Acceptability of Violence Against Women Among the Roma Population in Spain

Mental Health and Quality of Life in Ecuadorian Women Exposed to Gender-Based Violence

Violence Against Women is a global problem that affects millions of women around the world. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the Mental Health and Quality of Life of Ecuadorian women exposed or not exposed to Gender Violence mediated by sociodemographic factors. A total of 433 Ecuadorian women, 18 to 64 years of age, most of whom (69%) reported being exposed to gender violence. Most of the women lived in the province of Pichincha and were selected through a type of nonprobabilistic sampling based on a survey about gender violence. Women exposed to gender violence showed a greater impact on personality profiles, clinical tests, and quality of life in the physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains compared to women not exposed to violence. In addition, these effects were mediated by age, economic level, education, marital status, and exposure to physical violence and psychological or sexual abuse within the socio-family or work contexts. The results of this study could contribute to improving public health systems, showing improvements in care programs for victims of violence.

The Imperative Need for Criminological Research on the European Roma: A Narrative Review

Except for the knowledge that the Roma people endure harsh conditions and are victims of discrimination, scarce criminological research has given detailed attention to further victimisation or offending among the Romanies. Identifying articles in the browsers Web of Science, Google Scholar and Google, we reviewed European publications (1997-2020) in English, French, Romanian or Spanish that addressed the Roma's victimisation or offending. The 44 studies that matched our criteria suggested that (1) Roma people are victims of hate crimes with devastating consequences; (2) Roma children and women are victims of domestic violence to a greater degree than other groups, although the Roma tend to oppose violence against women; (3) forced early marriages exist among some Romanies and may cause serious problems in adulthood; (4) youth delinquency among the Roma does not differ from that of the non-Roma, although Roma adolescents face more deprivation; (5) Roma men and women are overrepresented in prison and face many difficulties in re-entering society once they are released and (6) there are organised criminal activities in some Roma groups that are supported by their community. Further rigorous post-positivist research, particularly quantitative, is needed to generalise the findings and replicate former studies. Areas of special interest are the causes of anti-Roma discrimination other than ethnicity, the victimisation of children, the Roma's lack of institutional trust and the relation between victimisation and offending. Conducting comparisons with the general population is essential, and we propose that victims' surveys and self-reported delinquency studies include questions on ethnicity.

Barriers to Leaving a Relationship From the Perspective of Married Abused Iranian Women: Secondary Analysis of the Interviews With Abused Women

Violence has a heavy impact on the physical and mental health of women in developed and developing countries; however, most of the violence victims would suffer in silence and never leave their relationship. The aim of the present study was to identify the barriers to leaving a relationship from the perspective of married abused Iranian women. The present study was a secondary analysis of the interviews conducted in a primary study. The primary study that was conducted using the grounded theory approach has assessed the coping process with domestic violence in 24 married abused Iranian women. These women were selected from local parks, health centers, and universities of Tehran city using a purposive sampling method. Qualitative secondary analysis of the interviews was conducted, in accordance with the goal of this study, using content analysis. Four categories emerged through the analysis of the data including "fear," "lack of resources," "beliefs and attitudes," and "dependence" and the common theme between these categories was "deterrents to leaving an abusive relationship." Results indicated that contextual factors such as fear, lack of resources, attitudes and beliefs, and dependence were the reason for not leaving a relationship. Interventions for enriching women's resources (improving the condition of education and employment, and improvement of the formal and informal support systems), education about domestic violence and its management methods, and modification of the existing attitudes and beliefs in this regard could keep abused women from experiencing more violence.

Inequalities in the use of gynecological visits and preventive services for breast and cervical cancer in Roma women in Spain

OBJECTIVES

The Roma population in Spain makes up about two percent of the population and has worse health indicators than the general population. We analyzed both populations in 2006 and 2014 to discover whether there are differences in terms of gynecological visits and preventive services for breast and cervical cancer in Spain.

METHODS

Cross-sectional study is based on the Spanish National Health Survey (SNHS) of 2006 and 2012 and the National Health Survey of the Roma Population (NHSRP) of 2006 and 2014.

RESULTS

Roma women used gynecological visits less than the general population in 2006 (ORa 0.5 [0.4; 0.6] and in 2014 (ORa 0.2 [0.2; 0.3)]. In addition, use of the mammogram was lower in Roma women (ORa 0.7 [0.6; 0.8]), especially in the ages of the screening tests, and they had lower probability of receiving cervical examinations in 2006 (ORa 0.5 [0.4; 0.6]) and in 2014 (ORa 0.7 [0.6; 0.9]).

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that the inequality gap in gynecological visits and preventive services for breast and cervical cancer in Roma women has persisted during the years studied (2006 and 2014), despite Spanish prevention policies.

Concept of Health and Sickness of the Spanish Gypsy Population: A Qualitative Approach

The Roma community (RC) has poor health indicators, and providing them with adequate healthcare requires understanding their culture and cultural differences. Our objective was to understand the concept of the health and sickness of the RC in Spain, and for this, a qualitative study was conducted. A content analysis utilizing an inductive approach was used to analyze the data. Twenty-three semi-structured interviews were performed, and four main categories were obtained after the analysis of the data: perception of the state of health, the value of health, what was observed, and causal attribution. The inter-relations between the categories shows that the RC have a dichotomous worldview split between non-sickness (health) and sickness mediated by causal attribution. Their worldview is polarized into two values: not sick/sick. When not sick, optimism is prioritized along with happiness, and these two emotions are highly valued, as they also play a physical and social function. When a person becomes noticeably sick, this is understood as being in a negative and severe state, and when there are visible physical implications, then the need to act is made clear. When faced with the need to act, the behavior of the RC is mediated by causal attributions, influenced by nature and religion, timing, concealment by not mentioning the disease, and the origin of the healthcare information. For the organization of an adequate health response for the RC, it is necessary for healthcare systems to be able to merge culture and health care.