Resistance as Edgework in Violent Intimate Relationships of Drug-Involved Women

• NCJ Number: 218042
• Journal: British Journal of Criminology Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Dated: March 2007 Pages: 196-213
• Author(s): Valli Rajah
• Date Published: March 2007
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This study used ethnographic interviews of poor, minority, drug-involved women in violent relationships in order to examine the behavior called "edgework-resistance," which refers to "risk-taking activities in which individuals court physical injury but deploy context-specific expertise to avoid it."

Abstract

This study found that poor, drug-using, largely African-American and Puerto-Rican women with habitually violent male partners have ambivalent and sometimes contradictory behavioral goals in these relationships. They want to avoid injury and suffering from their partner's violence without threatening the stability of their relationship. "Edgework" is a mode of resistance that serves these competing goals while giving the women a sense of control over what happens to them. The women cultivate behaviors that adapt to and avoid the more severe consequences of their partner's violence while being careful not to risk maintaining the rewards that they draw from the relationship. Having lived, "hustled," and taken drugs with their male partners over the years, the abused women were aware of their partner's likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses. The women routinely acted on this knowledge in their interactions with their partners, including in their acts of resistance. The study involved 45 women (7 Caucasians, 23 Latinas, and 15 African-Americans). The majority were raised in families with various socioeconomic problems, including poverty, parental absence or neglect, suicide, drug addiction, and violence. They have continued to experience many of these same problems in their own adult lives. The majority had been in their current abusive relationship for more than 7 years. The women were interviewed about the various behaviors they used to resist being dominated and abused by their partners while doing what was required to maintain the stability of the relationship. 60 references