- Title
- What they say and what we (don't) hear: listening to the narratives of young women who use violence
- Creator
- Rak, Louise
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2024
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Young women’s experience and use of violence is complex, emotive, and often viewed with a mix of scepticism and disbelief. It is arguably a growing issue that continues to be under-researched and hence, poorly understood. The focus of my research was to explore young women’s narratives, perspectives, and points of view on their use and experience of violence, and how these experiences might be instructive to gender-responsive practice with youth violence. The narratives were shared by young women participating in the Name.Narrate.Navigate (NNN) program for youth violence, for which I am the program manager and where I work in direct practice with young women who use and experience violence. The NNN program was established and is continuously improved by community based participatory research, with creative methodologies providing a bridge between contemporary understandings of trauma and Aboriginal ways of knowing and doing. My research drew on data collected through this process, specifically in the context of my work with 24 young women in the program, and was complemented by autoethnographic reflections from my practice. I took a relaxed, informal, and relational approach to my interactions with the young women in NNN and in my writing. The thesis discusses the findings of my research wherein five key interconnected themes emerged: the differing narratives of violence; the role of invalidation; the impact of trauma; intersectional experiences which include Aboriginality, gender, and poverty; and the role of systems and structures which includes education and housing. Rather than being uniform or consistent, the young women in NNN presented narratives in the use of violence that differed in relation to motivation and means, situation and context. However, common in these narratives were sentiments of invalidation as a situating experience for young female violence. Young women who used and experienced violence also commonly recounted experiencing violence, abuse and trauma, and these experiences were understood as interconnected with lived intersectionality (including Aboriginality, gender, and poverty). Young women’s narratives of violence also commonly included reference to the roles of systems and structures, importantly including education and housing. My research responds to the gaps in the existing evidence base on youth violence, specifically young women’s experiences, and interventions that are trauma-informed and culturally responsive. Young women are known to participate in and facilitate violence, however, what is less known is their motivations for doing so. The NNN program provided a positive context to give voice and visibility to the experiences of young women in relation to violence.
- Subject
- young women; trauma; narratives of violence; youth violence; thesis by publication
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1510753
- Identifier
- uon:56448
- Rights
- This thesis is currently under embargo and will be available from 01.06.2025, Copyright 2024 Louise Rak
- Language
- eng
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