Sociology Colloquium, featuring Dr. Leslie Paik: The Burden of Truth Is Just Very High: Inequalities in Institutional Responses to Family Violence
Event Date
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Rogers Chapel, Bldg. 73
We are pleased to invite you to join us on this Friday, April 19th, at 1pm for our Sociology Colloquium, featuring Professor Leslie Paik. She will give a talk on her study, "The Burden of Truth Is Just Very High: Inequalities in Institutional Responses to Family Violence." Dr. Paik is a Professor at the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University. She studies youth, families, and law and society. Her recent book, "Trapped in a Maze: How Social Control Institutions Drive Family Poverty and Inequality," won the 2022 William J. Goode Book Award of the Family Section of the American Sociological Association.
Abstract: While much research has addressed the legal system’s shortcomings in responding to family violence, this study explores how those shortcomings exacerbate the unique harms that result from family violence. Based on interviews with people who are victims of family violence, including intimate partner violence, child and sexual abuse, and homicide, this study outlines the emotional and material harms that stem from navigating broken or enduring family bonds. Moreover, it highlights how the legal system which oversees programs designed to help victims (e.g., victim advocates, victim services, restitution) often exacerbates those harms through its classification practices, timing, case processing, and multi-institutional complexities. The findings reveal how social inequalities (e.g., race, gender, class, legal status) shape the particular harms that these victims experience and how institutions designed to help those victims end up exacerbating those harms.
