Violence Never Heals: The Lifelong Effects of Intimate Partner Violence for Immigrant Women

Violence Never Heals is a book that explores the experiences of disability and aging for immigrant survivors of domestic violence across the life course. It highlights the long-term effects of systemic and gender-based violence, which become subtly disabling long before old age. The book offers insights into how current IPV services fail to acknowledge and accommodate these effects and provides concrete strategies for how to alter approaches to better treat and mitigate the lifelong effects of domestic violence.

Format: Hardback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 27 June 2023
Publisher: New York University Press

Across the United States, one in three women experiences violence in their intimate relationships. While more resources are being dedicated to providing immediate care to these survivors, there is a need to understand the long-term effects of such violence, particularly on those from marginalized communities as they age and face the challenges of aging. In her book, Violence Never Heals, Allison Bloom offers a life-course perspective on the disabling experience of violence in Latina immigrant communities. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted at a Latina program at an Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) crisis center, Bloom provides insights into the long-term effects of systemic and gender-based violence, revealing that these experiences become subtly disabling long before old age.

Drawing from her own background as a practitioner, Bloom further details how current IPV services fail to acknowledge and accommodate these effects, largely due to their disproportionate focus on younger survivors and the particular development of the domestic violence services field. She offers both scholars and practitioners concrete strategies for how they can alter their approaches to better treat and mitigate the lifelong effects of domestic violence.

Violence Never Heals addresses a glaring omission in IPV scholarship by providing both an aging-focused perspective on IPV and laying out concrete steps for how to implement this perspective in pursuit of more comprehensive treatment. By highlighting the experiences of older survivors and advocating for a shift in the focus of IPV services, Bloom's book contributes to a better understanding of the long-term impacts of violence and offers valuable insights for practitioners working with this population.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781479822041