People
Sean Callaghan
School/Department: Criminology, School of
Email: smc85@le.ac.uk
Profile
Mr. Callaghan is Head of Research at Orchid Project and Senior Research Consultant at the AHA Foundation
Research
Globally, at least 200-million women and girls have be subjected to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) (UNICEF, 2016) with over half-a-million of them estimated to be resident in the United States (Goldberg et al., 2016). While most of those US-based women experienced FGM/C while still resident in their countries of origin prior to migration, very little is known about the risk to their native-born daughters in the United States.
The Extrapolation-of-FGM/C-Countries’-Prevalence-Data method, which forms the basis for my study, relies on three variables: (1) the prevalence rate in the country of origin, (2) the diaspora population in the country under examination, and (3) an estimation of the impact of migration and acculturation on prevalence. The first two variables constitute the quantitative components of the method, while the third variable calls for a mix-method approach. My project is thus divided into two distinct and interlinked studies: The first based on secondary population and prevalence data extracted from over 80 different sources, while the second will be based on primary data collected from potentially impacted communities in the United States.
The four previous studies that estimated FGM/C prevalence in the United States (African Women’s Health Center, 2004; Goldberg et al., 2016; Jones et al., 1997; Mather, 2016) each deployed a version of the Extrapolation-of-FGM/C-Countries’-Prevalence-Data method. A literature review of these quantitative studies identified several significant limitations with both the prevalence and population data used, that undermined the integrity of the findings. Although some of these limitations had been addressed in European studies, gaps remained. Refining the Extrapolation-of-FGM/C-Countries’-Prevalence-Data method thus provided the initial focus of my research.
Exploring the dynamics that determine if and how harmful traditional practices, like FGM/C, persist after migration is vital to our understanding of the stickiness of the practice in diaspora communities. While most of the women living with FGM/C in the United States were cut prior to migration, a literature review of studies in the United States and Europe suggested that the risk to their native-born children was at times quite different to the risk in countries of origin, yet none of the previous U.S. estimates made any attempt to consider factors that might impact on risk for second generation girls. That gap provides the second focus of my research. While some studies suggested that FGM/C continued within diaspora communities, most studies suggested a significant shift in attitudes towards FGM/C post migration, which likely translates into reduced risk in second generation populations as the practice is abandoned.
That research aim gave rise to the following research questions under investigation:
1. What are the demographics, distribution and number of women and girls living with FGM/C in the United States?
2. How at risk of FGM/C are the native-born daughters of migrant women who were themselves cut prior to migration to the United States? What, if any, proxy indicators are associated with higher or lower risk scenarios?
The Extrapolation-of-FGM/C-Countries’-Prevalence-Data method, which forms the basis for my study, relies on three variables: (1) the prevalence rate in the country of origin, (2) the diaspora population in the country under examination, and (3) an estimation of the impact of migration and acculturation on prevalence. The first two variables constitute the quantitative components of the method, while the third variable calls for a mix-method approach. My project is thus divided into two distinct and interlinked studies: The first based on secondary population and prevalence data extracted from over 80 different sources, while the second will be based on primary data collected from potentially impacted communities in the United States.
The four previous studies that estimated FGM/C prevalence in the United States (African Women’s Health Center, 2004; Goldberg et al., 2016; Jones et al., 1997; Mather, 2016) each deployed a version of the Extrapolation-of-FGM/C-Countries’-Prevalence-Data method. A literature review of these quantitative studies identified several significant limitations with both the prevalence and population data used, that undermined the integrity of the findings. Although some of these limitations had been addressed in European studies, gaps remained. Refining the Extrapolation-of-FGM/C-Countries’-Prevalence-Data method thus provided the initial focus of my research.
Exploring the dynamics that determine if and how harmful traditional practices, like FGM/C, persist after migration is vital to our understanding of the stickiness of the practice in diaspora communities. While most of the women living with FGM/C in the United States were cut prior to migration, a literature review of studies in the United States and Europe suggested that the risk to their native-born children was at times quite different to the risk in countries of origin, yet none of the previous U.S. estimates made any attempt to consider factors that might impact on risk for second generation girls. That gap provides the second focus of my research. While some studies suggested that FGM/C continued within diaspora communities, most studies suggested a significant shift in attitudes towards FGM/C post migration, which likely translates into reduced risk in second generation populations as the practice is abandoned.
That research aim gave rise to the following research questions under investigation:
1. What are the demographics, distribution and number of women and girls living with FGM/C in the United States?
2. How at risk of FGM/C are the native-born daughters of migrant women who were themselves cut prior to migration to the United States? What, if any, proxy indicators are associated with higher or lower risk scenarios?