Histories of Violent Victimization Among Women Who Reported Unwanted Sex in Marriages and Intimate Relationships

Abstract

This article summarizes results of semistructured telephone interviews with 41 women about experiences with various forms of violent victimization. Women who reported an incident or incidents of unwanted sex in their intimate partner relationships were recruited from a national telephone poll and interviewed about other types of victimization, such as childhood maltreatment, unwanted sex by a date or acquaintance, and nonsexual violence by a husband or partner. Results suggest that women who report unwanted sex by a husband or partner have commonly experienced various other forms of abuse in their lives. The author discusses implications of the findings for prevention of unwanted sex in intimate relationships.