How Women Define Their Experiences of Violence (From Feminist Perspectives on Wife Abuse, 1988, P 114-132, Kersti Yllo and Michele Bograd, eds. -- See NCJ-142227)

• NCJ Number: 142232
• Author(s): L Kelly
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 19 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Data from an in-depth study of how women experience and cope with sexual violence were analyzed to explore the themes of naming, defining, and redefining sexual violence.

Abstract

Interviews were conducted with 60 women to document the range of sexual violence women experience in their lives, to explore the links between different forms of sexual violence, and to study the long-term impact of rape, incest, and domestic violence. Over 60 percent of the women initially failed to define their experiences as a form of sexual violence, but 50 percent of the incidents of physical abuse by a partner were defined as "violence" as the abuse persisted. About 70 percent of the women changed their definitions of their experiences over time and mostly in the direction of relabeling an incident as abuse. Women frequently remembered more details of what happened to them over time and consequently redefined events in new ways. Simultaneously, redefining their experiences often enabled women to remember more of the process. The interviews revealed that through the process of redefinition, women focused on their feelings and reactions rather than on stereotypes or limited definitions or the perceptions of others. 26 references