“It can feel like an abusive relationship”: A Sensory Psychosocial Investigation of Frontline Domestic Violence Shelter Workers’ Experiences

Abstract

In response to the call for a sensory exploration of law, crime, and justice, this article draws on phenomenological research conducted in the United Kingdom (UK) and provides a psychosocial case study of the sensory effects that frontline domestic violence (DV) shelter workers face. Shelter workers implement and make tangible the plans and missions made by leadership and statute to provide support, as part of the process of justice, for victim-survivors of DV. They provide a hands-on, often intense practical and emotional praxis in an environment that aims to promote a feminist and repowerment ethos, working at the intersections of crime and justice. Psychosocial criminology framings give insight into how the crimes experienced by shelter residents can affect the workers tasked with aiding their recovery from DV. New conceptualizations made possible by this interdisciplinary approach provide a means of critically examining the convergence of value betrayal and burnout experienced by workers at the frontline.