NCJ Number
170618
Date Published
1998
Length
293 pages
Annotation
This book focuses on a phenomenon that has received scant research attention, namely rural woman battering and the criminal justice system's response to that violence.
Abstract
One of the reasons for the neglect of woman battering in rural communities is that researchers have ignored rural communities. It is not easy for researchers to study rural communities, in part because rural citizens tend to be suspicious of outsiders. Even conducting research using telephone surveys is problematic in rural communities because telephone subscription rates can be much lower in rural communities than in cities. Further, there is a popular tendency to see rural communities as more tranquil than urban communities, even though rural families are just as prone to outbreaks of violence against women as their urban counterparts. The author used ethnographic methods, including 96 focused interviews and participant and nonparticipation observations, to overcome some of the difficulties in conducting rural research. He collected a great deal of unstructured information about rural woman battering in Kentucky that was inextricably linked to rural life in general. The institution of marriage, for example, seemed to be more revered in rural communities, and marriage rates were higher in rural areas than in urban centers. Marriage and the family were at the heart of rural patriarchy. Observations of the author on rural woman battering are organized according to seven chapters. The first chapter covers the magnitude of rural woman battering, various forms of abuse (physical, sexual, and emotional), resistance, murder, and murder-suicide. The second chapter examines rural patriarchy, crime, and criminal justice, with emphasis on sociocultural considerations and regional diversity. Subsequent chapters look at abuse of women and the criminal justice system response, the policing of rural woman battering, the courts and rural woman battering, the regulation of rural woman battering, and social policies intended to deal with or prevent rural woman battering. The author concludes that rural patriarchy and the "good old boy network" of law enforcement and local politics continue to make rural women subordinate, vulnerable, and isolated and that a coordinated multiagency approach to rural woman battering is needed. Appendixes contain information on methods used in the ethnographic study and a regional map of Kentucky. References and notes