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Working Document
RURAL WOMEN AND VIOLENCE:
A STUDY OF TWO COMMUNITIES IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
Yamin Jiwani, Ph.D.
With the assistance of:
Shelley Moore, Ph.D., Patricia Kachuk, Ph.D.
January, 2000
wd1998-11e
The present study was funded by the Research and Statistics Division, Department of Justice Canada. The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Justice Canada.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This report examines woman abuse, defined as violence against women in relationships, in two rural communities in British Columbia. The site selection of the two communities was based on their demographic features, population size, and pragmatic considerations which warranted the availability of community researchers living in, or familiar with, these communities. In order to protect the identities of the research sites, of all those who participated in this study, and of the community-based researchers, pseudonyms have been used to define the sites and all location and personal identifiers have been removed.
The research strategy included: interviews with 20 women survivors of abuse who have been safe from violence for at least one year and who are not presently engaged in a court case; interviews with 13 key informants who represented different agencies within the criminal justice system, community-based service providers and advocates; and, 4 focus groups, 2 at each research-specified site, consisting of service providers and community residents respectively. A total of 61 individuals participated in this study.
The methodology used in this study was derived from the Department of Justice Canada's research tools developed in a collaborative study with the Community Abuse Program of Rural Ontario (CAPRO) for the Ontario Rural Woman Abuse Study (ORWAS). These included semi-structured, open-ended interview questions for women survivors of abuse and focus group participants. As well, the ORWAS guides for conducting interviews and focus groups were incorporated in this study. Focus group and interview questions were modified to cover some issues more in depth such as perceptions about levels of violence in these communities, provision of legal aid services; and, specific questions about the kinds of isolation experienced by women living in abusive relationships. Based on the ORWAS tools, a set of key informant questions was constructed and utilized in this study.
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