Women's responses to sexual violence by male intimates

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to devise a theoretical frame work that describes the problem of sexual violence by male intimates from t he point of view of 23 women who have experienced such violence at some tim e in their adult lives. The core variable,forging ahead in a dangerous worl d, reflects the women's descriptions of life after violence as a struggle t o get on with their lives in a social world they know through firsthand exp erience to be unsafe. The theoretical framework includes three variations o f forging ahead (getting back on track, starting over again, and surviving the long, hard road) described by three subgroups of women who experienced different types of sexual violence. The framework also outlines three commo n processes used to forge ahead: telling others, making sense of the violen ce, and creating a safer life. The nature and meaning of these processes di ffer according to group.