Dangerous relationships: Effects of early exposure to violence in women’s lives

Abstract

Using the intergenerational transmission of violence theoretical framework, this paper examines the psychological, sociological and cultural factors that help explain the reasons why women remain in long standing relationships with abusive male sexual partners. A targeted sample of thirty-six women partners of injecting drug users in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, who were victims of conjugal abuse are used to test a number of psychological, sociological and cultural hypotheses of the existence of long term abusive relationships. All these women were involved with males who were still involved in Juarez street gangs. Qualitative data analysis revealed that all of their women's present relationships involved intimate partner violence, and that they had been subjected to some form of physical or sexual abuse while growing up. Gang violence also played and continues to have an impact in these women's lives. Most reported that their present intimate partners had been gang members in the past and that the women themselves may have participated peripherally in gang activities.