Detalhes do Documento

The prevailing theoretical explanations in the field of Intimate partner violence (battering and homicide) bear up mostly on feminist perspective. This approach circumscribes violence to a manhood demonstration of power, control, and coercion from men against women. Men are understood as the greater assaulters, and perpetration of violence by women is, mainly, perceived as self-defensive. The major purpose of this paper is to conceptualize others ways by which social dimensions related to gender intervene in the violence process. Narratives of 15 men convicted by homicide or attempted homicide against their woman, 6 men convicted for battering, and 6 women convicted for homicide against their male partner, about their intimate relationship and about the development of violent interactions will be analysed. It will be discussed how gender roles, and expectations, participate differently, for men and women, in their perceptions about their intimate relationship, and maintenance in a disturbed relationship and finally, in the perpetration of lethal or nonlethal violence. The major implications for preventing battering and homicide will be examined.