Discourse Analysis of Partner-focus in Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) involves behaviors that harm or threaten to harm an intimate partner; but more importantly, it involves the production of power and control in an intimate relationship that threatens a partner's liberty and wellbeing. As a wicked problem, IPV is challenging to unpack without reducing the complexities that give it its power. This study seeks to explore the complex nature of how abusive men's focus on their partner functions as a mechanism of abuse. To develop the concept of other-focus I draw on constructs of coercive control, power, and dominance. To investigate partner-focus, I conducted a discourse analysis of abusive men's (n=14) narratives gathered through semi-structured interviews. Participants were asked to describe their relationship, conflict in their relationship, and situations where conflict escalated to aggression. Analysis explored how participants centered their partners and how this functioned in the discourse. Findings demonstrate how discourse was used to direct attention and foreground their partner in ways that diminished her character and elevated the identity of the participant, while disavowing the participant's role in relationship conflict. These findings are consistent with the use of coercive control, power, and dominance in abusive relationships found in the literature, but extends this understanding by explicating the dynamic processes of discourse and the use of attentional focus in producing harmful effects associated with IPV.