Chronicity of Violence Foretold: Toward an Integrated Theory of Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a worldwide social problem. The current study explores underlining mechanisms of phenomenon by tying together intergenerational transmission theory, socialization theory, and trauma theory. It learns from men how the father figure shaped by their childhood experiences has contributed to their violence, how the father’s socialization to manhood has affected their intimate relations, and how they understand the effect of being exposed to the father’s violence on their own intimate relationships and violence. Interviews with 25 Israeli men were analyzed thematically in the phenomenological approach. Thematic analysis revealed five themes describing men’s experiences of their father’s aggression and detachment; men’s experience of their intimate relations; men’s image of women; men’s fear of being infected or conquered by their partners’ emotionality; and an overarching theme describing the understanding that men and women are destined to live in an intractable conflict that only violence can end. The interviewees explained that when hardened detached men raised by violent fathers interact with an emotional woman, they experience painful feelings and are threatened by her emotionality; consequently, they will use violence against that threat to stop their pain. The findings support a multidimensional integrative perspective of IPV and call for a theoretical synthesis of these men’s models of violence. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.