"It's an Ethical, Moral and Professional Dilemma I Think": Domestic Violence Workers' Understandings of Women's Use of Violence in Relationships

This article investigates the experience and construction of women's use of violence in relationships by domestic violence workers in Sydney, Australia. Most workers contextualized women's violence within a critique of the structural powerlessness faced by women in violent relationships. However, the issue of violent women's agency remains an unresolved dilemma for workers. This article recommends the use of a psychosocial approach to understand the social, biographical, and psychodynamic dimensions of women's violence.