Heterosexual Courtship Violence and Sexual Harassment: The Private and Public Control of Young Women

Abstract

In this article we explore, through the voices of young women, how two forms of male violence-sexual harassment and heterosexual courtship violence-affect the lives of adolescent girls. We demonstrate the connections between the two forms of male abuse as a way of illustrating how young men's use of violence and harassment is played out in the private and in the public sphere of young women's lives-through a three-part system of male control that includes acts of diminishment, intimidation and force. We discuss the impact of this behaviour on young women's psychological development