Abstract
This chapter explores the ethical issues facing counsellors in working with special populations. The focus is on women in sex work in the community setting in India who face intimate partner violence (IPV). It describes the complex nature of intimate partner relationships in the lives of these women, the violence within these relationships and the resistance to disclose or report it. It identifies the hidden nature of the violence and the reluctance of those experiencing it, to either step out of it or take action against the perpetrators as one of the key challenges for counsellors and therapists working with this population. The chapter illustrates how despite every episode of violence being a crisis, the conventional crisis response itself can pose a threat to the safety of the client. The author traces how the context of IPV in this population differs from that faced by other women and proposes a seven-step, multisectoral model of practice that ensures autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aveling, E. L., Cornish, F., & Oldmeadow, J. A. (2009). Diversity in sex workers’ strategies for the protection of social identity: content, context and contradiction. In B. Wagoner (Ed.), Symbolic transformation: The mind in movement through culture and society (pp. 302–333), London: Routledge. Retrieved February 20, 2015 from http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/47797/
Beel, N. (2013). Domestic violence, gender and counselling: Toward a more gender-inclusive understanding. Psychotherapy in Australia, 19(4), 44–52. Retrieved February 21, 2015 from https://www.academia.edu/4333682
Bhattacharjee, P. (2013). Sex work, violence and HIV: Experience from rural Karnataka. Retrieved September 22, 2014 from https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/parinita-bhattacharjee/sex-work-violence-and-hiv-experience-from-rural-karnataka
Chacko, S., & Shankaran, L. (2013). Counselling in situations of gender-based violence. In S. Iyengar & D. Sarma (Eds.), A manual for counselling women in sex work (pp. 131–164). Mumbai: Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
Chandra, P. S., Satyanarayana, V. A., & Carey, M. P. (2009). Women reporting intimate partner violence in India: Associations with PTSD and depressive symptoms. Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 12(4), 203–209.
Deering, K. N., Bhattacharjee, P., Bradley, J., Moses, S. S., Shannon, K., Shaw, S. Y., & Alary, M. (2011). Condom use within non-commercial partnerships of female sex workers in southern India. BMC Public Health, 11(6), S11. Retrieved February 23, 2015 from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471–2458/11/S6/S11
Dillon, G., Hussain, R., Loxton, D., & Rahman, S. (2013). Mental and physical health and intimate partner violence against women: A review of the literature. International Journal of Family Medicine. Retrieved February 25, 2015 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/313909
Iyengar, S., Naik, S., Naik, A., & Poojar, M. (2013). Women in sex work: Identities and aspirations. In S. Iyengar & D. Sarma (Eds.), A manual for counselling women in sex work (pp. 49–64). Mumbai: Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
Jesani, A., Kapoor, A., Sagade, J, Gupte, M., Nagaraj, P., Pathare, S., & Vindhya, U. (2012). Ethical guidelines for counseling women facing domestic violence. Mumbai: Cehat. Retrieved September 4, 2014 from www.cehat.org/go/Dilaasa/Publications
Jewkes, R. (2002). Intimate partner violence: causes and prevention. The Lancet, 359(9315), 1423–1429. Retrieved February 20, 2015 from www.thelancet.com
Karandikar, S.A. (2008). Gender-based Violence among Female Sex Workers of Kamathipura, Mumbai, India: A Contextual Analysis. ProQuest. Retrieved February 22, 2015 from https://books.google.co.in/books?isbn=0549947744
Karandikar, S. A, Frost, C., & Gezinski, L. (2014) Patriarchy and gender-based violence: experiences of female sex workers in India, International Journal of Social Work, 1(1), 1–14. Retrieved February 22, 2015 from http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/ijsw.v1i1.5011
Mahapatra, B., Battala, M., Porwal, A., & Saggurti, N. (2014). Non-disclosure of violence among female sex workers: evidence from a large scale cross-sectional survey in India. PloS ONE, 9(5), e98321. Retrieved February 23, 2015 from http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0098321
Maher, J., Pickering, S., & Gerard, A., (2013). Sex work: Labour, mobility and sexual services. Routledge. Retrieved February 26, 2013 from https://books.google.co.in/books
Mahila, K. (2013). A study of situation and needs assessment of women in sex work in Uttara Kannada District (Unpublished Manuscript). Mahila Kranti, Uttara Kannada.
National Aids Control Organisation (2013). Annual Report 2012–2013. Retrieved from http://www.naco.gov.in/upload/Publication/Annual%20Report/Annual%20report%202012-13_English.pdf
Orchard, T. (2007). In this life: the impact of gender and tradition on sexuality and relationships for Devadasi sex workers in rural India. Sexuality & Culture, 11(1), 3–27. Retrieved February 25, 2015 from www.researchgate.net/
Panchanadeswaran, S., Sethulakshmi., J. C., Sivaram, S., Srikrishnan, A. K., & Celentano, D. (2008). Intimate partner violence is as important as client violence in increasing street-based female sex workers’ vulnerability to HIV in India. International Journal of Drug Policy, 19(2), 106–112. Retrieved August 6, 2014 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2423812/
Panchanadeswaran, S., Johnson, S. C., Sivaram, S., Srikrishnan, A. K., Zelaya, C., Solomon, S., Go, V. F., & Celentano, D. (2010). A descriptive profile of abused female sex workers in India. Journal of Health Population and Nutrition, 28(3), 211–220. Retrieved February 23, 2015 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2980885/#B48
Parsons, J. T. (2014). Contemporary research on sex work routledge. Retrieved February 26, 2015 from https://books.google.co.in/books
Peplau, L. A. (2003). Human sexuality: How do men and women differ? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12(2), 37–40.
Reza-Paul, S., Lorway, R., O’Brien, N., Lazarus, L., Jain, J., … Steen, R. (2012). Sex worker-led structural interventions in India: a case study on addressing violence in HIV prevention through the Ashodaya samithi collective in Mysore. Indian Journal of Medical Research, 135(1), 98–106). Retrieved September 15, 2014 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22382190
Sanders, T., O’Neill, M., & Pitcher, J. (2009). Prostitution: Sex work. Policy and Politics: Sage Publications.
Satyanarayana, V. A., & Chandra, P. S. (2009). Should mental health assessments be integral to domestic violence research. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, 6(1), 15–18.
Somanath, R. P., Mishra, R. M., Saggurti, N. & Parimi, P. (2013). The association between non-commercial partnerships and risk of HIV among female sex workers: Evidences from a cross-sectional behavioral and biological survey in Southern India. AIDS Research and Treatment. Article ID 108630. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/108630
Warr, D. J., & Pyett, P. M. (1999). Difficult relations: Sex work, love and intimacy. Sociology of Health & Illness, 21(3), 290–309.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Iyengar, S. (2016). Ethical Issues in Working with Women in Sex Work Facing Intimate Partner Violence. In: Bhola, P., Raguram, A. (eds) Ethical Issues in Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1808-4_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1808-4_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-1806-0
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-1808-4
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)