Sexual Assault During and After Separation/Divorce: An Exploratory Study

Project Summary for 2002-WG-BX-0004 A growing body of research shows that many North American Women who leave their husbands through legal separation, divorce, or other means are at great risk of being physically assaulted or killed, espcially if they lived with violent spouses or cohabiting partners. Still, to date, there is a shortage of empirical work on male-to female sexual assaults during the process of terminating the marital/cohabiting relationship and after separation/divorce. This project will explore the following questions: (1) Are survivors of estrangement sexual assault also victims of physical and psychological assault, or is such sexual victimization the only type of abuse they experience? (2) Do survivors of estrangement sexual assault experience different types of forced sexual activity? (3) Based on survivors' point of view, what are the major characteristics of men who sexually assault their estanged female partners? (4) Based on survivors' perspectives, what types of social support and intervention are the most effective? This exploratory study will involve conducting semi-structured interviews with 150 women in rural and urban settings in Ohio. Ca/ncf