ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an alternative view of the women's lives in order to shift the dominant social science paradigms and in encouraging a more respectful and humane public-policy response to the problems of crime, violence against women, poverty, racism and gender discrimination. It helps readers to understand the women's stories. The principal research method used to understand the experiences of the African American battered women was to analyze the findings from life-history interviews obtained through use of the interview schedule of open-ended questions. A review of the sociological studies of similar populations that have used the life-history methodology further establishes its advantages. The identification of women to be interviewed and the methodology selected to discuss the effects of gender entrapment was dependent upon the operational definition of the concept of intimate violence.
