ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the impacts and aftermath of violence. The title references work by Jill Radford,Liz Kelly, and Susan Brison that moves away from medicalized models toward the relational and embodied consequences of violence. Human rights framings recognize how violence restricts women's freedom and mobility; that the threat of violence is a significant barrier to women's equality, experienced differently for women according to social location. This chapter synthesizes the evidence base on the economic, emotional, psychological, and physical impacts of victimization. Although trauma theory has become the primary paradigm for making sense of these harms, feminists have asked critical questions about its roots in medical diagnoses. Some have also extended conceptualizations of trauma to relationships and cultural contexts. Later sections discuss the complexities of speaking and telling (‘disclosure’), help-seeking, specialist support services, resistance and rebuilding, and the emerging evidence about how Covid-19 changed routes to support.
