Why do Victims Keep Returning to Abusive Intimate Partners

Purpose: The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (2010) states that more than 1 in 3 women (35.6%) and more than 1 in 4 men (28.5%) in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Most of the victims keep returning back to the abusive partners. The purpose of this study is to examine the following three questions: a) why would an individual keep on returning to an abusive relationship, b) how do attachment patterns enter into abusive relationships, and c) what individual characteristics make some more likely than others to be targets of abuse. Methods: The 480 participants filled out questionnaires measuring degrees of partner abuse, as well as measures of attachments and clinical issues, adverse childhood events, and measures tapping their own histories of abusive behaviors. Results: It was found that there are significant correlations between the scales measuring degrees of being a victim of partner abuse and scales of insecure attachments to the partner, partner addiction, their own partner abusive behavior, and several scales of the ACIQ. Conclusions The causes of why some are more likely to be victims of partner abuse are several fold and complex. These relations must be kept in mind when dealing with victims of partner abuse