ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses women's positions in their households of origin and traces their gender-identity development by describing their images of and relationships with adults in their households, including the extent to which the women experienced or observed abuse. It explores how the African American battered women's vulnerability to gender entrapment began as their gender identity was constructed in their households of origin, and was later influenced by the social positions of their African American families in the public sphere. The chapter also explores how these influences led to the creation of intimate relationships that left these women particularly vulnerable to abuse, which, in turn, set them on unique paths to illegal activities and incarceration at Rikers Island Correctional Facility. It concludes with a discussion of the relationship between racial/ethnic identity and family loyalty, which, when taken with the other factors, created the particular dynamic of gender entrapment for the African American battered women.
