Speaking unavoidable truths: understanding early childhood sexual and physical violence among women in prison

Women in prison have often suffered physical and sexual abuse as children which substantively contributes to their substance abuse, violence, and criminal behaviors. To understand women's offending, and subsequent health issues, it is helpful to understand their own victimization. In this participative action research, women used poetry as both a process and a product to confront the truths of their lives in terms of what was done to them and what they have done to others and themselves. As the women learned to speak their own truths, those same truths became unavoidable to themselves. This rise into consciousness is demonstrated through excerpts from the participants' writings.