Misperceptions of Intimate Partner Violence in the 21st Century Two Decades of Lies

Public service advertising can be a powerful and effective tool for awareness and education in helping both the public and specific target audiences learn more about urgent health issues. Given the recognition intimate partner violence has gained in the last two decades as an urgent health problem around the world, this issue was selected to explore advertising's effect and potential to help a specific target audience. This research examined female survivors' impressions of domestic violence campaigns. A sample of 16 focus groups of approximately six women in two-hour sessions were conducted, at two different points in time over the past two decades. These focus groups included a fairly equal number of African-American, White, Asian, and Latino women in two different geographic areas of the country. Participants were asked to describe their opinions about a sampling of current domestic violence campaign material. The women who participated expressed heightened negative emotional responses to specific elements of some of the advertising, suggesting the potential of some campaigns to exacerbate the problem for this target group. The purpose of this research was to formulate a base of information to create improved public service advertising for this segment of the public, as they are the group most severely affected by this issue. Thus, based on the Editor's research and the participants' responses, the key goal for an improved campaign should be enhancing early identification, empowerment, and help-seeking behaviour.