Crisis information concerns: Information needs of domestic violence survivors

The personal crisis of coping with or escaping from a violent relationship requires that survivors have accurate, current, appropriate, and contextually-useful information. Police and shelter staff, who are the governmental and private sector first-responders, make substantial efforts to provide that information both at the moment of crisis and in the often lengthy period of after-shocks. Their repeated efforts to more fully anticipate and understand survivor information needs over time are informed by interactions with large numbers of survivors. Growing from this reservoir of knowledge and experience, this 10-city study uses in-depth interviews with 19 intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors, 14 shelter staff, 10 shelter directors, and 14 police officers to identify information needs in IPV survivors’ efforts to escape from or cope with IPV. The person-in-progressive-situation model of everyday life information-seeking (ELIS) theory provides the analytic framework. Analysis revealed three progressive situations with attendant clusters of information needs: (1) considering a change from an abusive situation, (2) adjusting to change while in the shelter and/or criminal justice system, and (3) preparing for post-shelter and/or post-police life. In addition, continual legal information needs form a fourth situation since law and regulations weave throughout all three of the progressive situations. Service and research implications are discussed.