Borders - whether settled or contested, violent or calm, closed or open - may have a direct, and often acute, human impact. Those affected may be people living nearby, those attempting to cross them and even those who succeed in doing so. At the border, vulnerable refugee and migrant communities, especially women, are exposed to state-centred boundary practices, paving the way for both their alienation and exploitation. The militarization of borders subjugates the very position of women in these marginalized areas and often subjects them to further victimization, which is facilitated by patriarchal socio-cultural practice. Structural violence is endemic to these regions and gender interlocks with their perimeters to reinforce and shape violence. This book locates gender and violence along geographical edges and critically examines the gendered experiences of women as global border residents and border crossers. Broadly, it explores two questions. First, what are women's experiences of engaging with borders? Second, where are women positioned in the theory and practice of marking, remarking and demarking these margins? Offering a nuanced and thorough approach, this book suggests that research on borders and violence needs to focus on how bordered violence shapes the embodiment of gender identity and norms and how they are challenged. It examines an array of issues including forced migration, trafficking and cross-border ties to explore how gender and borders intersect.

This book investigates the representation of rape in British and Irish theatre since the second wave of the Women's Movement. Mainly focusing on the period from the 1990s to the present, it identifies key feminist debates on rape and gender, and introduces a set of ideas about the function of rape as a form of embodied, gendered violence to the analysis of dramaturgical and performance strategies used in a range of important and/or controversial works. The chapters explore the dramatic representation of consent; feminist performance strategies that interrogate common attitudes to rape and rape survivors; the use of rape as an allegory for political oppression; the relationships of vulnerability, eroticism and affect in the understanding and representation of sexual violence; and recent work that engages with anti-rape activism to present women's personal experiences on stage.

This book describes the complex process of desistance from sexual crime as told by 74 men incarcerated for sexual offenses and released back into the community. Unlike much of the research on this topic, Harris places strong emphasis on how men who have committed serious sexual offenses come to stop offending and end their 'criminal career'. Drawing on in-depth interviews, Harris outlines three main strategies that the men employ in order to pursue offense-free lives. The Retirement Strategy is divided into those who appear to simply 'resign' and those who go on to 'rebuild' their lives. The Regulation Strategy characterizes desistance as a product of one's ability to navigate increasingly restrictive legislation ('restricted,' 'rehearsed,' 'resistant,' and 'reclusive' desistance). The men who describe their desistance in terms of Recovery do so either through 'rehabilitation' or through 'resilience.' This original and engaging study will be of great interest not only to academics who study sexual aggression but also those who have survived sexual abuse themselves, and anyone working with survivors of sexual abuse, individuals convicted of sexual offenses, their families, and their communities.

This accessibly written book illuminates the good news of healing and liberation the Bible offers survivors of sexual abuse. As an expert in pastoral ministry and a survivor of abuse herself, Elaine Heath handles this sensitive topic with compassion and grace. The book is illustrated with stories and insights from survivors, and each chapter ends with reflection questions and recommended activities. Previously published as We Were the Least of These, this repackaged edition includes a new contextualized introduction that explores how the book speaks into a vital cultural conversation (#MeToo).