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Women abuse and Violence in Nicaragua
– Reported, March 14, 2012
A survey was carried out among a representative sample of 488 women between the ages of 15±49. The physical aggression sub-scale of the Conflict Tactics Scale was used to identify women suffering abuse. In-depth interviews with formerly battered women were performed and narratives from these interviews were analysed and compared with the survey data. Among ever-married women 52% reported having experienced physical partner abuse at some point in their lives. Median duration of abuse was 5 years. A considerable overlap was found between physical, emotional and sexual violence, with 21% of ever-married women reporting all three kinds of abuse. Thirty-one percent of abused women suffered physical violence during pregnancy. The latency period between the initiation of marriage or cohabitation and violence was short, with over 50% of the battered women reporting that the first act of violence act took place within the first 2 years of marriage. Significant, positive associations were found between partner abuse and problems among children, including physical abuse. Both the survey data and the narrative analysis pointed to extreme jealousy and control as constant features of the abusive relationship. Further, the data indicate that battered women frequently experience feelings of shame, isolation and entrapment which, together with a lack of family and community support, often contribute to women’s di culty in recognizing and disengaging from a violent relationship. These findings are consistent with theoretical conceptualisations of domestic violence
developed in other countries, suggesting that, to a large degree, women’s experiences of violence transcend specific cultural contexts.
Semi-structured interviews were carried out initially with women who had experienced violence to help focus the content and wording of the survey instrument. To help interpret the survey results two focus group discussions (FGD) were held with 18 additional women with experience of domestic violence issues, some of whom had been closely involved with the research process itself.
Finally, thematised, in-depth interviews were carried out with two additional women who had lived in violent relationships and had since left their partners. The women were similar to women in the survey population in terms of age, education and economic conditions and the general characteristics of their experiences of wife abuse. They were chosen because of their willingness and ability to describe and interpret their own actions and feelings about the experience (intensity sampling). Both the in-depth interviews and FGD were taped and verbatim transcripts were made for further analysis.
Ana Cristina was a 27-year-old university student who had lived through several years of abuse until ending her marriage 7 years earlier. Maria Dolores, a 26 year-old nurse, was married for 9 years to an abusive husband, from whom she had separated 2 weeks before the interview.
Both women shared their experiences in the form of narratives, i.e. their stories described how and when specific events had occurred (“what happened”), as well as informed about the context and meaning that events had had for them (“what it was like”).
Narrative analysis deals primarily with how individuals explain and interpret events in their lives . Since the stories are located in time, narrative analysis is useful for understanding the order of events, in this case the events leading up to and ensuing from violent episodes. The narratives were first organised according to time frame, with emphasis placed on the period when both women were living with their partners.
Characteristics of abuse
“I don’t know why I’m still alive. . .”Ana Cristina was married at the age of 15 to a man in his late thirties. Her husband was a soldier, a Sandinista, which in the early days of the revolution carried with it a romantic aura that quickly earned him the respect and approval of Ana Cristina’s mother. Shortly after the marriage, he began to beat Ana Cristina sav-agely and continued to do so regularly throughout the subsequent 5 years. She learned to listen for him at night and be ready to escape if necessary, with the children. . .I had to sleep in other people’s houses to avoid getting beaten when he came home. I would have to climb over the back wall with my daughters when he arrived, and he would shoot at me. I escaped many times from his bullets. I don’t know why I’m still alive. . .
The results of the community survey indicated that Ana Cristina’s experience is far from unique in Nicaragua. Out of the 488 women interviewed, 360 were identified as having ever been married or living with a male partner. Of these, 188 women (52%) reported having experienced physical violence at some point in their lives, while 20% reported experiencing severe violence during the previous 12 months. The general characteristics of the ever-married women, as well as
Women who experienced abuse were more likely to live in the urban area, to be poor, and to have more than 4 children than women not experiencing abuse. They were also more likely to report that their mothers or their mothers-in-law had been physically abused by partners.
“You’re an animal, an idiot, you are worthless. . .”
Among ever-married women, 71% had experienced acts of emotional aggression from a partner, including insults, humiliations and threats of physical violence. A considerable overlap was found between physical, emotional and sexual violence, with 21% of ever-married women reporting all three kinds of abuse and only 1 woman reporting sexual abuse without physical or emotional violence . Nearly all of the women living with physical violence (94%) reported that verbal insults and humiliations generally accompanied physical abuse. Thirty-six percent reported that they were commonly forced to have sex while being beaten.
“.Like a horse with blinders. .”
Both the survey data and the narrative analysis pointed to extreme jealousy and control as constant features of the abusive relationship. Nearly one-third of women referred to their husband’s jealousy as the main cause of violence.
The results of the research indicate that wife abuse is a serious public health problem in Nicaragua, with devastating consequences for women and children. The data suggest that a significant proportion of the female population is currently experiencing severe physical violence from their intimate partners, often accompanied by emotional and sexual abuse.
The fact that children are so often witnesses to violence against their mothers is of particular concern, not only because it exposes them to the risk of abuse themselves but also, in the case of boys, to the risk of becoming battering husbands as adults.
The survey results present a reliable image of the magnitude and characteristics of wife abuse in Nicaragua, and the qualitative data provide insights into the meaning of violence from the perspective of abused women. The findings also lend support to the ecological model of gender-based violence
By showing how the meaning of violence is constructed through the interaction of events and circumstances operating at deferent levels. The descriptions of violence presented in the narratives are consistent with a complex dynamic referred to by international researchers, in which physical abuse is closely linked to abuse of power and control over a woman’s daily life, including social contacts. This dynamic results in feelings of shame, fear, isolation, entrapment, lowered self-esteem, loss of autonomy and diminished
functional capacity. These feelings may be reinforced by the negative responses of family, friends and public institutions, including the criminal justice system, and by cultural attitudes towards violence and gender roles.
Moreover, the core themes which emerged in the descriptions of women’s experiences of battering are all consistent with theoretical conceptualisations of domestic violence developed in other countries .This suggests that these experiences, to a large degree, transcend specific cultural contexts and are common to women around the world.
Credits:
Mary Ellsberg, Rodolfo PenÄa, AndreÂs Herrera,Jerker Liljestrand, and Anna Winkvist
More information at:
http://www.caresci.gu.se/infoglueCalendar/digitalAssets/1760631588_BifogadFil_artiklar070228.pdf
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