The purpose of this book is to investigate the medical interactions which occur between a variety of healthcare professionals and women who have experienced domestic violence. This relates specifically to the medical profession as opposed to other professionals who are accessed as part of wider help-seeking activities. Specific questions which will be addressed in this book include: whether domestic violence has undergone a process of medicalisation; whether such a process is likely to occur; what the implications of such a process are or would be; how healthcare professionals reconcile their responsibilities between the provision of healthcare and social action intended to challenge domestic violence; and finally whether women who experience domestic violence perceive the medical profession as a source of adequate help and assistance within a wider help-seeking process.

In order to address these questions, the research on which this book is based will first examine the perceptions of women who have experienced domestic violence, before focusing on the perceptions of healthcare professionals themselves. A feminist methodology was utilised in all interviews with stage one participants – women who had experienced domestic violence (10 interviewees), and with secondstage participants – a range of primary healthcare practitioners (23 interviewees). The second stage participants were recruited through an earlier domestic violence and health study, the results of which are discussed in Abbott and Williamson (1999). All participants have been allocated pseudonyms.

In conjunction with examining the practical aspects of this particular medical interaction, the theoretical aim of this book is to contextualise the effects of the medical interaction in relation to the self-identity of the presenting women. These effects cannot be separated from the domestic violence itself, nor from the help seeking, in relation to other professionals, of women who experience domestic violence. As such, this book explores questions relating to the impact of medicalisation on the lives of women, and the role of professional and gender ideology on the medical interaction. It raises questions about the way in which healthcare professionals communicate, not only with one another, but with wider society, through the documentation and recording of patients’ injuries and problems. Finally, this book will identify recommendations and examples of ‘good practice’ in order to assist the medical profession in providing an appropriate service to its female clients who have experienced domestic violence.