Early mock-up of Archives of Abuse collage, 1992
Collage 4: Police report and police photograph, San Francisco, 1992
Collage 2: Police report and police photograph, San Francisco, 1992
You are almost not the victim, you are almost the cause of the crime. There are a lot of games society plays with you. The person who stabbed me, because he had three strikes, he got one of the best lawyers in San Francisco, pro bono. His lawyer was an ex-policeman, a very, very good lawyer, and they didn't think what was done to me was serious. The defense investigator used to come over to my house and talk to me, ask not to press charges. The things that I had to go through until the day that person was sentenced were humiliating. The police would ask me, if I was afraid of this person, why did I allow him around me? They investigate your personal background--where I met him, the length of time the relationship went on--and they let you know that that's what they're doing. You cannot be intimidated.
In the beginning, I believed in the law, but I didn't know how the law worked, and it was really surprising. I got stabbed in August 1992, I think. It took a year for the police to find cause that he had actually stabbed me. I had been going to court that whole time. I felt that he had more rights than I did, even though he was locked up. His lawyer tried to break me down. They wanted to know what I did wrong to have him do something like that to me. I mean, what do you do wrong to be stabbed six times in your car?
-Noline
Collage 1: Police report and police photograph of a survivor's home, San Francisco, 1992
Collage 3: Police report and police photograph, San Francisco, 1992
Spread from Susan Meiselas's notebook in the field
Collage: Police report and police photograph, Irma's hands for 'Women's Work' bus stop poster, San Francisco, 1992
Installation view of Irma's hands for 'Women's Work' poster on a bus stop, San Francisco, 1992
"Too Scared to Go Home," San Francisco Chronicle, July 8, 1992. Article on Liz Claiborne project, 'Women's Work'
"Battering," Letters to the editor addressing a previous article called "Striking Back"
"Battering," Letters to the editor addressing a previous article called "Striking Back"