Intimate Partner Violence and the Complexity Turn. The Multiple Conceptions of Gender in IPV Policy in Switzerland

Abstract

Based on socio-historical research of domestic violence treatment in the cantons of Vaud and Geneva, this article analyses how the co-presence of many actors and approaches has affected the definition of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Switzerland. IPV policies centred on gender and then reframed to define violence as a complex issue. We show what the consequences of framing complexity for policy are.

Keywords

• domestic violence
• social problems
• policy
• gender