NCJ Number
194593
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 8 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2002 Pages: 476-494
Date Published
April 2002
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This Israeli study analyzed the strategies used by battered women to reconcile love and violence in their relationships with abusive partners.
Abstract
The interview material was obtained as part of a broader research project that dealt with the emotions involved in violence against women. The research was conducted in northern Israel during 1992 and 1993 (Yassour, 1994). The sample selected for the current research included 14 couples (28 battered women and their husbands). These particular couples were selected from the larger project because their statements on the emotion of love and its relationship to the violence were richer than those of the other research participants. The women reported experiencing violence at least once during the 12 months preceding the interview. It was not a one-time occurrence, but rather permeated family life as a constant feature. Common to all cases was the fact that in the woman's phenomenological experience, violence was a constant feature of her daily life. Semistructured interviews were conducted separately with each spouse. The interview covered the following themes: the participant's definition of love in general and whether or not he/she had experienced this feeling toward his/her spouse; a detailed description of the experience of love for the spouse, or its loss; the effect that violence had on the experience of loving and being loved; and the role of love in intimate violence. Both men and women of nine couples reported that they loved each other and reinforced this claim with elaborate descriptions of the love. Of the remaining five couples, all the men claimed they loved their wives, but the women were either reluctant or claimed they did not love their partners. All of the couples felt the need to explain how love and violence could coexist in their relationship. The two most important findings of the study are that feelings of love between spouses often exist, even in a violent marital environment; and battered wives and violent husbands often attach similar meanings to the connection between love and violence, or use the same strategies to split the two. 44 references