And I Went Back

For battered women who participate in social and police services designed to help them, a dominant cultural script has emerged that directs them to get away and stay away from their abusers. Using in-depth interview and participant-observation data, the author examines the strategies battered women employ to resist that script. Staying with an abuser, ignoring and lifting restraining orders, and refusing to call and cooperate with police were active, reasoned choices battered women made in response to an array of conditions including fear of and harassment by abuser, complex everyday-life contingencies, and emotional attachment to abuser. The battered women tried to use the dominant cultural script to get away and stay away, but found that the script was overly narrow and there was a lack of coordinated institutional support for their decisions. This study extends sociological perspectives on battered women by viewing them as a culture of resistance and focusing on strategies they employ to assert control and make choices relevant to their needs and interests.