“Because I Was the One to Blame, Right?”

Abstract

Gender and migration status add to the risk of certain people being victims and have been considered, from an intersectionality perspective, added vulnerabilities to some social groups. Likewise, it can negatively affect the experience that victims have with the police when reporting a crime suffered to the authorities, which can generate secondary victimisation and impact people's lives. This chapter presents the results of empirical research about the experiences of victimised migrant women with the criminal police in Portugal, analysed from a narrative victimology approach under the intersectional lens. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews, and by conducting a narrative analysis, it was found that most migrants suffered secondary victimisation, this situation also being influenced by gender and migrant status. Critical methodological issues will also be dealt with, including the recruitment of participants and the reflexivity of the first author, a migrant herself, researching migrant women.