A Group of Women Coping with Domestic Violence after the Denouncements

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of confrontation ways that female victims of domestic violence found during and after denunciation in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. Nine women selfdenominated victims of violence who broke silence and denunciated their aggressors participated in this qualitative and participative research from August to October 2007, in the State Center of Reference for Women Support (CERAM). The data collectors used the focal group, the reports in the field diary and observation, and the data were submitted to categorical analysis, and discussed based on Health Belief Model. Fear, lack of support, financial dependence, shame, motherhood, and culture raised as constraints and susceptibility were identified; the risk of death was observed as severity; family and friends’ support, law, the sectors of protection and God were the benefits which were configured as support for confrontation. For those women, violence overcame physical limits, as it comprehended psychological, emotional, economic and social sufferance. Therefore, such women broke silence of violent relationships and searched strategies to reduce sufferance.