Journey from violence to crime: A research study on domestic violence

This paper is essentially a summary of an earlier study on the 'Special Cel l for Women and Children' by the authors (1999). The paper introduces the c ausation of violence as outlined by the Vienna Summit (United Nations, 1991 ). It then enumerates the objectives of the research study, sources of data , issues in data collection, and limitations of the data. In the next segme nt, that is, analysis of the Special Cell records, the profile of the woman approaching the Cell for redressal of their grievances is emphasised upon. The non-cognisable offences data is also looked into along with the findin gs of some other research studies in the area of domestic violence. The thi rd part of the paper focuses on the language used by women to voice their p ain and trauma and how it is interpreted by the police. Thus, the metaphor of a journey - which starts with the violated women approaching the Special Cell(1) to report the violence experienced by her and ends with how ultima tely which voice is recognised and recorded by the police.