USING RESEARCH TO STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Jacquelyn (Jackie) Campbell, PhD, RN, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
"Women are dying from domestic homicide AND from HIV/AIDS at alarming rates - not just abroad, but right here in our neighborhoods, especially women of color. We can prevent this. Global health research affords us the opportunity to do just that, and save the lives of women - everywhere."
Jackie Campbell, PhD, RN, has devoted her career to putting research to work in the prevention of violence against women. Formerly a school and community health nurse, who was a witness to a high incidence of abuse among women of all ages, the majority of whom were African American, Campbell chose to study this issue during graduate school. She explains, "I discovered, shockingly, that homicide was the leading cause of death for these women, and the perpetrator was generally not a stranger, but rather an intimate partner. At the time, violence was not covered in the nursing curriculum, but my faculty encouraged me, they said ‘if you don't know how to treat it, go find out.' I wanted to determine the root causes of this violence and in so doing, learn how best to prevent it. That's where research comes in."
Campbell has spent the last 30 years researching the homicides of women in the United States and globally, only to find the same results: the major perpetrators are intimate partners, there is usually a history of domestic violence before the murder, and most of the women are seen in the healthcare system before they are killed. She uses what she has learned in her research to help healthcare workers worldwide to more quickly and accurately identify abused women and provide them, and any children involved, with the services and safety they need. She says, "Many of the murders could have been prevented if only we were better at recognizing the abuse."
According to the World Health Organization, at least one third of women worldwide have been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in their lifetime, and the majority of the time the women know their abusers. The rate approaches 70 percent in some countries. And Campbell's research has shown that domestic violence more frequently occurs in low- and middle-income countries, where inadequate laws and social norms about the rights of women provide little protection and few alternatives for women to seek help. The only consistent place that females have access to is the healthcare system, but in order for health care providers to know how to properly help, more training and education in those settings is needed.
In collaboration with the Institute of Medicine, WHO and Congress, Campbell is helping other health systems to train and educate workers on this issue. She consults with healthcare workers around the world, and has developed a resource tool "Danger Assessment," which has been translated into several languages, to help women and those who work with women to better and more accurately assess abuse and the risk of homicide.
Campbell's work in domestic violence also has led her to focus on another area of increasing concern, the high rates of HIV infection and HIV-related deaths among women. "It is increasingly clear that more and more of the new HIV cases are women, even in the U.S.," Campbell says. "And throughout Africa, women are more likely to die from AIDS. Part of the answer is that forced sex and domestic violence have heightened women's risk for contracting HIV. But we need to conduct further research into the links between HIV and violence against women, and testing interventions that will combine HIV prevention and violence. Global health research allows us to better study health issues and diseases which affect us all by conducting research in areas where the largest populations are affected.
"Women are dying from domestic homicide AND from HIV/AIDS at alarming rates - not just abroad, but right here in our neighborhoods, especially women of color. We can prevent this. Global health research affords us the opportunity to do just that, and save the lives of women - everywhere."