Violence Against Drug-Using Women in Intimate Partnerships

Violence against drug-using women receives significant attention in research and science but is still insufficiently addressed in different services for victims of violence and drug addiction treatment. Drug-using women are particularly vulnerable to abuse because they are seen as incompetent to represent themselves due to their drug addiction, which affects their agency and makes their experience of violence invisible to others. This chapter is based on small-scale qualitative research on intimate partner violence (IPV) experienced by drug-using women in Slovenia. The results show a persistent belief that drug use provokes violence in both men and women, what poses a serious obstacle to timely and effective support services. The issues of drug addiction and IPV are indeed complex and complicated, but the effects of violence, such as increased control by the perpetrator, subordination, and isolation, are significant for gender-based violence and should be treated as such. Failing to recognize the gendered nature of violence will have an impact on the choices of drug-using women and on their opportunities to recover. Another important issue is that drug treatment programs often do not consider violence a health issue and thus fail to recognize it. Many still believe that violence is a consequence of drug use and that recovery from drug use, by itself, will cause violence to disappear. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the importance of building a trust-based relationship with women that will encourage them to disclose their experience of violence and to recover from it.