Since the 1970s, social scientists have greatly enhanced an empirical andtheoretical understanding of various types of woman abuse in ongoing heterosexual relationships. However, although we know that breaking up with a violent man greatly increases a woman's risk of experiencing lethal and non-lethal violence, relatively little empirical and theoretical attention has been paid to the victimization of women who want to leave, are in the process of leaving, or who have left their marital/cohabiting partners. Furthermore, the limited work that has been done on this topic focuses primarily on physical violence, such as beatings and homicide. Abuse, of course, is multidimensional in nature and a few studies show that women are also at high risk of being sexually assaulted during and after separation/divorce. Still, almost all of the research on this problem, regardless of whether it is qualitative or quantitative, was conducted in urban areas. Thus, the main objective of this report is to help fill two major research gaps bypresenting the results of a qualitative, exploratory study of separation/divorce sexual assault in rural Ohio. Document summary

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