing private consulting work and she’s part of our team. And so what happens is we bring all these experts together to identify what are some of the areas that we that need attention immediately. And so these topics came up. We then said well are there existing data sets or how do we tap into what’s already there, instead of trying to do new projects. Because so often researchers collect all this data and produce a little bit of work from it, but there’s so much information that we don’t do anything with and so it’s important to try to do some more analysis to see how it can impact the field.

Susan Howley: Right. So speaking of all of this work where it feels like we’ve just barely touched the surface or we don’t do enough with the findings, Catie can you tell us what you’re doing to help disseminate what we do know already and what the Consortium will be learning?

Catie Buttner: So for me, my role is the Dissemination Coordinator for this project. And really what that means is I am responsible for assisting and coordinating the efforts around how we translate the work being done in the Consortium to providers, the general public, just into formats that are more consumable and that can be shared more readily than sort of traditional academic routes. Like what we know of is for the most part faculty members and research agencies tend to use academic papers, even white papers, conference presentations that aren’t always accessible to the people on the ground who are doing that direct service work. And so my role and one of the main interests from NIJ and also the Consortium was for us to focus on the dissemination of the work being done. And so for me, I work with the faculty members as they are producing work related to the topic of the Consortium, but also the projects that come out – the ones that Judy mentioned, the long wonderful list of all these diverse things that are happening – and working with them to make sure that there is a dissemination component within those projects that we can actualize. Things like podcasts or things like infographics and just maybe social media campaigns, news outlets, just anything that we can do that’s going to broaden the impact and broaden the reach of the work that’s being done.

Susan Howley: Thank you Catie, it sounds like you’re doing a lot to to disseminate the results of this project and other findings out to practitioners. Judy, how else is the Consortium working with practitioners in bringing their voices into your work?

Dr. Judy Postmus: So we do have a few core faculty members who are also practitioners. We have Amanda Stylianou, who works at Safe Horizon. We have Rebecca Dreke, who has an expertise in stalking and used to work for the Stalking Resource Center. So while we’re creating these new topical groups – before we relied on the groups being composed of core faculty members and now we’re expanding that to include other researchers, as well as practitioners from the field, to help generate ideas of projects that need to be done or what are the gaps, what do we know, what do we not know. A lot of our projects and all of our projects not only tie into the dissemination of getting the information out to the practitioners in a way that’s manageable and understandable and usable, but also that we are committed that we’re choosing projects that are going to make a difference. We’re not choosing projects just for the sake of well, it’s interesting to know this. We want to do projects that we can actually make a difference. And so this has been the commitment of myself, as a former practitioner who went back into academia and started the Center, is to make sure that whatever we do that it isn’t just us doing it because we think we know better. And so even some other projects, like for example the overlap of violence against women and opioid use, that while academics might be doing the work of collecting and synthesizing the research, they’re going to be asking practitioners for their thoughts and experiences and understanding and what do we need to do and what do they know and what are we missing from the literature and what research still needs to happen. So every project has, at some point or fashion, some involvement with a practitioner.

Catie Buttner: And I think also, we have one of our working groups is the implementation science working group. So we’re trying to make sure that we’re focusing in part on how do we think about these issues from that standpoint. Really from the start of a project to the end focusing on how it is implemented, brought to a community, its longevity, that fidelity and how we’re having those conversations to make sure that to your point and to your question, we are engaging with the community and actually ensuring that it goes beyond just the conversations we’re having and actually into the community.

Susan Howley: So along with the great work that’s coming out of these working groups to identify these key new areas and to pursue research, is there anything else you’re excited about with the day to day work of these working groups?

Dr. Judy Postmus: I think just bringing together researchers. So often, especially as someone who works and has functioned in academia, we operate in silos. We’ve seen this in the victim field. There’s the domestic violence silo, the sexual assault silo, the child abuse silo, and so trying to transcend those silos. But we also see silos happening within institutions that researchers say this is my research, this is what I’m doing, and not necessarily thinking of how do you collaborate and work with others. And so part of the Consortium is bringing people together, knocking down those barriers and having opportunities for researchers to realize one they’re not alone, two they can have a greater impact by working together, and three they can have an even greater impact by including the voices of practitioners and survivors themselves. So I think that between all of that I think it allows us to really expand and think differently about how we do research in the violence against women field.

Susan Howley: That is such an important component of the Consortium’s work. That’s so great to hear. Let me step back a minute and ask both of you what drew you to this work. Judy, let’s start with you.

Dr. Judy Postmus: So I’m chuckling because I have an interesting journey. It’s one where I was working with runaway and homeless youth in South Florida, which is where I’m from. And I was looking for a leadership opportunity and applied to become an executive director of a domestic violence program. And I got the job without knowing anything about domestic violence.

Susan Howley: Wow, when was that?

Dr. Judy Postmus: This was back a while. This was in the mid-90s, right around the OJ Simpson trial. And I remember thinking first of all, I need to do some reading on this. Second, I need to have a lot of conversations with the advocates who have been working at this particular agency for a long time. And I also needed to have conversations with victims and perpetrators. And I was fortunate that this program had both the perpetrator programs as well as the victims’ services. And then I was able to learn a great deal. And while I was doing that work, I realized there was so much that we don’t know. And I was drawn to going back to school to get my PhD to go into research, particularly in domestic violence, and then expanding to cross over the silos as I continued in my academic journey.

Susan Howley: Wow. And Catie, what about you?

Catie Buttner: So I think for me, I find a lot of joy and interest in that translation component. So the topical area is of course an interest of mine. I think it’s hard for anyone to live in the world and not have known or experienced some form of violence or abuse. And so I think in a way, it’s an issue for pretty much all of us. But beyond that, I think that for me the content of my job, of really trying to mesh this world of research – which I really value and I’m really interested in in terms of how we think about problems, how we address them, how we try to understand how to work on them – and then also the trying to then bring that to groups that actually are interested in consuming that information or that actually might affect change. And so for me, I get to do that on a regular basis of really trying to bridge that gap. And I think that that is a big motivation for why I keep doing the work.

Susan Howley: Great. It’s great to see two people who love their work as much as you do and who seem to be such a great fit for this opportunity. Now we’d like to ask all of our guests, and I’ll start with you Judy, what do you see as the future for this area of research and this form of collaboration? What do you see in 5 or 10 years?

Dr. Judy Postmus: I think 5 to 10 years down the road, I would love to see a strong network of researchers who are working together, struggling over what needs to be done, what research is needed, how are we connecting with practitioners, how are we identifying the projects that need to happen. I think that the research itself needs to move more into testing of interventions through randomized controlled studies and trying to understand not only what is it that we’re doing but how effective is it and to be able to announce it from the rooftops when it works and to then implemented according, ensuring that if it’s working then let’s make it happen across the country. So I think that, 5 to 10 years, having groups of people be able to work together, to brainstorm together, to identify what we need to do, to then you know articulate that vision and be able to have great research projects happen that will have an impact in the field. Not just, again, knowledge for the sake of collecting knowledge but collecting knowledge and understanding in a way that influences and makes it a better world for everybody. Whether it’s helping policymakers understand that more funding is needed or that policies need to be reauthorized or redeveloped or revised or all the way to advocates who are working in the field to anybody who works or encounters survivors or perpetrators along the way. Thinking of it from a prevention and intervention perspective.

Susan Howley: That’s really a very inspiring vision. Catie, do you have anything to add? What do you think?

Catie Buttner: I don’t know how you could add to that. So pretty much all of those things.

Dr. Judy Postmus: World domination.

Catie Buttner: Right, and world domination, obviously. I mean I think if I had to add something it would be about continuing to normalize this next step of data consumption around digital learning, more interactive ways to bring information to people. I think that to me, even this podcast that you’re doing, working towards more infographic learning, just things that I think reach people in a way that is more tailored to how they consume everything else. We’re a much more visual culture. We learn through all of these mediums that are no longer just written dialogue or even spoken dialogue. So trying to continue to get that information out through these ways and sort of make it more accepted and recognized, because I think in part, it’s one thing for us to do it in a small way but it’s different when it’s expected of academics and researchers and the field, that we’re trying to think about how we share this information more broadly, rather than it just being kind of a side note to the work that we’re already doing. So to me I think seeing that happen more readily would be the vision that I would have.

Susan Howley: So how can the people at home follow along with the work at the Violence Against Women Consortium?

Catie Buttner: So we’re housed, for the most part, under the Center on Violence Against Women and Children and so we do share all of the information that we have and the work that we do on our Facebook page as well as our website, which we are again as you had mentioned under the School of Social Work at Rutgers University. So our Center website is housed there. And we have all of the information, and any infographics or things that we put out related to the Consortium are located there. We are working towards having a separately branded, standalone website for the Consortium itself. So it’s still under construction, so it’s not ready yet. But any information regarding that would be there and that probably is the best way to find out about what we’re doing.

Susan Howley: Great. Judy, any closing thoughts?

Dr. Judy Postmus: Thinking of in some ways that the Consortium can act as being the fortune tellers of where we’re heading in the field. What do we need to do as far as intervention and prevention services? How do we use technology in a way that we’ve never thought of? How do we push the envelope as far as the existing services that we’re doing? And is there a better way to do it? Is there a different way to do it? Is there an additional way to do it? And I don’t know the answer to this. And so I think that that’s where research and practitioners can come together. Practitioners are, rightfully so, doing the work of meeting the needs then and there, on the spot with survivors and with perpetrators. But I think by partnering with research, it can be on the cutting edge of let’s test an intervention. And I know that a lot of agencies are testing some new things and trying new things, whether it’s yoga therapy or using meditation or they’re pulling in from the PTSD literature or they’re trying anything, joining with an academic who can then test those kind of interventions and demonstrate yes it works, no it doesn’t. And then being able to tell others about that. I think that’s the important thing is to be that cutting edge, to be the people that are thinking more broadly, differently, to be the next steps. And to me that’s where the Consortium joining together, as researchers, academics, survivors, and the corporations and everyone that has a stake in this, because as we know violence affects everybody, not just the families. It affects everyone in society.

Susan Howley: Well this has been both informative and inspiring. I want to thank you both for your time here today so much. And you know we really look forward to watching the work of the Consortium develop.

Catie Buttner: Thank you.

Dr. Judy Postmus: Thanks.