International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies (2019) 10(1): 1–2 

DOI: 10.18357/ijcyfs101201918803 

LIFE MATTERS: ACKNOWLEDGING VICTIM RESISTANCE 

AND THE POWER OF SOCIAL RESPONSES 

Welcome to this special edition of the International Journal of Child, Youth and Family 

Studies. We are delighted to bring you this edition, which focuses on exploring interpersonal 

violence in its broader context. The situational and sociopolitical context of interpersonal violence 

includes an understanding of the importance of positive social responses for the victim. The term 

“social responses” refers to the things family, friends, and professionals do during and after 

disclosure: these responses can strengthen or undermine the well-being of the person who has 

experienced violence. 

These articles are based on certain assumptions about interpersonal violence. One important 

assumption is that victims — people who are targeted by violence — are not to blame. Victims of 

violence resist mistreatment, try to preserve their dignity, and enact responses that maximize their 

safety and the safety of others, even when there is very little room to maneuver. These articles 

were adapted from presentations at the Responses to Interpersonal Violence conference held at the 

University of Montreal in May 2016. This conference was accompanied by a meeting of the 

International Responses to Interpersonal Violence Network, headed by Margareta Hydén from the 

University of Linköping in Sweden. 

In this issue, we have 11 contributors. The edition begins with an article by conference 

organizers Elizabeth Fast and Cathy Richardson. This article investigates the topic of victim-

blaming and presents ways to ensure that perpetrators, not victims, are held accountable for the 

violence, and that safety can be established. Safety is highly dependent upon networks of 

community and service provision, often including police, courts, protection orders, women’s 

shelters, supportive friends, and diligent family members. Drawing from response-based analysis, 

developed by Allan Wade, Linda Coates, Nick Todd, and Shelly Bonnah, the authors discuss the 

importance of accurate language, studying interaction, and eliciting accounts of responses and 

resistance. 

Moving to Cape Town, the next contribution, by South African researchers Floretta Boonzaier 

and Taryn van Niekerk, highlights their research on responses to violence victims in two 

marginalized communities in South Africa, including an analysis of various social systems and 

structures that either promote or impede safety and justice. In 2012, Floretta Boonzaier and 

Margareta Hydén organized a network meeting in Stellenboch, South Africa. The research and 

ideas behind a number of these articles began during that period. 

Third, we have an article from the Quebec countryside, in which Philippe Roy, Emilie 

Duplessis-Brochu, and Gilles Tremblay document and analyse the experiences of farming men 

and how gender stereotypes are both applied and contested. In the following article, Edward Ou 

Jin Lee, a professor at the University of Montreal, writes about the experience of migrating to 



International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies (2019) 10(1): 1–2 

2 

Canada. His ongoing research documents the pitfalls of the immigration system, in relation to 

social justice and human rights, with particular emphasis on the multiple sites of oppression for 

queer and trans immigrants. 

The fifth article, by Elizabeth Fast and Marie-Ève Drouin-Gagné, operationalizes Coates and 

Wade’s four operations of discourse model to analyse how violence and mistreatment remain 

hidden and unaddressed within the educational system and that teaching about colonial histories 

is a responsibility that unless addressed becomes akin to being a bystander of violence. 

Finally, the last article, “Beauty and the Beast: Misrepresentation and Social Responses in 

Fairy-tale Romance and Redemption”, takes up the idea that many stories and images misrepresent 

violence and give the false message that girls and women can change violent men. Authors Linda 

Coates, Shelly Bonnah, and Cathy Richardson discuss particular myths that surface through these 

representations, such as the idea that if you can just stick it out, the abusive man might become a 

prince, and that it is the role of the woman or girl to tame her man. 

We trust that these articles will be thought-provoking, demonstrate the application of response-

based analysis, and assist us, as members of various societies, to address violence and assist in 

their recovery those who have been harmed. 

Sincerely, 

Cathy Richardson and Elizabeth Fast 

Editors