Candies in hell: women's experiences of violence in Nicaragua

The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of domestic viole nce against women in Leon, Nicaragua. A survey was carried out among a repr esentative sample of 488 women between the ages of 15-49. The physical aggr ession sub-scale of the Conflict Tactics Scale was used to identify women s uffering abuse. In-depth interviews with formerly battered women were perfo rmed and narratives from these interviews were analysed and compared with t he survey data. Among ever-married women 52% reported having experienced ph ysical 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 kin ds 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 re porting that the first act of violence act took place within the first 2 ye ars of marriage. Significant, positive associations were found between part ner abuse and problems among children, including physical abuse. Both the s urvey data and the narrative analysis pointed to extreme jealousy and contr ol as constant features of the abusive relationship. Further, the data indi cate 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 difficulty in recognizing and disengaging fro m a violent relationship. These findings are consistent with theoretical co nceptualisations of domestic violence developed in other countries, suggest ing that, to a large degree, women's experiences of violence transcend spec ific cultural contexts. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.