Photo: Tomi Mielityinen
In her dissertation, Laura Mielityinen adopted a mixed‑methods design to examine the co‑occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV) and child maltreatment by integrating children’s self‑report survey data, police administrative records, and parents’ narrative accounts of intergenerational experiences of violence. Interpreted through a socio‑ecological framework, the findings show that co‑occurrence is common in children’s lived experiences and tends to cluster in families facing other adversities, such as low socioeconomic position and challenging family dynamics. Furthermore, co‑occurrence is often intertwined with intergenerational processes of trauma and resilience. However, it remains under‑detected in police records, where cases involving both forms of violence are rare. The study highlights the value of multi‑method, multi‑perspective research in capturing the complexity of family violence and suggests that more meaningful and effective policy responses require a shift from episodic justice interventions toward cumulative, trauma‑aware, and prevention‑oriented forms of support across generations.
Laura Mielityinen’s doctoral dissertation in the field of criminology and criminal policy, titled When Violence Lives in the Home: Children’s Experiences, Parents’ Narratives, and Institutional Responses to Co‑occurring Physical IPV and Physical Child Maltreatment, will be publicly examined at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tampere University on 22 May 2026.
The opponent will be PhD Gertrud Sofie Hafstad from the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Norway. The custos will be Professor Noora Ellonen from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tampere University.