Family Violence in Men’s Accounts: Implications for Action

Abstract

This article presents some of the results of a qualitative study that was conducted within the framework of the strategy implemented by some Lebanese women organizations; namely engaging men in their efforts to combat family gender-based violence. In order to gain a more comprehensive view of the dynamics of violence against women in their families (than that obtained solely from recounts of women victims /survivors of violence that was researched in numerous previous studies conducted in Lebanon), the researcher listened, in an in-depth interview, to eleven wife batterers describing their versions of why they were indicted before the Lebanese court, or why they were seeking psychological help, depending on their case. Qualitative discourse analysis of the recorded free speech and recounts of these men was performed in an attempt to understand their respective family dynamics as manifested by the psycho-social factors around which revolved their recounts; thus laying the ground for understanding the practical implications for the intervention of different stakeholders involved in combating gender-based violence, namely, the psycho-social agents for the rehabilitation of the perpetrators, the judiciary and the women organizations.