“I’m Just Not Like that”: Investigating the Intergenerational Cycle of Violence

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a study designed to investigate the following question: How do some childhood witnesses of domestic violence make sense of their nonviolence in adult intimate relationships? The results of in-depth semistructured interviews with adults who grew up witnessing violence but who are not violent in their intimate relationships are reported. External factors and the participants’ attention to the punishments associated with the violence they had witnessed played the largest roles in helping these men see alternatives to acting violently in their own intimate relationships.