Citation

Schneider RZ, Feltey KM. Violence Against Women 2009; 15(4): 443-459.

Affiliation

University of Akron.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1077801208331244

PMID

19223663

Abstract

In this article, the authors explore the religious and spiritual experiences and beliefs of incarcerated battered women who killed abusive intimate partners or (step)fathers. Through in-depth interviews with 12 imprisoned battered women, the authors examine the role that religion and spirituality played in the women's lives before and during their incarceration. Regardless of their religious upbringing, most had what they described as spiritual experiences during their time in prison. For them, participation in the support group for battered women and their spiritual experiences "freed them" by giving them a way to reconstruct and reinterpret their victimization, perpetration of violence, and subsequent incarceration.

Language: en