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Supporting Victims/Survivors: Escape, Refuge, and Recovery

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Companion Animals and Domestic Violence

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Animals and Social Problems ((PSASP))

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Abstract

Escape, refuge, and recovery are the themes of this chapter. We demonstrate how victims/survivors manage to escape domestic violence in their homes and how they try to recover from the violence and rebuild their lives with the support of others. Because participants stressed the importance of housing, we pay attention to their attempts to find alternative housing that would accommodate themselves and their children, but also their animal companions. We present other challenges to recovering from violence by ‘loved ones’ to show that in contrast to the popular fantasy of escape, post-separation may not be experienced as liberating but as another period of anxiety and hardship. We then consider the roles companion animals can play in supporting human victims/survivors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Nik Taylor

  2. School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia

    Heather Fraser

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  1. Nik Taylor
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  2. Heather Fraser
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Correspondence to Nik Taylor .

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Taylor, N., Fraser, H. (2019). Supporting Victims/Survivors: Escape, Refuge, and Recovery. In: Companion Animals and Domestic Violence. Palgrave Studies in Animals and Social Problems. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04125-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04125-0_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-04124-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-04125-0

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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