American Feminists and the Construction of Violence as a Public Health Issue (1980-2010)

Violence is increasingly apprehended in the United States —and elsewhere— as a public health issue. It has been the object of public health policies since a couple of decades, in a context of a will to legitimise these public health policies by scientific grounds, a process emphasised by the expansion of this field.

My paper will be the result of an examination of the scientific and political publications. My study is conducted under a social and cultural history of science approach. My research on violence aims to offer a history crossing political issues such as the public policies regarding perpetrators and victims, with the history of the scientific framing of violent behaviours. By exploring the recent production of knowledge on violence and the relations between social groups -feminists, child and youth advocates, political organisations, governmental agencies, medical researchers-, and their discourses, my research will therefore produce a better view of what is at stake in the scientific reconfiguration of violence as a public health issue.

My paper will focus on the role played by the feminist movements in this reframing of violence as a public health issue. Drawing on my doctoral work on the history of American feminist psychology, I want to describe how the feminist claims regarding violence against women contributed to specific policies and studies.