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.