Paper short abstract

Touching on recent ethnographic research in Edinburgh, this paper explores what anthropology can bring to the study of domestic violence. I explore how varying domestic violence understandings shape the ways in which violence is recognised and responded to, as well as experiences of intervention

Paper long abstract

Touching on my recent ethnographic research in Edinburgh with domestic violence service providers, social services and police officers - this paper explores what medical anthropology can bring to understandings of domestic violence, in both theoretical and applied ways. In the context of recently migrated Central and Eastern European women, I will discuss divergent domestic violence explanatory models and conceptions, which traverse across organisational and individual discursive fields. I will explore how varying domestic violence understandings shape the ways in which violence is recognised and responded to, as well as victim/survivor/practitioner experiences of intervention.