Correcting an Erring Wife Is Normal”: Moral Discourses of Spousal Violence in Ghana
Correcting an Erring Wife Is Normal”: Moral Discourses of Spousal Violence in Ghana
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Date
2018
Authors
Adjei, S Baffour
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Publisher
SAGE
Abstract
This study draws insights from discursive psychology to explore moral
discourses of spousal violence in Ghana. In particular, it investigates how
sociocultural norms and practices are invoked in talk of perpetrators
and victims as moral warrants for husband-to-wife abuse in Ghana. Semi structured focus group and personal interviews were conducted with a total
of 40 participants: 16 victims, 16 perpetrators, and eight key informants
from rural and urban Ghana. Participants’ discursive accounts suggest that
husbands have implicit moral right and obligation to punish their wives for
disobedience and other infractions against male authority in marriage. Both
perpetrators and victims build their talk around familiar normative discourses
and practices that provide tacit support for spousal violence in Ghana. While
perpetrators mobilize culturally resonant and normative repertoires to
justify abuse, blame their victims, and manage their moral accountability;
victims position husband-to-wife abuse as normal, legitimate, disciplinary,
and corrective. These moral discourses of spousal violence apparently serve
to relieve perpetrators of moral agency; prime battered women to accept
abuse; and devastate their agency to leave abusive marital relationships. The
findings contribute to our understanding of how cultural and social norms of
spousal violence are morally constituted, reproduced, and sustained in talk
of perpetrators, victims, and other key members of society.
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Citation
Adjei, S. B. (2018). “Correcting an erring wife is normal”: Moral discourses of spousal violence in Ghana. Journal of interpersonal violence, 33(12), 1871-1892.