Victims of domestic abuse are increasingly turning to the Internet for online counseling opportunities, a UT professor said Tuesday.
Lynn Westbrook, an assistant professor in the School of Information, said that victims of intimate partner violence have really come out on the Internet.
“There are online forums for surviving. They’re supporting each other, giving each other information and advice,” Westbrook said. “These forums are helping women survive the abuse.”
Westbrook explained many women are often unsure of whether they’re being physically, sexually or emotionally abused.
“I was surprised to learn how many women needed to hear the definition of intimate partner violence,” she said. “Many women would ask whether it could be verbal, or would say things like, ‘He only hit me once.’ That, to me, was heartbreaking.”
Westbrook said partner violence abuse occurs between two people who are in a close relationship. The abuse can occur during a single incident or continue repeatedly.
There are four types of partner violence behavior that an abuser can inflict upon their partner, ranging from physical abuse involving hitting to emotional abuse involving name-calling.
Westbrook said there are three stages before someone being abused leaves the relationship.
“Typically, those stages are in relationships, leaving and out of the relationship,” Westbrook said.
Partner violence often starts with emotional abuse that can quickly escalate to physical or sexual assault. Many victims don’t report the abuse, which can have dire consequences, Westbrook said.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, more than seven million cases of intimate-partner-related physical assaults and rapes are reported every year, mostly affecting women.
In 2004, partner violence abuse resulted in the deaths of 1,544 people, 75 percent of whom were female.
Westbrook said there has to be a better way to deal with cases of domestic violence. She presented her pipe dream of creating a digital source that would combine all the information those fleeing from abusive relationships would need.
“I know it probably will never happen, but it’s a dream of mine,” she said.
Westbrook spoke about an online forum for female victims of intimate partner abuse. She said she studied more than 659 threads created by women in an online forum.
Most of the posts were from women currently in abusive relationships seeking help and resources from other women who had experienced the same thing.
Westbrook said she was amazed to see the number of women active on the discussion board. She was also surprised to learn that some women stayed on after their abusive relationships ended to help others.
“They would be referred to as mentors or inspiration by the other members,” she said.
Snowden Becker, an information studies graduate student , said she feels that domestic partner abuse is something that should be studied in depth even though she has not been affected by it.
“I haven’t personally been involved with situations of domestic abuse, but I think almost everyone knows someone who has been affected by this circumstance,” Becker said
“[Most] of intimate partner violence victims are women, so this is a women’s issue and something we need to be aware of.”
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