Seminar
By employing a theoretical base formulated to specifically consider Black women’s position in U.S. society - Black feminist criminology – and through sampling battered Black women from diverse backgrounds, this qualitative study provides an essential analysis of battered Black women’s experiences with intimate partner abuse and support networks. In their self-identification as Strong Black Women and not as victims, the women embraced the idea that they have exhibited resistance – with either physical or non-physical force – in many aspects in their lives and not confined only to their abusive relationships. This concept of dynamic resistance encapsulates the whole of battered Black women’s distinctive life-chances influenced by race, gender sexuality, class violence, abuse, and other characteristics, and their dynamic responses to these life-chances. The women exhibit their dynamic resistance to being beat down, knocked out, and kicked around by their intimate partners, their social and religious communities that are ignoring the abuse, and the criminal justice system that is disregarding their battles with abuse.