Barriers to escape violence: point of view of professionals in women’s protection centres

Abstract

This article addresses, from the perspective of social workers, the difficulties faced by battered women and socially excluded who are living in Valencia’s centers for women’s protection. The following information has been gathered with different research techniques, especially through the use of focus groups and interviews. The most important barriers to escape violence described by the interviewees can be classified as external and internal. The former include stunted social and family networks, the lack of economic resources, the existence of children and the absence of institutional resources. In other words, obstacles related to the social structure. The latter refer to the normalization of violence, the cycle of violence, emotional dependence and love, or the «family ideal». These difficulties are related to the psychological characteristics of individual women, resulting from the processes of socialization in the sex/gender system.