The Sexual Assault of Women in Rural Places: A Review of the Social Scientific Literature

• In Event: Advances in Rural Criminology I

Abstract

Social Scientific research on sexual violence against women has mushroomed over the past 50 years. There is now ample empirical and theoretical knowledge about the extent, distribution, sources, and outcomes of this world-wide harm in a variety of contexts, such as in households, institutions of higher learning, urban public places, and in cyberspace. However, the scholarly focus on sexual violence in rural and remote areas is significantly overshadowed by the extensive research dedicated to this harm in other places, especially those listed above. Still, there is a growing corpus of knowledge on sexual violence in nonmetropolitan areas. The main objective of this article is to make explicit what social scientists know and do not know about this type of woman abuse.

Authors

• Walter Steven DeKeseredy, West Virginia University

• Emilia Jurgielewicz-Delegacz, University of Bialystok

• Joseph Donnermeyer, The Ohio State University