About Batterers - The Full Cycle

Here is an example of the cycle of violence through all its phases.

The batterer hits his wife. Briefly, he feels a kind of guilt and says to himself, “I shouldn’t have done it. I might get caught.” To reduce his fear of getting caught, he rationalizes that he beat his wife because he was drunk. He may say he has a drinking problem (which could be true; certainly he does have an abuse problem). He tells his wife he’s sorry and he acts normally, or at least not abusively, for a while. Then he starts fantasizing about his past and future abuses. He decided he wants some beer. He tells his wife to go to the store to get the beer and also to buy gas and pick up the cleaning. He does not tell her he expects her to do all the errands in 15 minutes. When she returns after 30 minutes, he drinks the beer (which is what “makes” him batter his wife). He beats her. The cycle continues.

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