MA Understanding Domestic Violence & Sexual Abuse Distance Learning

This module provides a comprehensive introduction to current theories, research, and policy in the UK and internationally, that inform how we understand and work with perpetrators and victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. You’ll be encouraged to critically examine a broad range of perspectives surrounding domestic violence and sexual abuse, testing each perspective for its capacity to reduce risk and enhance the safety of victims/survivors.

There will be an introduction to psychological, social and political perspectives on sexual and violent offending within close relationships. The intersections of abuse and social inequalities (e.g. gender, race, sexuality, disability, religion, class) inform an analysis of the specific impacts and long term psychological consequences for both female and male victims. You’ll be encouraged to identify gaps in current service provision and consider what new models might be used to create change locally and globally. The module approaches the topic as fluid and open to exploration, not a set of ‘facts’ to be learned. It has been developed in discussion with students, practitioners, and service users.

This module will help you examine and critically assess the use of group-based approaches in domestic violence and sexual abuse in prevention and intervention. The focus is on the importance of experiential group work practice and an understanding of issues related to power, identity and conflict. Group discussions will help you understand the relationship between power and oppression. Issues of gender, race, class, sexual orientation and disability, and their influence upon group work practice will be considered throughout the module.

You’ll be encouraged to present examples of teamwork and group-work from your own geographical or work-based context. This module reflects a deep commitment to people as unique and valuable. We’ll enable you to explore how privilege and power affect each person and community differently, and to consider how your practice could meet this. You’ll be urged to connect with each other’s identities and values to find solidarity even in your differences. Our experiential group work sessions are student led, enabling students to focus the discussion on the topics that are of most relevance and interest to them.

In this module, we’ll examine the issues concerning children and young people who are exposed to domestic violence and sexual abuse. The starting point of the module is that professionals working in the statutory and voluntary agencies need to acquire knowledge of childhood exposure to domestic violence and sexual abuse. The module aims to explore key messages from research to give you a better understanding of the key factors that impact upon the experiences and contexts of domestic violence and sexual abuse affecting diverse groups of children and families.

The module will address the following key areas:  

• The effects of childhood exposure to domestic violence and sexual abuse on children
• Theories to explain domestic violence and sexual abuse
• Identification and links between domestic violence, sexual abuse and child abuse
• Domestic violence, sexual abuse, and child protection systems.
• Parenting in the context of domestic violence and child sexual abuse
• Inter-agency working 
• Dynamics of race, class, gender, sexual orientation and disability on domestic violence and sexual abuse 
• Legal remedies to respond to domestic violence and sexual abuse
• Ethical dilemmas related to domestic violence and sexual abuse

This module will introduce you to skills in working with people who perpetrate or experience abuse. We’ll explore intersectional approaches to working with victims and survivors, and consider how personal and social identity interacts with a survivor’s experience of services. We’ll start by examining the manipulative and controlling behaviour of perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual abuse. You’ll analyse anonymised case material to gain a sense of how they (and their victimised clients) experience these behaviours.

Victim/survivors will then be considered with particular emphasis on how coercion, threat and intimidation worked to force their compliance with the abuser’s demands. The interplay between these factors and the experience of being marginalised within society by race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender and mental or physical capacity will be examined. You’ll critique the role of services, communities, and political policies in increasing/decreasing vulnerability and in re-traumatising victims. A working knowledge of the complex nature of post-traumatic stress and its use/abuse by perpetrators and by the health and social care sector will be a central theme.

This module will invite you to explore the unique experiences of adolescent victims and perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

The module will address the following key areas:

• Adolescent development – what happens physically, neurologically and socially for young people during adolescence.
• Peer dynamics and how they impact behavior and wellbeing. The roles of leader, follower and bystander in peer-to-peer violence.
• The scale of abuse in adolescent relationships.
• Practical tools to engage young people in healthy relationship education. This includes participation in a demonstration of evidence-based arts practices that can be used in youth settings.
• Contextual safeguarding approaches: The home context; the school context; the neighbourhood context, the peer group context, and online contexts. 

The module approaches the topic as fluid and open to exploration, not a set of ‘facts’ to be learned. This programme features a cross-disciplinary approach with input from the fields of social work, community work, neuroscience, and psychology.

This module will examine the psychological impact of violence and abuse related trauma on individual adults and children. It will introduce a critique of the disease model of mental health and will look into the harmful impact of trauma (e.g. PTSD, self-harm, substance misuse) while also learning about potential personal growth experiences that some people experience in the aftermath of the traumatic events. Positive psychological interventions that support coping and facilitate positive growth will be examined. Finally, the module will also look at the impact that trauma work has on those who work in the field, both in terms of vicarious trauma and burnout and in terms of personal growth.

The module will encourage you to consider self-care and resilience in relation to working with traumatised individuals. There will also be a consideration of how experiences of trauma interact with personal identity and how the issue of social equality interacts with this topic.

The teaching on this module supports you to create interventions, environments and policies which are fully informed by the latest understanding of trauma making them more accessible, engaging, and effective for survivors of abuse. The module emphasises the importance of including the survivor’s voice and perspective in the services designed to support them.

TBC

The dissertation structure can be: 

• A 10 000-word research project
• A 10 000-word report on a work-based project
• An extended literature review – 10 000 words

You’ll have to demonstrate a critical examination of theory and practice related to your project. There must be reflection on how the theories and practices discussed impact on the wellbeing of victims/perpetrators in minoritised communities. The dissertation will include attention to contemporary theoretical positions and, sometimes, professional, and clinical practices.

You’ll have the freedom to select a topic which is of most interest and relevance to you within the field of domestic and sexual abuse. Previous modules on the programme will support you to identify gaps in the current research and to use the dissertation project as an opportunity to address these gaps and carry out new research of value to the field. The dissertation will show evidence of use of research and awareness of methodology, either through critical examination of relevant texts or through case studies or empirical work.