Common Beliefs of Female Victims

He is financially dependent on her husband/boyfriend.
She has few friends and minimal family contact.
She has strong feelings of worthlessness and aloneness.
She is fearful for her life and the lives of her children.
She often believes that she is the cause of the abuse.
She is uninformed about resources for help.
She feels ashamed of the abuse.
She survives on the hope for a change in the relationship.
She has seen her own mother abused by her father.
She sometimes confuses love and violence.
She knows that the threat to her life may actually increase if she leaves.
She is fearful that her spouse will take her children from her.
She feels that it is her job to hold the family together.
She sees her husband’s happiness as a measure of her success as a wife.
She knows that leaving her spouse will mean tremendous economic, emotional, occupational and personal hardships.
She commonly uses denial as a coping mechanism.
She believes that she can’t survive without him, that no one else could love her.
She uses sex as a way to establish intimacy.

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