FEAR JOURNALS: A STRATEGY FOR TEACHING ABOUT THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF GENDERED VIOLENCE.

Although violence against women is an important topic for many sociology classes, teaching about it can be problematic. Students may see violence against women as an individual rather than social problem, may trivialize or blame victims, or may react defensively. In this paper, I present an approach to teaching about violence that addresses some of these difficulties. Students keep a one-day journal of their experiences of fear and use of safety strategies, and then analyze their findings both individually and in discussion with their classmates. This analysis helps students to see violence not simply as an individual experience, but as a form of social control that differently affects social groups. In this paper, I describe this exercise, illustrate its effectiveness using excerpts from students journals, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this pedagogical approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]