Intimate partner violence against women: Online and offline contexts

Abstract

The research investigated characteristics of violence against women by an intimate partner in an online and offline way, its impacts on the relationship in question, and coping with the violence. Twelve women with access to higher education who reported having experienced violence in a relationship with an intimate partner and utilized at least one virtual social network during the reported relationship participated. Data collection procedure was made by the snowball technique, using episodic interviews. Thematic analysis was used to categorize the data. In the results, two themes were identified: (a) offline violence in the relationship; and (b) online violence in the relationship. The first theme indicated that the types of violence experienced were physical, psychological, and sexual. Characteristics such as “social isolation,” “fear of reacting,” “blaming the victim,” and “violence as a cycle” were perceived offline. The second theme pointed to the use of the internet in relationships as a control tool by the partner, as a way to record evidence of violence, and as an access to information facilitator. It is suggested that new research in the field addresses different sociodemographic variables to investigate different perceptions about online and offline violence in a romantic relationship.