Marital Violence: Challenges and Proposals for the Application of “Maria da Penha” Law

Abstract

We analyse the discourse of one middle-class couple, divorced due to the husband’s threats to the life of his spouse, aiming at investigating their affective and familiar dynamic, their experiences of marital violence (conflict motivations, and consequences of the complaint at a Women’s Police Station), their concepts of gender, violence and relationship. Based on this case, we discuss relevant issues for the applicability of the “Maria da Penha” Law. Data were obtained using individual semi-structured interviews and were subjected to phenomenological analysis. The results indicate facilitating factors for conflicts between the couple (wife’s labour license, excessive alcohol consumption by the husband, and his father’s death); they also present some existing challenges to improve the effectiveness of the “Maria da Penha” Law and the importance of the democratic management on the construction of public policies to face gender violence.