Research - sexual abuse
Women, Violence and Male Power (1995)
Hester, Kelly & Radford (Editors)
Open University Press; ISBN: 0335195067
Making public the issue of sexual violence - men's violence to women
and children - has been a major feminist success story of the past
couple of decades. This book gives an important insight into the new
issues and questions that have become central to our understanding of
sexual violence and abuse, and the new directions in which research in
this area has developed. The authors explore differences in women's
experiences and how these relate to different ways of coping with men's
violence.
Sexual Abuse in Childhood (1994)
Kelly, Regan & Burton
Sage Publications Ltd; ISBN: 0803987099
Surviving Sexual Violence (1989)
Kelly
University of Minnesota Press; ISBN: 0816617538
This new study, based on in-depth interviews with 60 women, is the
first to cover the experience of a range of forms of sexual violence
over women's lifetimes. Drawing on feminist theory, developing a
critique of male research and quoting extensively from the women
interviewed, it develops feminist thought in several key areas: the
similarities and differences between forms of sexual violence; the ways
women define their experiences; and the strategies women use in
resisting, coping with and surviving sexual violence. The author
stresses the importance for all women of recognizing the incidents of
sexual violence in their lives and seeing themselves and other women as
survivors rather than victims. In highlighting the ways in which the
media, the criminal justice system and even the "helping" professions
contribute to the trivialization of sexual violence, she demonstrates
the necessity of women organizing collectively to end this suffering.