Stateless as a Site of Fear: Stateless Women’s Experiences of Interpersonal Violence: With a Foreword by Ayodele Johnson

The subject of statelessness has received scarce attention from both scholars and monitoring bodies. There is relatively little comparative research on the causes, patterns, and consequences of statelessness. Even less is known about the nexus between statelessness and fear from the perspectives of stateless women and young girls who are victims of violence and abuse. Violence is not limited to acts of physical and sexual violence but also includes a continuum of specific behaviours that embraces threats, isolation, coercive control, and intimidation. Set in different cultural and linguistic settings, Policek’s study highlights the difficulties in the reporting of violence to law enforcement agencies and social and health care practitioners, thus leaving the victims to bear the consequences of abuse.

This original volume brings together a detailed, rigorous critique of current research to give the reader an awareness of the key issues being debated in this area. Furthermore, it examines the role of professionals in identifying and intervening in cases where stateless women are experiencing violence and abuse. Finally, the book culminates with a series of recommendations for both: future research and ways in which research-informed practice can be fostered.

Nicoletta Policek (PhD in Criminology, University of Edinburgh) iNicoletta Policek (PhD in Criminology, University of Edinburgh) is a criminologist, combining a career in academia with her passion for social justice and human rights, directing national and international NGOs.
An enthusiastic social scientist, her scholarly interests are in the broad field of victimology, penology, gender and sexuality studies, migration, and criminal and social justice. More specifically, she is concerned with the policing and the criminalization of migration and the criminalization of statelessness. She is the author of numerous publications on criminology, victimization processes, criminal and social justice, including the most recent: Foreign minors and forced labor in Italy (2021); Statelessness and the tensions between open borders and the claims of community (2020); The Changing Global Context of Victimization: A Need for Cross-Continental Synergy (2020); Victimization of foreign young people in Italy (2021); Identifiable challenges as global complexities: Globalization, gender violence and statelessness (2019); Practices of (in)justice for genocide’s victims (2019).