In Her Words: Exploring the Landscape of Women's Intimate Partner Violence
Date
2017-09-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0002-7615-2735
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Doctoral
Abstract
There are ongoing debates about whether intimate partner violence (IPV) is primarily an asymmetrical problem of men’s violence against women and whether women’s violence is less significant in terms of frequency, severity, and consequences. Such literature highlights the need for more qualitative studies of women’s roles as the perpetrator and is why I chose to use a qualitative approach to this research. The purpose of this exploratory study was to answer the following question: What are the lived experiences of women who have used IPV against their male intimate partner? This study incorporated a qualitative methodological framework using a descriptive phenomenological approach to data analysis. Considering the importance of the women’s lived experience I incorporated the theoretical principles of feminist standpoint theory. The findings emphasize the importance of learning from women’s voices and contribute to a contextual understanding of the complex dynamics of IPV. Textural themes include destructive emotions, bottling negative sentiments/feelings, wanting control, and the complexities of substance use. Structural themes include retaliation, justification, the impact of unhealthy familial and intimate history, and reflective insights. The women’s experiences demonstrate the importance of contextualizing their violence. From this, the findings may also provide experiential insights toward informing professionals working in the area of IPV, specifically where women are perpetrators, as well as strategies and policies to increase effectiveness in intervention and prevention.
Description
Keywords
intimate violence, gendered violence
Citation
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Sociology
Program
Sociology