Technology has become a vital part of peoples lives. Mobile phones, smart phones, social media platforms, apps and other internet-connected devices and software have changed our way of interacting with each other, as well as managing everyday tasks. In this article, the use of such technology is discussed in relation to its integration in the lives of women who are victims of domestic violence. The study is based on interviews with 21 Swedish women, all abused by their former husband or boyfriend. The empirical data demonstrates how technology is used by the perpetrators as a means of coercive control. The analysis shows that the accessibility of digital media enables the abuser to be constantly present in the womans life, even after she has left him. However, the same technology is also important to the women, enabling them to manage victimisation, monitor the perpetrators, store evidence, obtain information, gain support and keep in touch with family and friends. This article reveals the use of technology in IPV as a double-edged sword; providing the capacity to protect and even to use as a counter-strike by victims, as well as enhancing perpetrators capacity to harm.

I denna artikel diskuteras hur digital teknik används då kvinnor utsätts förvåld i en nära relation. Studien baseras på kvalitativa intervjuer med 21 svenska kvinnor som lämnat sina män efter att de blivit utsatta för våld. Analysen visar att förövarna använder digital teknik, bland annat smartatelefoner, digitala övervakningssystem, sociala medier och plattformar, för att kontrollera, hota, förfölja och övervaka kvinnorna. Även efter separation möjliggör tekniken för våldsutövare att vara närvarande iden våldsutsattas liv utan något krav på fysisk närvaro. Samtidigt gav samma teknologi de våldsutsatta kvinnorna verktyg för att hantera situationen genom att i viss mån övervaka förövaren, samla information,spara bevis, söka stöd och i akuta situationer be om hjälp. Sammantaget kan digital teknik både förlänga och underlätta kontroll och övervakning från den manliga partnern men samtidigt ge kvinnorna en viss möjlighet till kontroll. I den meningen utgör teknikenett tveeggat svärd.

Social networks are usually considered as positive sources of social support, a role which has been extensively studied in the context of domestic violence. To victims of abuse, social networks often provide initial emotional and practical help as well useful information ahead of formal institutions. Recently, however, attention has been paid to the negative responses of social networks. In this article, we advance the theoretical debate on social networks as a source of social support by moving beyond the distinction between positive and negative ties. We do so by proposing the concepts of relational ambivalence and consistency, which describe the interactive processes by which people, intentionally or inadvertently, disregard—or align with—each other’s role‐relational expectations, therefore undermining—or reinforcing—individual’s choices of action. We analyse the qualitative accounts of 19 female victims of domestic violence in Sweden, who described the responses of their personal networks during and after the abuse. We observe how the relationships embedded in these networks were described in ambivalent and consistent terms, and how they played a role in supporting or undermining women in reframing their loving relationships as abusive; in accounting or dismissing perpetrators’ responsibilities for the abuse; in relieving women from role‐expectations and obligations or in burdening them with further responsibilities; and in supporting or challenging their pathways out of domestic abuse. Our analysis suggests that social isolation cannot be considered a simple result of a lack of support but of the complex dynamics in which support is offered and accepted or withdrawn and refused.

Combining narrative analysis with social network analysis, this article analyses thecase of a young Swedish female who had been physically and sexually abused. Weshow how she became trapped in an abusive relationship at the age of fourteen yearsfollowing social work intervention in her family home, and how she ultimately escaped from this abuse aged nineteen years. The analysis illustrates the significance ofresponses to interpersonal violence from the social networks that surround youngpeople; responses that can both entrap them in abusive relationships by blamingthem for their problems and enable them to escape abuse by recognising theirstrengths and facilitating their choices. The article argues that the case for social workapproaches that envision young people’s social networks after protective interventions have been implemented. The article explains that such an approach has the potential to reconcile the competing challenges of being responsive to young people’sneeds while anticipating the heightened risk of being exposed to sexual abuse youngpeople face when estranged from their families or after their trust in professionalshas been eroded.

Kapitlet speglar Evas och mitt gemensamma intresse för brottsoffer. Vad jag avser att visa är att det inte är någon enkel sak bli brottsoffer, utan att det är en omfattande och ofta motsägelsefull process. Jag kommer att närma mig frågan hur man ”blir” ett brottsoffer genom Nils Christies (2001) ofta citerade beskrivning av ”det idealiska offret”. Jag kommer sedan lyfta fram Rainer Strobls (2010) kategorisering av brottsoffer, där graden av överenstämmelse mellan den brottsutsattes egen och omgivningens uppfattning, utgör kategoriseringsgrund.

This case study seeks to explore som of the complexities involved in a child's and later a young woman's efforts to be recognized by the adult world as a human being in deep trouble. It originates from an interview with Mary, a twenty-three-year-old woman who participated in my study of social network responses to young people with health problems. Since her family was the locus of her troubles, she had tried to get recognition from adults at a daycare center, from the healthcare system, from social services, at school, and finally from the Stockholm City Mission (SCM), a nongovernmental organization providing help for socially vulnerable people in the city of Stockholm.

Interpersonal violence has been the focus of research within the social sciences for some considerable time. Yet inquiries about the causes of interpersonal violence and the effects on the victims have dominated the field of research and clinical practice. Central to the contributions in this volume is the idea that interpersonal violence is a social action embedded in responses from various actors. These include actions, words and behaviour from friends and family, ordinary citizens, social workers and criminal justice professionals. These responses, as the contributors to this volume all show, make a difference in terms of how violence is understood, resisted and come to terms with in its immediate aftermath and over the longer term.

Bringing together an international network of scholars and practitioners from a range of disciplines and fields of practice, this book maps and expands research on interpersonal violence. In doing so, it opens an important new terrain on which social responses to violence can be fully interrogated in terms of their intentions, meanings and outcomes.