What is it about?
Gender-based violence is a threat faced by young homeless women and the circumstances of homelessness provide little protection. This paper examines how young homeless women form and maintain intimate relationships with men to feel safe in this hazardous environment even though these relationships may also not be free from danger.
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Perspectives
This paper highlights how young women manage the physical dangers of homelessness. With few resources for self-protection, the young women in this study discuss the importance of having a male intimate partner to provide a sense of safety and how this contributes to them engaging in heterosexual relationships. However, these relationships can also be a source of violence. It is made clear that for some women the circumstances of homelessness are so dangerous that it seems safer to remain in an abusive relationship that to be homeless and alone.
Dr Juliet Watson
RMIT University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Gender-Based Violence and Young Homeless Women: Femininity, Embodiment and Vicarious Physical Capital, The Sociological Review, May 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1111/1467-954x.12365.
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