Psychology is increasingly being applied to address real world problems of violence, systemic marginalization and gender equality. In this light, the aim of this paper is to discover and highlight the role of psychosocial aspects of the court in journeys of Domestic Violence (DV) victims- survivors from India. This paper employs 6 months of courtroom ethnography, semi-structured interviews and focused group discussions to understand the psychosocial aspects of the justice seeking process. The participants included a diverse mix of DV victim-survivors, lawyers, judges and crisis support workers. A multi-sited approach included two districts from a North-Indian state. Some of the sites were: courtrooms, waiting areas in courts, parking lots, canteens and domestic violence support centers.


The thematic findings of the study showcases: 1. Lived experiences of courtroom trials: DV victim-survivors where they narrate their in-depth emotions and thoughts on navigating the court and its psychological impact. The informants describe battling multiple identities in the court i.e of a victim, survivor, mother and their own 'self' in the becoming. Dealing with the patriarchal court context also forms a trauma trigger detailed in the theme. 2. The making of a DV case detailed through ethnographic observations from lawyer- client interactions. A certain type of reframing of cases as a civil issue is witnessed which dilutes the 'violence' from the domestic violence case 3. The last theme explains the relevance of employing feminist and psychosocial principles through an example of crisis centers for domestic violence. The DV shelters integrate resilience and recovery with its crisis response to the victim-survivors. The study concludes the importance of addressing and applying psychosocial dimensions in the state's response to DV. This study holds potential for replication to address Violence against Women at a global level.