NCJ Number
240481
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 27 Issue: 7 Dated: October 2012 Pages: 635-645
Date Published
October 2012
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Forty women who had been in abusive adult, intimate relationships with other women were interviewed.
Abstract
Forty women who had been in abusive adult, intimate relationships with other women were interviewed. Their life experiences leading up to these abusive relationships were qualitatively examined to determine how heterosexism created a social context in which women were left vulnerable to abuse and dependent on their abusers. Childhood abuse, negative coming out experiences, lack of a queer community, and substance/alcohol abuse contributed to survivors' vulnerability to abuse by making them socially isolated from a support system and dependent on their partners to reconstruct a sense of family. Abstract published by arrangement with Springer.