Research knowledge base for GBV questions, methods, and service pathways
This is now a research knowledge base rather than a simple FAQ. Search across the published corpus, filter by research lens, and move directly into the source material behind each answer.
Published entries
210
Curated answers grounded in public South African GBV, justice, and support sources.
Visible now
8
Entries matching your current search, lens, and source filters.
Source sets
49
Each answer stays tied to a public source so researchers can verify context.
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Research lenses
Filter the knowledge base the way researchers work
Move between methods, service pathways, risk factors, legal process, survivor support, and data interpretation without losing source traceability.
Methods
Study design, methodology, definitions, and how the evidence was assembled.
Service pathways
How people move through hospitals, police, shelters, courts, and referral systems.
Risk factors
Drivers of violence, vulnerability, exposure, and intersectional risk patterns.
Legal process
Rights, reporting, police procedure, court process, and legal protections.
Survivor support
Healing, counselling, trauma-informed support, and practical care for survivors.
Data interpretation
Limits, caveats, bias, and guidance for reading the evidence responsibly.
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Research lens
Service pathways
2 entriesHow people move through hospitals, police, shelters, courts, and referral systems.
TEARS Foundation describes trauma-informed care as an approach that recognises how trauma affects a survivor and tries to provide support in ways that prioritise safety, trust, empowerment, and minimising re-traumatisation. In practice, it means the service experience matters as much as the formal procedure.
TEARS Foundation offers a support locator via *134*7355# to help people quickly find nearby support options. That matters because many survivors need a low-data, phone-first way to move from information to an actual service referral.
Research lens
Risk factors
2 entriesDrivers of violence, vulnerability, exposure, and intersectional risk patterns.
TEARS Foundation defines reproductive coercion as interference with a partner's reproductive choices, such as forcing pregnancy or undermining their ability to control contraception. It is useful to name because it helps survivors recognise abuse that may not initially look like violence in the narrow sense.
TEARS Foundation describes victim-blaming as holding the survivor responsible for the abuse while minimising or ignoring the perpetrator's role. It is harmful because it deepens shame, discourages disclosure, and shifts responsibility away from the person who chose to commit the violence.
Research lens
Legal process
1 entryRights, reporting, police procedure, court process, and legal protections.
TEARS Foundation describes trauma bonding as a strong emotional attachment to an abuser that can develop through cycles of violence mixed with affection or relief. Naming it can help explain why leaving, reporting, or cutting off contact is often more complicated than outsiders assume.
Research lens
Survivor support
3 entriesHealing, counselling, trauma-informed support, and practical care for survivors.
TEARS Foundation describes rape trauma syndrome as the range of physical, emotional, and psychological responses survivors may experience after sexual assault, including shock, fear, denial, and distress. Naming it can help survivors recognise that intense reactions after rape are common and do not mean they are failing to cope.
TEARS Foundation defines dissociation as a state of disconnection from emotions, thoughts, or reality that can be triggered by overwhelming trauma. For survivors, this can help explain why they may feel numb, detached, unreal, or unable to remember events in a straightforward way.
TEARS Foundation defines validation as recognising and affirming a survivor's emotions and experiences. It matters because support becomes safer and more useful when a survivor is met with belief, recognition, and respect instead of interrogation or doubt.