To Love Violently

Abstract

This research describes and analyzes the strategies for reconciling love and violence among battered women and their abusive partners. The data were chosen from a purposive sample of 14 couples, and the research was conducted in the phenomenological tradition. Two avenues of reconciling emerged from the findings: one that presents love and violence as mutually functional and the other that creates a complete split between the two. These findings point to two important conclusions: (a) Feelings of love often exist between spouses, even in a violent environment, and (b) battered women and their partners often attach similar meanings to the connection between love and violence, or use the same strategies to split the two.