The role of the Internet as a surrogate social network in situations of domestic violence in Swedish context
Domestic violence (DV) is a dynamic process which normalizes a cycle of increasing violence (Lundgren, 1991). The Swedish chapter of Amnesty International explains that DV victims are successively broken down and isolated, making breaking the cycle of abuse more difficult than it would be if the victim had a network of support from which to seek help (Amnesty International, Sweden, 2004). The domestic violence summit of 2008 concurs, stating that DV continues to be one of the most underreported crimes as it thrives on shame and silence. Furthermore, this report states that the most dangerous time for a victim ready to leave an abusive situation is during the process of gathering information and the initial escape. The perceived anonymity of the digital can play an important role as a temporary, surrogate social network for DV victims when information seeking, as well as make available implicit and explicit networks of support. Häggblom (2008), in her dissertation about nurses’ encounters with battered women in Åland, discovered that despite DV victims often seeking help through the healthcare service, most DV victims reported first receiving help through a friend or network. An initial and important phase of the DV cycle, however is to remove ties to friends or networks of people that can aid the victim. When these physical networks are broken, networks online can become an increasingly important resource. Kranz (2002) warns, however, that DV victims often use these tools without the understanding that the technology they are relying on as a tool for information and support can also be used to track and monitor them. In Sweden, online information resources are often lacking, despite Sweden’s high percentage of Internet access. From a brief review of Swedish womens’ shelters websites, only a handful provided any Internet safety information, and none used click-through methods before entering the site. In fact, one of the most popular Swedish discussion forums for DV, Misshandel i Fokus, was created in response to the need for social peer support.
The role of technology as a tool in these processes is an under-developed area of research in victimology. Although there has been a marked increase in the informational components of DV support promoted through digital channels, few studies have analyzed the effectiveness or the scope of their usage. Moreover, both the Westbrook (2007) study, and the report on stalking and DV made to the American Congress (2008) state that most information about the relationship between information seeking online and DV is anecdotal.
The objective of this research project is to establish to what extent and in what ways Swedish DV victims use the Internet as a way to reconnect with a network of people and information. This study will examine this usage in two important areas of DV: initial information seeking and the ways in which social media are used to create networks. The first sub-project will establish what information is available to DV victims, through which channels this information is available (libraries, women’s’ shelters, websites, social network sites, etc), and how users experience seeking this information. The second sub-project will analyze how Swedish DV victims use social media as a way to form networks after having been isolated during the DV process (Lundgren, 1991). These networks will be analyzed in order to determine the effectiveness of the affordances of the different platforms (e.g., Second Life, discussion forums, blogs, twitter, etc), as well as the strategies that DV victims employ to avoid repercussions, such as cyberstalking, when publicizing information which may not be understood to be personal, although can be used to track or harass the victim.
Amnesty International, Sweden. 2008. Mäns våld mot kvinnor i nära relationer. http://www2.amnesty.se/svaw.nsf/19april2004/$File/svenskrapport.pdf
Häggblom, A. 2008. Love that turns into terror: Intimate partner violence in Åland – nurses´ encounters with battered women in the context of a government-initiated policy programme. Nordiska högskolan för folkhälsovetenskap. Göteborgs universitet.
Kranz, A. 2002. Changing Practice: How Domestic Violence Advocates Use Internet and Wireless Communication Technologies. Violence against women online resources. http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/2casestudies/2casestudies.html
Lundgren Eva: Våldets normaliseringsprocess. Två parter – två strategier, 1991.ROKS
Misshandel i Fokus. http://misshandel.ifokus.se/
Stalking and Domestic Violence. Annual report to congress under the Violence Against Women Act (NCJ 186157). http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojp/186157.pdf
Westbrook, L. 2007. Digital information support for domestic violence victims. Journal of the American society for information science and technology, 58(3):420-432.
