Deconstructing the “stakes” in high stakes gatekeeping interviews: Battered women and narration

While gatekeeping encounters imply risk in as much as the gatekeeper acts as an actuary who controls entry into desired spaces and/or access to necessary resources, this article examines some of the less obvious stakes that are put at risk in gatekeeping encounters. Through a discourse analysis, Latina women narrators, in the context of producing testimony in the high stakes gatekeeping encounter of the protective order interview, are shown to put at risk: (1) both their positive and negative face; (2) their ability to control constructions of their identity; (3) their credibility and sincerity as perceived by interviewers, members of their community or even the public at large; and (4) their control over their case. I discuss how these concepts are related to the “second assault” or “victim-blaming” that survivors sometimes report to find within sociolegal settings. To know what it means to “advocate” for battered women, it is necessary to understand the more obscure dangers involved in narrating taboo subjects.